Wren
I wish you cared for anything as much as I care for you.
This was, in many ways, such a delight to read, and a great breather between heavier books, although I wouldn’t exactly call this one light either. It definitely deals with trauma a lot, but there’s a strong overall focus on Hartley’s healing journey. Even when he goes to some dark places and tries to drag others down with him, the narrative retains a sense of optimism and hopefulness that absolutely pays off in the long run.
Random things I especially enjoyed, in no particular order:
- the black cat/golden retriever dynamic between the leads - the found family Hartley built with Alf and Sadie, and how it evolved - all the sibling relationships - the way the narrative strongly distinguished between the validity of sex work as a conscious choice and the sheer wrongness of exploitation - the adorable three-legged doggo - the way the characters constantly had miscommunications that were completely logical given the differences in their lived experiences, and then after each miscommunication actually gave it some thought, wondered if there might be something there they hadn’t considered, and talked about it at the next opportunity - how it’s acknowledged that the hormon-fueled desire to do and risk absolutely anything for your new crush is actually something to be inspected and tempered, not something to be romanticized, and borders are the opposite of bad for a relationship - The visit from Ben
What I didn’t like all that much was the ending, or rather, how it was structured. The romance arc came to a really nice conclusion, of which I wholeheartedly approve, but then the story went on for a couple more chapters past that, in a way that felt like the author methodically knotting all the remaining plot threads. Which, in itself, cool! Much better than leaving them hanging! But it felt like such a checklist, and some of the solutions/answers felt so very contrived. (The attic? Seriously? IYKYK).
I wish you cared for anything as much as I care for you.
This was, in many ways, such a delight to read, and a great breather between heavier books, although I wouldn’t exactly call this one light either. It definitely deals with trauma a lot, but there’s a strong overall focus on Hartley’s healing journey. Even when he goes to some dark places and tries to drag others down with him, the narrative retains a sense of optimism and hopefulness that absolutely pays off in the long run.
Random things I especially enjoyed, in no particular order:
- the black cat/golden retriever dynamic between the leads - the found family Hartley built with Alf and Sadie, and how it evolved - all the sibling relationships - the way the narrative strongly distinguished between the validity of sex work as a conscious choice and the sheer wrongness of exploitation - the adorable three-legged doggo - the way the characters constantly had miscommunications that were completely logical given the differences in their lived experiences, and then after each miscommunication actually gave it some thought, wondered if there might be something there they hadn’t considered, and talked about it at the next opportunity - how it’s acknowledged that the hormon-fueled desire to do and risk absolutely anything for your new crush is actually something to be inspected and tempered, not something to be romanticized, and borders are the opposite of bad for a relationship - The visit from Ben
What I didn’t like all that much was the ending, or rather, how it was structured. The romance arc came to a really nice conclusion, of which I wholeheartedly approve, but then the story went on for a couple more chapters past that, in a way that felt like the author methodically knotting all the remaining plot threads. Which, in itself, cool! Much better than leaving them hanging! But it felt like such a checklist, and some of the solutions/answers felt so very contrived. (The attic? Seriously? IYKYK).