Scan barcode
A review by bonnieg
Good Girl Fail by Roni Loren
4.0
I generally don't read modern romance with such young MCs (19, 22 and 24 I think) but this was recommended to me, and I am glad I did read it. It turned out I very much liked all of the characters, including the side characters.
O'Neal was raised by her authoritarian evangelical grandparents after her mother was murdered. Auden is the older brother of O'Neal's best friend. He was raised in a loving home, but also one that subscribed to the same unyielding rules of church and thus he deals with a lot of shame around certain drives and desires I won't discuss here. Lennox is the hot artist with no real family. left to fend for himself. I loved the honesty of their interactions, the explicit message that in a relationship with three partners, especially one where kink is central, complete honesty is necessary. Everyone in this relationship is respectful, loving, and smart. It was nice. The sex is pretty steamy, but at least to my eyes not particularly shocking or over the top. Everything they do is ushered in with something like "the minute you use your safe word we stop, and that is fine." It is surprisingly sweet for a kinky thruple scenario.
There were some issues. Once everyone was in love, the kink largely disappeared. Truthfully the kink was pretty tame to start. It matters because we are told that this is a primal drive for Auden, and that drive causes shame, but if that is so why does it largely disappear? Nothing wrong with dabbling and switching it up, that is all fun, but the story tells you it is more than that for him (maybe the others too, they certainly enjoy it, but Auden is billed as a dyed-in-the-wool dominant.) The other issue is that the story is really good, but the writing is not. It is not terrible, but also not as good as I wanted it to be. I am not looking for literary merit, but the clunky sentences weighed down the storytelling and as a result, exciting things were less exciting, romantic things were less romantic, sexy things were less sexy, etc.
This is a 3.5. There is a lot to love here and I expect to return to this writer.
O'Neal was raised by her authoritarian evangelical grandparents after her mother was murdered. Auden is the older brother of O'Neal's best friend. He was raised in a loving home, but also one that subscribed to the same unyielding rules of church and thus he deals with a lot of shame around certain drives and desires I won't discuss here. Lennox is the hot artist with no real family. left to fend for himself. I loved the honesty of their interactions, the explicit message that in a relationship with three partners, especially one where kink is central, complete honesty is necessary. Everyone in this relationship is respectful, loving, and smart. It was nice. The sex is pretty steamy, but at least to my eyes not particularly shocking or over the top. Everything they do is ushered in with something like "the minute you use your safe word we stop, and that is fine." It is surprisingly sweet for a kinky thruple scenario.
There were some issues. Once everyone was in love, the kink largely disappeared. Truthfully the kink was pretty tame to start. It matters because we are told that this is a primal drive for Auden, and that drive causes shame, but if that is so why does it largely disappear? Nothing wrong with dabbling and switching it up, that is all fun, but the story tells you it is more than that for him (maybe the others too, they certainly enjoy it, but Auden is billed as a dyed-in-the-wool dominant.) The other issue is that the story is really good, but the writing is not. It is not terrible, but also not as good as I wanted it to be. I am not looking for literary merit, but the clunky sentences weighed down the storytelling and as a result, exciting things were less exciting, romantic things were less romantic, sexy things were less sexy, etc.
This is a 3.5. There is a lot to love here and I expect to return to this writer.