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A review by booksafety
The Steady by Kelly Fox
4.0
Book safety, content warnings, and tropes down below.
“You don’t have to stop loving him to love me.”
A lot of this was really good and quite a bit of it didn’t work for me. I picked it up because I felt like reading something that would hurt my feelings, and it did do that at least. It’s not easy to write romance where one of the MCs is a very recent widower (less than a year), and I thought it was handled well. Grief can be a messy process and I enjoyed seeing it portrayed as such. There’s no right way to grieve.
Where it lost me a little is that since so much of the focus was on Ren and his grief, we didn’t get to know Major all that much. It felt like he lived to be with Ren, and less like his own person. He comes across as a super kind person, but after finishing the book it feels like I know next to nothing about him, other than that he loves Ren, he’s a big bear, and he has a ‘roster’ of regular hookups.
There is nothing wrong with casual sex, and even though I don’t quite understand it on a fundamental level (demi, yay), I understand that it’s normal and nothing wrong with it. However, I don’t need it crammed down my throat over and over. I thought it was a bit excessive with the focus on his hookup habits. It’s one thing to add it to show him struggling after things went down/wrong with Ren, because it was important for the story and showing his heartache, but the word ‘roster’ is mentioned 10(!) times throughout the book, and every time a conversation about Major’s usual hookups followed. Something about calling these human beings a roster, unsarcastically I might add, felt super dehumanizing and icky. Yes, I get it, he fucks a lot. Usually at least two times a week actually, and I know that because the book tells us.
Anyway. A really lovely story in many ways, and the letter from the dead husband got me good. The tears were definitely flowing. There was just too much that made me feel a little uncomfortable. That’s probably on me, though.
3.5 ⭐️ rounded up
⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️
⚠️ Tropes & content tags ⚠️
Size difference
Widower
Love after loss
Small town
Single dad (adult kid)
Age gap
Big belly loving
Casual hookups to more
Emotional slow burn
Plus size MC
Hands-free orgasms
MC younger than other MC’s son
Docking
Nipple play
Pining
Unrequited love
⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Death of MC’s husband (past)
Detailed flashback to MC’s husband collapsing and CPR (actual death off page)
Explicit sexual content
Brief daddy/boy dynamic between MC and SC (regular hookup, see ‘other person drama’)
Mentions of MC being (mostly) excluded from parents’ life because of religion
Alcohol consumption
Vague references to SC being the victim of a hate crime (past)
⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
Other person drama: Major meets up with a regular hookup on his ‘roster’ after sleeping with Ren. He ends up leaving without sleeping with him, there’s some hugs and a kiss or two (as well as use of the ‘daddy’ and ‘boy’ honorifics) before he leaves. After they ‘break up’, Major meets up with a married couple on his ‘roster’ but ends up just cuddling with them. It is briefly mentioned that he has tried to get over Ren by meeting other people on his roster as well, but not specified whether or not he goes through with sleeping with them.
Breakup: Yes. 6 months with no contact after they stop being fuck-buddies.
POV: 1st person, dual
Genre: Contemporary romance
Pairing: M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
Main characters’ age: Thirties and fifties
Series: Interconnected standalone
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Pages: 272
Happy ending: Yes
He was a young bear of a guy—tall, slightly tan, with a heavy beard that made him look older than his friends. He also had the kind of belly that was made to be worshipped.
“Don’t underestimate how willing I am to go without oxygen in pursuit of a good ass-eating.”
I grimaced at Major and reached for the room spray, which did nothing to cover the scent of cum. Now it smelled like we’d fucked in a rose garden, and there wasn’t much to be done about it.
You can find most of my reviews on Instagram as well: https://www.instagram.com/booksafety?igsh=MWZ3azhkdDc2Y2ludg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
“You don’t have to stop loving him to love me.”
A lot of this was really good and quite a bit of it didn’t work for me. I picked it up because I felt like reading something that would hurt my feelings, and it did do that at least. It’s not easy to write romance where one of the MCs is a very recent widower (less than a year), and I thought it was handled well. Grief can be a messy process and I enjoyed seeing it portrayed as such. There’s no right way to grieve.
Where it lost me a little is that since so much of the focus was on Ren and his grief, we didn’t get to know Major all that much. It felt like he lived to be with Ren, and less like his own person. He comes across as a super kind person, but after finishing the book it feels like I know next to nothing about him, other than that he loves Ren, he’s a big bear, and he has a ‘roster’ of regular hookups.
There is nothing wrong with casual sex, and even though I don’t quite understand it on a fundamental level (demi, yay), I understand that it’s normal and nothing wrong with it. However, I don’t need it crammed down my throat over and over. I thought it was a bit excessive with the focus on his hookup habits. It’s one thing to add it to show him struggling after things went down/wrong with Ren, because it was important for the story and showing his heartache, but the word ‘roster’ is mentioned 10(!) times throughout the book, and every time a conversation about Major’s usual hookups followed. Something about calling these human beings a roster, unsarcastically I might add, felt super dehumanizing and icky. Yes, I get it, he fucks a lot. Usually at least two times a week actually, and I know that because the book tells us.
Anyway. A really lovely story in many ways, and the letter from the dead husband got me good. The tears were definitely flowing. There was just too much that made me feel a little uncomfortable. That’s probably on me, though.
3.5 ⭐️ rounded up
⬇️ Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️
⚠️ Tropes & content tags ⚠️
Size difference
Widower
Love after loss
Small town
Single dad (adult kid)
Age gap
Big belly loving
Casual hookups to more
Emotional slow burn
Plus size MC
Hands-free orgasms
MC younger than other MC’s son
Docking
Nipple play
Pining
Unrequited love
⚠️ Content warning ⚠️
Death of MC’s husband (past)
Detailed flashback to MC’s husband collapsing and CPR (actual death off page)
Explicit sexual content
Brief daddy/boy dynamic between MC and SC (regular hookup, see ‘other person drama’)
Mentions of MC being (mostly) excluded from parents’ life because of religion
Alcohol consumption
Vague references to SC being the victim of a hate crime (past)
⚠️Book safety ⚠️
Cheating: No
Other person drama: Major meets up with a regular hookup on his ‘roster’ after sleeping with Ren. He ends up leaving without sleeping with him, there’s some hugs and a kiss or two (as well as use of the ‘daddy’ and ‘boy’ honorifics) before he leaves. After they ‘break up’, Major meets up with a married couple on his ‘roster’ but ends up just cuddling with them. It is briefly mentioned that he has tried to get over Ren by meeting other people on his roster as well, but not specified whether or not he goes through with sleeping with them.
Breakup: Yes. 6 months with no contact after they stop being fuck-buddies.
POV: 1st person, dual
Genre: Contemporary romance
Pairing: M/M
Strict roles or versatile: Strict roles
Main characters’ age: Thirties and fifties
Series: Interconnected standalone
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Pages: 272
Happy ending: Yes
He was a young bear of a guy—tall, slightly tan, with a heavy beard that made him look older than his friends. He also had the kind of belly that was made to be worshipped.
“Don’t underestimate how willing I am to go without oxygen in pursuit of a good ass-eating.”
I grimaced at Major and reached for the room spray, which did nothing to cover the scent of cum. Now it smelled like we’d fucked in a rose garden, and there wasn’t much to be done about it.
You can find most of my reviews on Instagram as well: https://www.instagram.com/booksafety?igsh=MWZ3azhkdDc2Y2ludg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr