midknytowl's reviews
318 reviews

Oof, I don't know the last time I read a romance where I truly wished they didn't end up together at the end. 🤦‍♀️

Leaving someone at the altar is going to be a hard one to get over at the best of times, but you know that going into it, and honestly, kind of okay with it. She shouldn't have done it and her reasons weren't amazing, but I can kind of get why that was how it was broken off a teeny tiny bit.

I mean if you can't express why it's no good every single time you talk, then no, talking yet again is not going to help. I can buy the panic attack leaving feeling like the only option. However, my dear Brighton, might I introduce you to the written word? A letter, a text, a song, etc. If you can't get it out in person because they can talk around you, remove the them talking part.

What I can't get, however, is them ever being in a happy relationship. I don't want this to be one of the reviews where I end up writing six pages, so I'm just going to throw random things that did not work for me. 

1. How did no one suggest therapy to Charlotte until two chapters from the end of this book? What kind of friend was Brighton or her family that no one ever mentioned it. The girl is basically a walking ad for therapist for all. 

2. Elle. Do you remember Elle? Don't feel bad, the author didn't either. They get a set up and are an active part of maybe two chapters in the beginning, and that's it. Almost felt like they were a token gender queer so you had one and then you were good. Also at very nice of them

to have to randomly move across the country so it was easier for you to leave NYC.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it they were the only one not in the epilogue

Christmas. Wes made it, even Darian made it, but Elle? Nah, no Christmas trip for you, you're not allowed out of LA. The two guys running restaurants, including a brand new one, that's fine though.

Do better. 

3. How they crossed paths again. Look, I can suspend so much disbelief in a romance, but you're telling me two exes moved to different cities in different states, one to NYC no less, and made new best friends that happened to be sisters? And that in five years Brighton never pieced it together this? (Charlotte didn't listen enough to know Sloan's sister's name wasn't Deli, so I believe her never figuring it out.)

4. Which let's just talk about Charlotte being a terrible human. Yes, it sucks your mom was not a mother at all, but damn I've seen people with so much worse parent issues be less fucked up than this. Also, 12 on you had basically parents from Brighton's parents. If you had gotten your ass to therapy, Brighton might not have

thought she had to sacrifice everything of herself for you to be happy.

Still not a decent enough excuse for standing up at the altar, but still. 

5. The sex. Now I read smut and straight up practically plotless erotica, so not a prude, but the sex in this one made me uncomfortable. Seriously, first thought maybe it was because I hadn't read anything decently spicy that wasn't hetero in too long, and then I started having an existential bisexual crisis over here wondering if I never really liked women at all. 😅 I think it was just out of place? Or the way it was written didn't work for me? I skimmed the last one of the book, so clearly wasn't doing anything for me. I think probably because it always read like fucking, when some of it should have been making love. It just... didn't always fit the vibe of the scene. 

6. The sex. These two need to stop having it, and not just because of #5. Look, relationships have sexy times, and I am (usually) here for it. But there's a time and place.

The morning before your wedding when you really need to talk shit out?

Nah, just have sex instead!

I think you're a traitor giving our wedding song to your old band and I'm running away crying?

Sexy times for you! Or would have been, if not for the potential frostbite probably. There's so many times where they just need to talk or figure things out but they just end up having sex instead. (And it's not an erotica type just throwing in sex scenes everywhere, it's even off page.) I get when you're reconciling, but it was horny teenagers can't get too close to each other without jumping each other's bones even in the flashbacks when they had been together for years. I'm buying you chastity belts so you can talk and sort things out.

This is already way too long and I have more, but I'll end with my biggest one. 

7. The resolution. You can't build up how incompatible they are so much to try to make the leaving at the altar seem almost reasonable, and then just magically poof that's not a problem anymore.

Thank you Elle and your sick grandmother for your sacrifice to making it a guilt free solution.

These were basically deal breaker issues. But it's fine, bring on the epilogue, it's all magically worked out now! 

I wish they had realized with the history and Charlotte's childhood trauma that they just needed to be best friends and move to a bigger town that had more than one other queer person and date. The fact neither of you ever dated anyone else isn't romantic, it's part of the problem. I would be much happier if they had realized this and the epilogue was years later where they've moved into fully platonic best friends and have their own separate partners. Which is not a great head cannon desire for a romance. 

Rating as high it as I did because I really enjoyed it in the beginning.

Just not doing it for me. Don't love either of the main characters. Noel is being unreasonable in her demands with her being in the wrong with the cancellation, and he was characterized as a hard ass with cleanliness issues that bends completely after two seconds because she's got a nice ass. They don't have any chemistry and it's just so meh.

Stopped at the third act breakup, because it was going to be so very stupid. I know characters have to be stupid and it's part of the formula, but I just didn't care how they worked it out so I didn't bother listening to the last quarter of it.

Also the relentless adds I got of the plane seatbelt not fitting and the he rescues her scene were the entire thing - quick little things that were resolved in a page. It was kind of disappointing.

Jonas is a sweetheart, Mara is insufferable. 

And also, why the fuck isn't she using condoms?? You have a woman that has casual sex with multiple people, you can't just say your tests are good and you have an IUD when you had unprotected sex with a different guy last week.

There's insta love, and then there's bloody ridiculous. Would have DNFed but it was so short I just pushed though. 

They meet, bone, and are professing love and marriage literally the next morning. Also she's a virgin and decides to "gift" him with her virginity, which doesn't hurt at all the first time. Oh and he talks about breeding her and her belly swelling and just ew. 

Should have DNFed much sooner. Honestly just kept listening because I would get in my car to drive to work and remember I hadn't downloaded a new book. 😅

This was pretty stupid fairly early on, and it just got worse and worse. By the drive this morning I was rolling my eyes so often it was becoming a safety issue, and this afternoon I just couldn't anymore and instead drove home in silence. 

The sexy times are slightly better than mediocre and not worth what surrounded them.

The first book wasn't amazing and I debated continuing, but I liked Braden in that book and figured I'd give it a try. (Also I didn't have a different audiobook queued so that contributed to the decision.)

Anyway, the contrived thing pushing them apart is just so stupid. Okay, he's been acting like an ass because she can't know their secret, they can't ever be together, and he's pushing her away for her own sake. I get it, I accept it, reasonable.

But the secret has come out and it's been decreed she's going to have to mate someone in the pack... Why are you pushing her away still? Or still letting her think you hate her? He's just not as nice a guy as he was in the last book and he's just being stupid at this point. I can't bother with you.

This book has been...fine? While I was listening to it, I would get into it and let going for a while, but I rarely felt like listening to it otherwise. Two days of choosing to listen to music while driving instead, including one day with three hours of driving, basically just showed me I don't care.

The twists and mysteries up to this point have been extremely predictable. Ruby just got less likable to me as the time went on, and considering I questioned her right away when she landed after a long international trip, noticed how much she stank, and did not immediately shower, she didn't start high up. (I mean she put on a sweater in her gross smell, slept in it, then put it on the next day after showering. Girl no.)

Seriously though, her  deciding to keep the big secret and justifications for it were so stupid I stopped reading. She should stay single and he should find better.

Also they just had their first kiss and I have no idea why it took that long. Maybe the author was trying to go for they keep getting interrupted but it was done in a way I wasn't even sure he was in to her for most of what I read.

Positives, I liked that they were both in their mid-thirties and she had casual sex prior to moving to Scotland. Tinder dates where you end up having disappointing sex is a nice touch of realism I enjoy in a contemporary.  Also the narration was good. I cringed a bit at the Scottish accents, but I just finished listening to three highland romances that were narrated by a scotswoman. I think if that wasn't the case the accents would be fine.

It's just not doing anything for me at the moment - shouldn't take three days to get to 8%.

But maybe it has potential, so I'll put it in purgatory instead of a hard DNF.