Goodreads: shorturl.at/knARU
My Rating: 3.75
This book is so hard for me to rate. The first few chapters of this book were pretty hard for me to get into. I didn’t really mesh with the writing style, like at all. I don’t know how to explain what I didn’t like, which is extremely helpful, I know. After I pushed through the first few chapters though, things got a lot easier and I really started to fly through this book.
This book did so much good. It covered so many important topics and gave voice to communities that need representation. It covered chronic pain, more specifically fibromyalgia, and it also covered abusive relationships.
Talking about relationships, the relationship in this book is just *chef’s kiss*. I love the relationship in this book so much for one reason: RESPECT. Red gave Chloe so much respect. He didn’t look down at her for her chronic pain and her past, he didn’t make decisions for her, and he didn’t overpower or smother her or “save” her. He supported her and gave her respect. And in return, Chloe was respectful towards Red. Even though this book really runs with a sarcastic tone, respect and consent are always present and I love that a lot.
I know that this is marketed as a romance, but this book was so much more than that just the romance. We get to really see these characters deal with things and watch how they grow to better themselves individually and together. As mentioned before, the representation in this book is just amazing. Alongside the discussions on fibromyalgia and abusive relationships, we get to explore more on diabetes and how men play into these topics/areas of representation that are often more centered around females. I love how the author made sure that while Chloe had fibromyalgia, she was still so strong. It didn’t take away from her badassery at all. In fact, it made her more badass.
I also loved reading about the familial relationships these characters had. The support they had from their friends and family was just so heartwarming and wholesome. I have a soft spot for male characters who love their mothers. You can see where Red’s closeness to his mother really played a role in how much respect he has for women. I also love Gigi, Chloe’s grandmother. I will straight up read an entire book about Gigi, hands down. She’s so sassy, so big and loud, and so unapologetic. We don’t get a lot of good family relationships in books often so I really appreciate the familial wholesomeness in this book.
The reason why I’m so conflicted with my rating for this book is the romantic element. I loved their relationship but at the same time, I didn’t necessarily ship them hard core. I liked their relationship but I didn’t like their romantic relationship. Their banter in the beginning wasn’t my cup of tea and it got better towards the end. There’s one chapter where they’re emailing each other and it’s one of my favorite chapters ever. It had me smiling and laughing the entire time. Since I didn’t really connect with them that much in the beginning, I feel like it really hindered me from enjoying the sexual tension.
I also wasn’t a fan of the writing in certain parts throughout the book. It took me a few chapters to ease my way into the writing. I don’t think it was bad, it was just… different and I didn’t click with it.
One aspect of the writing that I didn’t really mesh with is how a lot of the characters, especially Chloe voices her thoughts out loud. It’s honestly a personal preference but I found out in this book that I don’t really like it? I think I’ve read other books where some characters would speak out loud and was fine with it but for some reason, I didn’t really click with it in this book. I feel as though the writing tried really hard to emulate Chloe’s quirky nature but sometimes, it made the writing just come off a bit weird for me and at times was a bit too cringy for my liking.
The author also frequently had them correct their thoughts. For example, on page 60, a chapter with Red, the author wrote “…. Nevermind. He’d think about that later.” I just feel like that’s unnecessary to add in certain situations and it really hindered me from really enjoying the writing from the beginning. As I said, I did warm up to the writing as the book went on, but I feel like I would have better connected with the book if the writing was framed a bit differently from the beginning.
All in all, this is a 3.75 stars book for me. As I mentioned, this book is so much more than romance. Even though I enjoyed the representation and the healthy relationship, I do wish that I connected with the romantic aspect more and that I didn’t have the issues with the writing that I did. Again these are just my opinions and everyone has different reading preferences so please don’t let me deter you from picking up this book because you may like it more than I did.
If you’ve read it, let me know in the comments what you thought of it and if you’re excited for the upcoming sequel!