Review - "Do You Dream of Terra-Two?"

Do You Dream Of Terra-Two?
by Temi Oh
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 7th March 2019
spoilers? not really

Goodreads

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? is an alternate history where a planet with life-sustaining capabilities has been discovered and, in 2012, the first expedition is sent out to try and colonise it. It's the story of the six young astronauts who go on that 23-year-long mission, and their journey into space.

This isn't an action-packed book, far from it. It's a character-driven novel, where you might start out thinking you don't really like all of the characters, but most of them grow on you slowly and sneakily. It's a long book (over 500 pages), and you get POVs from every character (though some more than others), so you really get to understand each of them, their worries and their motivations. Which is good, don't get me wrong. I did like that aspect of it. However, for three quarters of the book, there was hardly any conflict (or, what conflict there was happened quickly and ended quickly too) or action. And I was mostly fine with that (for once. You know me and action), but around two thirds through I did start getting a little bored. The last quarter of the book was amazing, because things were happening, but between two thirds through and three quarters, I felt like it drifted a little.

Linked to that, the number of POVs was a little overwhelming at times. On the one hand, it was good to see all the characters, but on the other, I wasn't all that interested in one or two of them, so I kind of skimmed their parts. The switches between the POVs sometimes felt really abrupt, almost as if there should have been more to come, which got cut out. That also contributed to the plot occasionally feeling kind of bitty, like getting snapshots of their life instead of a continuous arc. (Which, I get because it covers a whole year in a 23-year mission, but I did feel like maybe it could have been woven together a bit more seamlessly at points.)

Because it was so bitty, the conflict that did happen before 75% felt almost like neither it nor the aftermath of it were given time to develop. For the buildup that was less of a problem, because there was always some undercurrent of it running through previous parts, but I definitely thought sometimes the aftermath could have done with being dwelt on a bit longer (or even the conflict itself at points). I had a similar issue with the declaration of love, because that distinctly felt like it came out of nowhere. Although it wasn't underdeveloped, it could have done with even more development.

This may all sound somewhat negative, but I did enjoy this book, for sure. Like I said, for most of it I didn't mind the character-driven aspect, and I really loved the last quarter. And the kind of forced found family trope was done pretty well too (so much that I was really sad about the ending). It's just that one twelfth of the story where it started to drag and I got bored that's made me rate this 3.5 stars instead of 4.

Review - "Hearts Unbroken"

Hearts Unbroken
by Cynthia Leitich Smith
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 9th October 2018
spoilers? minor maybe

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Actual rating 3.5

Hearts Unbroken is set in Kansas, and tells the story of a high school production of The Wizard of Oz. When the drama teacher decides to take an inclusive approach to casting (including casting the main character's brother, Hughie, as the Tin Man), a group of parents in their mostly white, middle-class neighbourhood, takes exception. In the meantime, Louise, the main character, has started work at the school newspaper, and is paired with new kid Joey to take on the Features section.

What I liked about this book was that there were actually probably three strands of plot going on at once - firstly, with Louise at the paper and her budding romance with Joey, secondly, with the parents and their dislike of the casting, and finally, with Hughie and his relationship with the play and Baum. This saved it from ever getting dull in terms of plot, for me, and although it might seem a lot, it didn't ever get too crowded with plot. There were a few, more minor, plotlines that possibly went unresolved (Louise's first boyfriend, who she dumps at the start of the book for making bigoted comments about Native people, starts all these rumours about her after the breakup, but supposedly no one believes he isn't just running his mouth, so it's kind of brushed under the carpet when they meet one last time for "closure"), but overall, it was a solid book plot-wise.

Even though the plot was good, it did take me a little while to get properly into the book. I did like it, don't get me wrong, but I was mostly reading it without all that much caring about it. Part of that was because it was written like a series of vignettes rather than a fully continuous story so the plot seemed to start off moving really quickly, and I found that hard to read for some reason. Another reason was probably because I wasn't the biggest fan of the main character before she had her learning moment. She was kind of self-absorbed and a little self-righteous. But she also had some pretty good character development precipitated by her friend calling her out (at exactly the right time in the book, because I'd been getting a little bored before then).

As well as this, the start of the romance kind of bothered me. If only because I couldn't for the life of me see why it started (or continued for that matter). Joey seemed fairly arrogant and self-obsessed and kept boasting about his journalism prowess, and I couldn't work out what Louise actually saw in him. So maybe he was a nicer guy than Cam (the boyfriend she dumped), but there didn't seem to be anything there. Or at least nothing I was shown. I was told she didn't shut up about him to her friend Shelley or her brother Hughie but there was no evidence of that. (Just like, at the start, there was no evidence of Cam getting easily jealous until she mentioned it in one line - and this is the guy she thought she loved? Yikes.) But once the conflict had happened, and they were kind of broken up, I almost liked it more, conversely. Because it made Louise develop as a character.

So, overall, this book was one I liked a lot but didn't quite really really like (if that makes some sense). I did get more into it as it went on, but ultimately not enough to love it.

Review - "Confessions of the Fox"

Confessions of the Fox
by Jordy Rosenberg
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 5th July 2018
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Confessions of the Fox is a reimagining of the legend of Jack Sheppard, a thief and gaol-breaker of the early 18th century in London, in which Jack is a trans man. It is told in the form of an authentic manuscript, found by Professor Voth, whose annotations of the manuscript in themselves tell a parallel story.

To be honest, I found it a little hard to get into the manuscript story. Mostly because it's written to emulate actual 18th-century writing and I find that hard to read in general, but also because, until about 65-70 pages to go, there's not much action really happening in it (defining action as adventure! explosions! risk of death! those kinds of things). On the other hand, I got really quickly into Professor Voth's story told in his footnotes. Which was kind of a problem, because that was a much more minor part of the book than the manuscript. But overall, the story was definitely good, just not really great until the last part (although there was a good bit in the middle which was absolutely Chaotic in both the manuscript and footnotes so).

Pretty central to Jack's story is his relationship with Bess, but I felt like I didn't get enough of a development of that in the manuscript. I realise it's not in first person so couldn't really give an insight into his feelings (although it's kind of an omniscient third person so did actually do insights from time to time - it also had multiple POVs/focuses which was a bit strange given that it was supposed to be Jack's confessions, and it's not really explained, but for a (potentially paranoid or obsessive) conjecture near the end, but anyway), but the relationship happens fairly rapidly. Like, we're told they mean a lot to each other but it doesn't always feel like there's a lot in the text to back that up. But that may have actually been a byproduct of the writing style. Who knows.

I have to confess, finally, that I was getting a little bored around the 70% mark, because it is a bit of a slow story - the real action comes in the last 20%, although the action in Voth's story is enough to keep you reading if just to know what happens next in that. It's also fairly ambiguous how Voth's story ends (or at least I found it to be) - is he just paranoid and obsessed with the manuscript, or is there really a mysterious group of people sitting outside of time?

And, to preempt anyone looking up Jack Sheppard and seeing his fate, this book does have a happy ending.

Review - "Valley Girls"

Valley Girls
by Sarah Nicole Lemon
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 3rd May 2018
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

On the basis of Done Dirt Cheap, I kind of expected more of this book. That's not to say it wasn't good, or that my current fantasy/historical kick isn't behind why I didn't enjoy it as much, but it definitely contributed.

Valley Girls tells the story of Rilla Skidmore, who's sent by her mother to live with her half-sister Thea in Yosemite, after a big fight with her boyfriend. There, she falls in with a group of climbers, including Walker, the apparently gorgeous (seriously, every time Walker's name gets mentioned, you get a sentence, minimum, about how gorgeous he is) Search and Rescue worker. Most of the story revolves around the fact that Rilla wants to reinvent herself to all these new people she's met, and plans on doing so through climbing, specifically through climbing El Capitan, a 3000ft vertical rock formation.

One of my favourite things about Sarah Nicole Lemon's debut was the friendship between the two girls. While this book did have some great girl friendships, it never quite reached the level that Done Dirt Cheap did. And while the sibling conflict occasionally verged on coming to a head and being fully resolved, it never entirely managed it. Instead, it felt somewhat sidelined compared to the romance particularly, and was one of two plotpoints that seemed like it was left hanging. Similarly, there was conflict between Thea and another Ranger in competition for the same job that appeared to also go unresolved.

In contrast, Sarah Nicole Lemon's romances are one of my least favourite things about her books. They're well-written and for the most part well-developed, but they're always between an 18 or so aged girl (17 to start off with in this book) and a 20 something year old boy (20 in this book, so I'll grant you it's better than the 18 and 28 I dealt with in her other book). I mean, what's authors' problems with romances between people of the same age, especially when one of them isn't even legally an adult yet? It just makes me uncomfortable, no matter how much I like how the characters are individually written, and however well the romance is written, because the fact still remains the relationship is imbalanced. At least in this book they didn't stay together.

I think most of what made me not like this so much was the fact that all I want to read right now is fantasy or historical books, so I almost had to force myself through this one. It was one of those where once I got into it it was fine, but finding the motivation to pick it up and get into it was another matter.

Review - "Love, Hate & Other Filters"

Love, Hate & Other Filters
by Samira Ahmed
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 16th January 2018
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This is a classic case of it's not you [the book], it's me. I've been on a mystery kick of late, and I don't think I'm quite past it. A YA contemporary book is just not going to cut it. That being said, this was still a really good book, even though I rounded down to 3 stars.

Love, Hate & Other Filters is about Maya, an aspiring filmmaker living in a town in Illinois. To start with, the book switches between chapters from her point of view, and brief interludes from the terrorist's point of view. That was my first major sticking point, because I didn't see a reason to include these interludes. All they served to do was break up Maya's narrative and that sort of thing doesn't really fit into a contemporary book. It makes sense to have that sort of thing in a mystery book (not that I particularly like it as a trope), but it just felt out of place in this. It makes more sense the further you get into the book - it's like a parallel story going on, and even later is used for things like newspaper articles, and all that works - but it's just to start out with that I struggled with it.

The other problem with the first half of the book I had was the love triangle. Particularly the fact that one of the people involved in it was a 21 year old. And Maya is 17. It definitely felt a little uncomfortable. At least it wasn't a serious love triangle. It kind of died off pretty quickly, which was nice. The only thing was all the romances in this book seemed kind of unsatisfactory, and just a bit lacking in character development. We know from the start that Maya has a crush on Phil, but then about two thirds of the way through suddenly it's being called love, without any sort of development to back it up. Heck, they're not even together at that point. It also had a pretty unsatisfactory ending, but I guess it makes sense. They're 18 at the end, and going off to completely different universities. And they weren't even properly dating so far as I know? So you can see why I called it unsatisfactory (even if it is realistic).

One last point: the pacing of the book seemed a little off. It goes pretty slowly for the first half of it, or so, and then everything's crammed into the next 40%. And then it slows down again for the last 10%. Either it could have been better spaced out, or the book could have been longer to deal with that - the ARC was only about 250 pages long, so it was short, as far as books are concerned.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I am being a little harsh in rounding down, but I think I wasn't in the right mood to enjoy it as much as I might have otherwise.

Review - "Eyes Like Those"

Eyes Like Those, Seven Shores #1
by Melissa Brayden
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 1st October 2017
spoilers? vague ones

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

More like 3.5

If there's one thing I struggle to find, it's good wlw lit. Melissa Brayden may well be the solution to all of my problems. This is the first book I've read by her and, while I wasn't overly impressed with the writing (it's good and readable, which is impressive in the genre to begin with, but nothing special), the plot and the characters were more than enough to make up for it.

The book tells the story of Isabel, a promising scriptwriter who has been working in a restaurant while trying to find script work, as she moves to Hollywood to take up a job writing on a popular TV show. There, she meets Taylor, a captivating and unattainable woman, who is also her boss - the showrunner.

The best part of this book was the relationships. Isabel moves into her friend's apartment, and meets three other women - Autumn, Hadley, and Gia. Her friendship with these three was my absolute favourite part of the book. They're always building each other up, and supporting each other, and that's something you really don't see enough of in lit. Similarly with Isabel and Taylor's relationship. They actually became friends before anything started, and I feel like that doesn't happen all that often in NA lit.

If there was one little complaint I did have about their relationship, it's that, while the slowburn was good and appreciated, it lacked some tension. Mariana Zapata is a very good example of someone who writes the most excellent tension, and that's what this book lacked. Sure, we see that they're attracted to one another, but the tension, either romantic or sexual, is just not quite there.

I also didn't really like how the narrative refused to explicitly frame Taylor's past relationship, with Aspen - the lead actress on the show, as abusive. Because that's what it was. Aspen manipulated Taylor, got violent and threw plates around, and cheated on Taylor, and once Taylor's broken up with her, she conveniently forgets all that and tries to get her back. But it's never mentioned as being abusive, not even when, once Aspen realises she won't get her own way, she aims to ruin Taylor's whole life. If that doesn't smack of manipulative and abusive, I don't know what does.

Overall, this was one of the best wlw NA books I've read (I know that's not saying a lot, but trust me here), and Melissa Brayden is definitely a writer I'll be coming back to.

Review - "Penance"

Penance
by Kanae Minato
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 6th April 2017
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Actual rating 3.5

Honestly, this is one of those books which I neither hated nor loved particularly much. It was a compelling mystery story, but it lacked something that meant I didn't connect with it as much as I might have.

Penance is the story of four women, 15 years on from the murder of their friend, Emily, in the village they grew up in. It's told as five separate accounts - letters or speeches or conversations - each of which provides a little bit more information about the killer. The final account is from Emily's mother, and draws the entire mystery to a close.

It's an easy and quick enough read, and the mystery itself is compelling, but there were parts which threw me, like when it turned out that Takahiro married Sae because he saw her as a human doll and he wanted to treat her as such and when it turned out Akiko's brother was sexually abusing his stepdaughter because his wife didn't want him to touch her so instead offered up her daughter and he accepted. It also felt a bit too short for me to entirely connect and sympathise with the characters (besides Yuka) . But then again, they probably weren't supposed to be entirely sympathetic.

So overall, it was a good mystery and kept me engaged enough to finish it in one night, but I never really fully connected with it.

Review - "Off The Ice"

Off the Ice, Juniper Falls #1
by Julie Cross
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 28th February 2017
spoilers? some

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

Actual rating 3.5

This was a really cute read and, as a plus, had plenty of hockey being played in it. Off the Ice tells the story of Claire, a music student back in her hometown following her dad's operation, and Tate, a hockey goalie, who gets a starting spot on the team after the starting goalie drops out of the team.

Firstly, I really liked Claire and Tate's relationship, and the development of that relationship. They were both so supportive of the other, and it wasn't just a relationship based on physical aspects. The supporting cast of characters was also great, if at times, maybe underdeveloped (though more so with the characters who didn't appear so much, like Jamie and Tate's mum, which is understandable).

It was also so nice to see that there was no girls hating on other girls. I know this is a low standard to hold a book to, but when the plot has it like in this book, with one girl still in love with the main male character, while he and the main female character are getting together, all too often it seems to turn into girls hating on each other. But it didn't here (they even became friends), and that was lovely.

The book does also include child abuse and parents putting huge amounts of pressure on their child to do a sport. It seems to do well in dealing with that plot line, and what was nice to see was it wasn't thrown in at the end almost like an afterthought. It was set out from the start that the book would include this in it. A lot of books seem to have a tendency to just throw it in there, without any warning, and it feels almost as if they are treating the abuse as just another angsty plot point.

What would have been nice, though, would be if the book had also addressed the hockey team's coach's abusive behaviour. Because that's what it was. He made Tate face slapshots with only a glove, stick, and helmet, and that's incredibly dangerous. But it's kind of shrugged off by the players as "normal" for their coach. Which I could understand, if they don't know any other way, but Claire also sees their practice going on and notes how pressurised it is. And does nothing else. I hope that later books will address this though.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I'm really looking forward to more of this series.

Review - "How to Make a Wish"

How to Make a Wish
by Ashley Henning Blake
rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 2nd May 2017
spoilers? a little

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This book is a good example of how to write a book about LGBT+ characters that isn't about coming out. The fact that the main character is bisexual and falls in love with a girl is incidental to the story (that is, there are no Oh my God I'm in love with a girl moments, no "gay panic" and no coming out).

It took a little while for me to get into this book, but then I met Eva, the love interest, and suddenly I couldn't stop reading. Eva, although this may be a bit of a harsh assessment, carried the book along for me. Before she showed up, I was getting a little bored by it all. So I guess it's good that she turned up early.

The one, kind of big, problem I had was with the dickhead ex-boyfriend. Who the main character is having to live with, on account of her mother getting together with his father. When Grace, the main character, broke up with Jay, the dickhead ex, he posted all of her sexts online - which, besides, was it really a necessary plot point?. Because he's an arsehole. So, understandably, Grace isn't too happy with this arrangement.

And then there's the fact that he genuinely doesn't see what's the problem with his actions. And sure, it's there in the narrative, because we get everything from Grace's point of view, but she never tells him (though she shouldn't have to, but as I said before, he's an arsehole).

He also has this scene where he tries to force himself on Grace, pulling her towards him by the belt. In the bathroom of the house. Which makes what happened next all the more annoying for me, and is the reason I'm reluctant to round up for this rating.

About halfway through the book, he changes and becomes a not-a-dickhead ex, after Grace becomes nicer to him. Bearing in mind, he is still the arsehole who did what he did to her. They get friendlier with each other, but he never apologises for what he did. He's not sorry for it, we still don't even know if he recognises what's wrong with that. And that's what's frustrating to me. I wouldn't mind this whole "redemption" kind of thing, if he genuinely recognised what a dick he'd been and was sorry for it, but none of that happens. Granted, I don't think Grace forgives him, per se, but she's definitely less angry with him for it by the end.

So overall, it's a cute book. And I liked that Grace described herself as bisexual. There aren't enough books that do that. But the whole plotline with the ex-boyfriend made me like it a little less.

Review - "How To Keep A Boy From Kissing You"

How To Keep A Boy From Kissing You
by Tara Eglington
rating:☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 25th October 2016
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This book is almost the perfect realisation of one of my favourite tropes: rivals to lovers. I say almost, because there were a few things that I didn't like so much about this book, but overall it was pretty good.

At the beginning, this book didn't immediately grab me. I spent a few days only having read a couple of pages, but once I got past the setting-the-scene bit, I got hooked.

Firstly, it was a bit... different (?) to be reading about characters who are popular within their school. Normally, these kinds of books have their main characters be outside of the popular kids so they can comment (often nastily) on how shallow those popular kids are. So this was a nice change. Even if it didn't stop the (obligatory) you're not like other girls comment.

Sometimes Aurora did irritate me. There were points where I felt like she was overreacting (like the various times she thought Hayden was out to get her, when it easily could have been nothing) and other times, things like her insistence on waiting on the perfect "Prince" had me rolling my eyes, but overall she was a great character.

A couple of other things were a little odd too. The whole saga with Miss DeForest, and the NAD, and her picking on Aurora and basically turning her dad against her. It was kind of strange, to say the least. Especially her interpretive dance lessons...

Another annoying thing was when Jelena believed Alex over Aurora. Like, cool. Just believe the guy who's been flirting with every girl while you're around even though he's apparently your boyfriend over one of your best friends. And she convinced Lindsay to turn against her too. Frankly, if I were Aurora, I'd have ditched her after that, because knowing that she's fully capable of believing the worst of you with no proof? Yikes.

Anyway, it was a cute read and pretty funny, and I really enjoyed it, though I'm not sure if I'll read book two. I think this works best as a standalone.

Review - "For The Win"

For The Win, The Perfect Play #1 by Sara Rider
rating:☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 6th June 2016
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

Anything worth fighting for always required sacrifices. She wasn't the type to live her life in the shadows of what-ifs and regret.

Galley provided by publisher

For The Win tells the story of Lainey Lukas as she gets back into football following a horrific injury in the World Cup final. The owner of the franchise she joins, decides that the women's team will train on the main training ground, while the men's team get relegated to the apparently cursed Cricket Ground pitch, a move which doesn't go down well with Gabe Havelak, the men's captain.

Thus begins the media-dubbed "Battle of the Sexes" in which the teams compete in various tasks (including cooking and fund-raising) to prove they are the better team. Whoever wins gets to train on the main pitch.

Overall, the book was enjoyable. I really liked the first half of it, but the second half was a bit less interesting, especially once Lainey and Gabe had actually got together. I feel like that could have been delayed for a while longer.

The second half of the book also included some of the scenes I didn't like so much. There was Lainey's sudden attack of jealousy and possessiveness, following Grace flirting with Gabe after the naked calendar reveal. Which, I guess, was a nice subversion of the man usually doing that, but possessiveness always makes me a little dubious, especially if it's as violently expressed as I read this being and unless it's conveyed reciprocally, which it wasn't here.

Another scene I wasn't a huge fan of was their first sex scene, which involved an overuse of the word "pounding". If it's aiming to be 'hot' or whatever, then pounding is not the way to go about it surely. I feel like it ruins all the sexual tension (not that there seemed to be huge amounts, beyond 'oh he's hot'/'oh she's hot').

And then the Havelak family curse, which felt unnecessary, really. Especially the scene were Mama Havelak starts claiming that Lainey is a proponent of the curse, while Lainey is there. At which point, Lainey gets pissed off at Gabe (why?), and they have a prank war (but really, it's just aimed at getting attention, like pulling pigtails). And then they make up (including a 24-hour sex marathon, which, forgive me, is so unbelievable), and everyone's happy.

There were a few other issues I had with this book. For one, there was the women-hating-on-women thing going on. All of the female footballers hated on Grace because she kept flirting with the guys (especially Gabe) and... not much else. Not here for that, sorry.

Also the overprotective parents/brother trope going on, with Tessa. I mean, Tessa is wholly capable of looking out for herself, even at 14. It was understandable given that the guy Gabe was eyeing up in his overprotective mode was 19, but Tessa was perfectly able to show her lack of interest. Like, chill out, Gabe.

The age difference was also an issue. I don't quite understand why almost every romance has to have a significant (like, 5 or 6 years) age difference. Is it like a rule of NA romance? Why can't they just be the same age? (Also, the masturbation to a poster of him when she was younger is borderline creepy.)

I think part of the reason I didn't enjoy this book more was because I was always internally comparing it to Kulti, which has great characters and such unbearable tension. For The Win seemed for a while like it might live up to that, but in the end, it was a little disappointing, even though I enjoyed it.

Review - "Rush Me"

Rush Me, New York Leopards #1
by Allison Parr
rating:☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 8th April 2013
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

You only get hurt that badly when you're doing something that matters. Something impossible. Taking a risk. Investing yourself.

This book was frustrating to say the least. I definitely enjoyed it, perhaps enough that it might have merited a 4 star review, but there were aspects of it that I really didn't like.

The story starts with Rachael accidentally gatecrashing the party of NFL star, Ryan Carter, and almost immediately there were some teething problems. First, she's a little drunk, and yet he still starts trying it on with her, trying to hook up with her, and then, when she tells him she's not interested, his response is to claim she is "insane" for not wanting to. Good start. Not.

So Ryan comes off as a huge dickhead in the beginning (and I don't mean dickhead like you would normally expect in a New Adult book, I mean colossally monstrously enormous dickhead. He accuses her of wanting to hang out with his friends so she can seduce one of them for their money. Just because she knows nothing about football and wasn't watching the game properly. And he never apologises for this assumption). But he grew on me a little (though every now and then he'd show his dickheadedness anew and I would dislike him again).

I also hated the implication from Rachael that being a sports star means that you're not academically clever. I am so so so tired of this trope. First of all, being good academically isn't the be-all-and-end-all. You can have different sorts of intelligence - someone who is good at school isn't necessarily going to have the attributes that make them good at sports - so honestly, Rachael can go fuck herself with her self importance on that front.

There was a part in this book where Rachael called herself out on slut-shaming, which was good, but at the same time felt a little like she was doing it in a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek kind of way which is less good. But at the same time that there was no slut-shaming, there was Rachael sort of chewing herself out for being a "prude". Radical notion, I know, but maybe some people are more or less comfortable with sex, and you shouldn't judge based on how much they do or don't have it.

And now we get to the bit that I really hated. They end up having sex during some charity event that Rachael goes to as Ryan's date, but then afterwards, Rachael realises that it had been unprotected sex and starts panicking about how many people Ryan has had sex with, and what if she's picked up an STD from him, and what if she's pregnant? Two of these are logical worries to have, but instead of trying to calm her down, Ryan gets pissed off and says she's a freak, and just leaves her there. A healthy relationship, this is not.

To top it off, this isn't even the only time it happens. There's a second time, at Rachael's high school reunion, where Thomas (her high school crush) forces a kiss on her, before Ryan arrives and glares at him. He says he doesn't blame her for it, and then somehow they get into a conversation about money, and how Rachael won't accept him paying for shit for her (which I totally get. If there's a huge imbalance of power - or money - which there is in this case, given that he's an NFL star and she's in publishing, there's always going to be a conflict like that. It's just to be expected. See also: Gansey and Adam, and Ryan and Wes, to name a few). So they start yelling at each other and then end up (somehow) having angry sex. And then he storms off again. Told you it was healthy.

Anyway, after some moping around on Rachael's part, she decides they need to talk. Only Ryan's blocked her number and told the doorman where he lives to not let her up (very mature of him). So Rachael has to do this Big Gesture in order to get him back (because apparently she wants him back. Honestly, I don't see why). Long story short, it works, they talk, relationship problems solved (ha!).

I know it sounds like I really didn't like this book, but that's not so true. Yeah, I had some (pretty big) issues with it, but when Rachael and Ryan weren't doing this shit to each other, they were kinda cute. Besides, I'm a sucker for sports romances, so sue me.