“You’re not the only one who feels that way. The moment I saw you… my heart beat your name.”
☆☆☆.5
I was recommended this book by a coworker, and I had high expectations. I enjoyed 80% of the book until the downfall of the end. I did like this book, but the ending was off-putting. I'm hoping that it will be resolved in the second book.
The premise of the book was great. A quirky girl meets a hot guy, and they refuse to admit they have feelings for one another. They are drawn together by fate, and they can't deny their attraction to each other.
The story is set in Toronto, Canada. (though at one point, the characters use Fahrenheit, which I found strange. Maybe different parts of Canada use Fahrenheit? Just where I'm from, it's mainly Celcius. Not important to the story, just something I noticed lol). The setting was well thought out and we were able to follow along with our characters as they moved about the world.
There were some great side characters I liked, like Rachel and Scott. And there were some side characters I hated, like Stacey and Hannah (We're supposed to hate them, and they were written perfectly to make us hate them).
Olivia and Ethan are good characters, and I hope that we are able to see them work on themselves as well as their relationship in the next book. Olvia is a cute, quirky girl with some trauma in her past. We see hints of how this affects her life, and I hope to see more of her explore herself in future books. There were parts of Ethan that were great and some that were not so great. I loved that he never forced Oliva to do more than she wanted, and we love a man who appreciates aftercare. Again I hope to see Ethan work on himself in the next book (maybe some therapy?) and rebuild his relationship with Olivia.
If you like romance with spice to it this book is for you! Overall I did enjoy this book, and I am going to continue with this series. I'd recommend reading the content warnings because there are some dark and toxic elements to the story.
**Minor spoilers from here out**Again the majority of the book was good, but within the last few chapters, there was so much miscommunication, lying and manipulation between Oliva and Ethan that made it 3.5 (4 on Goodreads) stars to me. Manipulation is not sexy. There was also some toxic masculinity and sexism that was portrayed as sexy, but I will give this book some credit because it was written a decade ago.
I'm going to finish reading the series because, hopefully, this miscommunication was to set us up for good communication in book 2. I try never to judge a series by the first book because you need to give your characters negative traits for them to grow.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Off-page rape (past relationship, not MMC), abuse, fighting, blood, violence, near-death experience, manipulation, explicit sex, sexist comments
RATING: 18+ dark elements
SPICE: 4/5
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