I’ve read a lot of (what I consider to be) rubbish in my time, but I’ve never quit a book at the 95% mark.
If i dnf a book, it’s usually at 10% or even 50%; but 95%...? Never.
I need closure. Any broken pieces put back together with a nice HEA.
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This ☝️is me genuinely not knowing what to say, while knowing I can’t NOT say anything. I also don’t want to postpone this review because Ive already deleted the book from my device. There’s no coming back to this one. Ever. Never.
Apart from:
The aimless heroine
The emo almost-alpha hero
The scheming ex wife
A blackmailing slimeball
An interfering mother
The groping drunkards
The college theme that isn’t actually a theme
Kidnapping...
I have no positive feelings for this heroine.
She’s not broken, so I can’t pity her nor root for her
Was brought up by a loving sister. She’s in college. She has options. She’s loved. She’s independent.
She’s an idiot.
A twit.
A loser.
I see no logical reason for the way her mind works; the paths she chooses. The narration is first person and being in her mind is unsettling and unpleasant.
ONE good reason for her presence was the close bond she had with his child. An emotionally fragile 5 year old boy who, for some inexplicable reason, is drawn to her. She’s his safe place. His comfort.
Until she carelessly, abandons her job as his live-in nanny. One day she just slinks away before he wakes up, without a goodbye or an explanation. He’s devastated. He’s still recovering from traumatic events and she leaves him.
All because she’s not getting her way with his father, who rejects their relationship; she’s miffed, so she leaves.
To work in a club:
“the men there are seedy....they hit on you and tip you if you reciprocate.”
“Why would you leave a perfectly decent babysitting job to do this?”
“I felt self-destructive....I wanted to feel something, even if it meant feeling sick and angry. I just wanted to find an outlet out of Eric’s world...”
Every decision she makes is based on ridiculousness. She’s creepy. She latches onto a hero who makes no promises. In fact, he constantly rejects her advances, even after they are intimate. (not loving or anything deep; it’s just pure sex) She KNOWS he’s two-minded yet she gets all affronted when he doesn’t give in to her want for more.
“It made me sick to my stomach to recall the way Eric rejected me last night. How stupid was I?”
“I had nowhere to live. I wasn’t interested in school. The man I wanted was gone and didn’t want me.”
The hero is just a single dad who loves his broken son. He seems lost and vulnerable. He’s quite assholish in his own choices, knowing it can cause all sorts of trouble for the well-being of his son.
I mostly felt sorry for him because all these women demand a piece of him: his evil ex wife, the weird h, a simpleton fellow gym-goer, his crazy mother...poor man doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. His decisions are also highly questionable; often downright stupid, but the man is trying, for shits sake. I’m not one to simply forgive a jerk hero but Eric is just...he’s just there. Nothing spectacular except his admirable quest for a good life for himself and his son.
So there I am a few chapters before the end and I’m wondering why on earth I’m still reading this.
I don’t want them together.
I don’t want little James to grow up in her flighty presence.
I don’t want Eric to care for her.
I don’t want to see her grow up and mature or not grow up and mature.
I don’t want their story
I don’t want their existence on my reader.
I do want back the time I spent reading this.
NTS:
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