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A review by harasnicole
Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
4.0
Honestly, I wasn't really feeling the chemistry between Fox and Hannah until, like, the last quarter of the book. The build-up to it felt weird, off, and there was one instance (I don't remember where) where Hannah ends up masturbating in front of Fox and he says something supposedly "sexy", she says no, and then he just... gets smug and says the most rapey thing he could say in the moment: "You know, I could just talk you into it." I'm only mentioning this because it's never even brought up again, so maybe to Hannah it wasn't a big deal, but as a reader... Was there really nothing else he could have said in the heat of the moment? Literally anything at all that didn't sound like coercion? Because coerced consent isn't consent, and I wish Hannah had called him on it when he said it, but she didn't, and idk. It just bugged me.
There's also a subplot of Fox dealing with toxic masculinity and overcoming his insecurities because he's a manwhore who's earned his reputation long before he started ho'ing it up, because everyone around him kept saying how he'd be a heartbreaker "just like his father", his own mother included. While it's not unrealistic that Fox did the work by himself, sometimes with these kinds of stories, I really wish the characters with the tragic backstory would just go see a therapist and see how it helps them, if at all. But I know, that's not the point, and I can accept that.
There's also a subplot of Fox dealing with toxic masculinity and overcoming his insecurities because he's a manwhore who's earned his reputation long before he started ho'ing it up, because everyone around him kept saying how he'd be a heartbreaker "just like his father", his own mother included. While it's not unrealistic that Fox did the work by himself, sometimes with these kinds of stories, I really wish the characters with the tragic backstory would just go see a therapist and see how it helps them, if at all. But I know, that's not the point, and I can accept that.