owihd's reviews
196 reviews

This was a reread, it started out so catastrophically, I was seriously wondering how I remembered this as good .. they honestly show both the fmc and mmc's worst sides first but they redeem them so good 

Keep at it, it's so heartwarming and sappy and sweet 

Why am I emotional?

It's fun seeing the main character struggle
Entertaining pastime read

Although I will prob still dnf at the same spot later on cause the age difference just seems too large, we literally started at 14

I don't really like books starting out with a one-night-stand but the messiness is what made this so fun. Reading this after watching bridgerton I was getting a whole lot of Anthony kate flashbacks (at least until about the halfway mark).
That the problems were resolved pretty quick thanks to their outspokenness was a plus, although their anxiety kept them back. 
There were a few moments I gasped cause Hunt really... he can be very hurtful sometimes, I don't know how I feel about that. He immediately regrets it too but off the top of my head i can remember 3 separate instances TT 
(Applauding leela and griff for their mercifullness)
I'm having a hard time ranking this series, book 3 should be my favorite tho.

Zwischen den moods sollte es die Option ärgerlich oder so geben: es gab wenige Momente in denen ich mir die Haare nicht büschelweise aus dem Hirn reißen wollte.
Ich meine das nicht unbedingt positiv 
Hab drei Bücher von McFarlane gelesen und das ist def auf Platz 3

This was so short but touching, I love her writing. I watched a short interview with Ahlam Bsharat and this dreamy writing fits her so well, I'm craving more. As I just finished it I'm all wound up with feelings I don't know how I feel

I'm too lazy to give a thorough review, I have many thoughts tho. 
At first I wasn't planning on rating this as high as it is, I was wondering the whole time if I could even tolerate wulf if his perspective wasn't there. At the end both Christine and wulf (despite his name) grew on me though. Honestly the build up was necessary ig but the best part started for me at around 60% ? That's when the love hate turned to a more solid love.
I did race through this in about a day so it's a little bit of a blur, the same issues I had with the first book of the series remained here too (like the beauty standards, femininity, constantly thinking about this being set in a racist, coloniser country, the characters dreaming of conquest and such ...), so it's not perfect but I do enjoy these books. 
Mary Balogh's couples always share the same thoughts, Christine and wulf were literally the same person but opposite.
One thing grating on my nerves was the way they constantly made wulf out to be some sort of .. ice-block in human shape, maybe that just hit too close to home. Well except for him being so audacious and perplexing in the first half, my jaw was on the floor when he

asked her to be his mistress like? Out of the blue, who does that?! And knowing about the accusations against her it felt all the more crazy 🫢👀

Oh! And finally someone confronted wulf on his views on women and life.
Also liked how balogh copy pasted othellos storyline for Christine's previous marriage, nothing gets me raging more than a shakespearean (?) villain and nothing gets me happier than seeing them suffer the consequences :)

when he first proposed and she declined 🫢 no but I was happy seeing him struggle, but the speech she delivered was actually quite hurtful - i was hurt reading it and it wasn't directed at me

The most satisfying scene by far was when

christine ripped that damn quizzical glass out of his hands and threw it away + the first smile ofc

One thing that I sort of disliked was, and this is very much a personal preference, that after we established that she's barren she bore like a million kids in the epilogue - I was looking forward to a hr story without kids for a change but oh well 
(But for 2003/4 it surprised me positively)

Die Erbsen sind iconic, kurz und knackig 
Idk hat Spaß gemacht 
Ist auch n lustiger touch, dass man die Szenen in beliebiger Reihenfolge lesen kann (ausser die letzte oder so)

I cannot say anything about the writing, its been a while since i read it. I was intrigued in the mystery and I wanted to know more about the characters, but the sexual component in here kind of annoyed me - i believe there was something about her being constantly ashamed and in denial of her prefernces and i got tired of it? Especially cause it wasnt even anything out of pocket. idk I got a good chunk into the book and didn't feel compelled to complete it

This was really cozy, things kept happening all the time but in the background. I don't think I have read many books that are written this way, it was something new, not bad but some scenes could have been longer. 
I don't like it when there's too much talk about a proper man being this or that way, too much playing into traditional gender roles. Also calling other people lame ducks.. ig he learned at the end?
But I did enjoy the dynamic of the main couple, where one would come up with a scheme or impulsively do something and the other would just go with the flow. They were both quite considerate, to a fault actually. After about 80% I was begging for them to just speak plainly istg they took forever to confess. 
I also liked that it began with both of them having had their sights on someone else but gradually discovering their compatability. They literally internally also had the same lines of thought, I thought it was a cute touch.

But ngl Eve is better than me cause if the kids I raised could not warm up to me properly after a year but in just a few evenings opened up with some strange man .... sry it'd eat me alive

Except for some things I found annoying I liked this more than expected. The end dragged a little for me but I'm happy overall.

(I just saw that this is slow paced?! I felt it much faster because the scenes are so short...wow)