portuguese_bookaholic's reviews
798 reviews

What a let down! 😕
It's not a bad book, it's entertaining and well written, but after being so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed "The Hunger Games", which I rated 5 stars, in spite of already knowing most of the plot, not being it's target audience, and how old these books are, I was expecting so much more.
At the very least, I was expecting more development and not just a rehashing of the exactly same plot with some new characters and a little bit of world-building to try to justify the existence of this book at all.
I love a good mortal competition, just not enough to read the same story twice.

Good, shocking ending though, so I'll definitely read the third book.

Tropes: fake dating

This was such a cute book! This was such a cute series!!!
I'm sad it's over (but SO happy to have finished it!) and I can't wait for Ashley Herring Blake to write more adult romance. I might even have to give some of her other books a try, that's how much I really like her writing style.

"Bright Falls" follows the love lives of three queer friends in a small town in Oregon, and Iris has been sort of the comic relief and the happy-go-lucky friend in the other books, so it was really good to get to know the inner workings of her mind and heart, I found her hidden depths surprising. As for Stevie, the love interest, she's a talented actress dealing with generalised anxiety disorder (btw, it felt like really good rep for this), a recent breakup and some feelings of inadequacy.

I really loved Iris and Stevie's (fake) relationship, how supportive and understanding they were and how great they were at communicating with one another. And this is where the book came a little short for me,

the third act breakup felt a bit ridiculous and very forced for a couple who, in every other aspect of their lives were so in sink from the very beginning. Also, in the end it seemed as if only Iris was to blame for the breakup and only she had to really apologise, while it was Stevie who actually withheld very important information from her girlfriend

. Still, some ridiculousness is expected (even encouraged?!) in romance, and the final result was great.

It's such a great and colourful cast of diverse characters, and we get to see so much of the beloved couples of the past books (with some very special moments included!), and the writing itself is so effortless to read, that I absolutely recommend.

K.A. Tucker is the author of one of my favourite romance books of all time, "The Simple Wild". So, you might imagine how much it pains me to give any of her books a less than stellar rating. But "Break Me" was really not a good book for me.

The first book in the series, "Tempt Me" finished rather abruptly, with our MFC Abby discovering a rather incriminating and shocking information about her boss, Henry. "Break Me" deals with the aftermath of that revelation, and while the matter is rather swiftly resolved, the trust between the couple has been broken, sending Abby into a tailspin that, to me, felt very out of character. Every turn of the plot from then on seemed sudden and rushed, and the conclusion felt too... easy, somehow.

Up until now it feels as if the events of the series could have been condensed into a single book and still have left space for more development. Like it wasn't very well edited. I get that this is self-published, but still... As they are, both books so far seem to drag on unnecessarily in the beginning and then come to an abrupt end.

I'm still considering whether I should DNF the series now, and the only thing really stopping me so far is how much I truly love some of Tucker's other writing!

Not really a good start to my reading year...

Was forcing myself to read this just for the sake of fulfilling a challenge, and it just wasn’t worth it. Also, terrible narration 🤦🏻‍♀️