so_many_books's reviews
834 reviews

Pit Stop gets 4.75 stars from me. It is a sweet yet heavy book with lighthearted elements and heartbreaking topics. It deals with some seriously heavy themes, but it also shows how honest and supportive friends and family can be.

The book features two young men, Isa and John. They both struggle in their own way. Isa comes back from the military with a prosthesis and a service animal and just tries to find his place in the world again and live his dreams. John has his own heavy burden, caring from his alcoholic dad who's sober but struggles with illness while also trying to stay on top of his studies and his activism for trans rights.
Their friends, Gonzales and Aaliyha, who are a couple, also take an important place within the story.

I wouldn't say this book is strictly a romance, at least not by the mainstream definition. This story is so much more.
It delves deep into themes of cultural differences and difficulties, PTSD, needing a service animal, being Black and trans, caring for an alcoholic father, growing up with an alcoholic father and others. It's definitely a heavy read. However, these themes are plated as part of a funny and lighthearted story.

Isa is a sunshine-y character even if he went through a lot. His effortless caring is his best quality. I loved him and John getting to know each other through transforming a van for travel. They somehow shared an invisible bond that let them be honest with each other.
John's reality was the most heartbreaking, and I have to admit I cried quite a lot. But I admired his strength and understood his beaker moment.

The characters all felt like real people with real-peaple burdens in the real world. Yes, there is quite a lot of rhetoric about recent political issues in the US, but I am glad they were mentioned. Often, in books, we tend to brighten the reality we live in, but it's also necessary not to forget about it.

The storytelling and prose in this book is beautiful and quite full of beautiful pictures (literally and figuratively). I loved the little illustration at the beginning of every chapter. But I also loved how the author writes with symbols and depicts beautiful pictures.

My only slightly negative feeling is that the story felt more like snippets of the characters' lives with no clear transitions between the chapters/scenes.

All in all, I am very happy I read this book, and I think it's a great romance featuring diverse characters. The heavier themes hit hard, but the sweet moments make you hopeful.

This one wasn't for me.

While I absolutely loved the concept of Method Acting, I was disappointed by the characters and the superficial plot.

Amos and Chase are both drama majors at Franklin U, and for their senior year project, they are cast as one of the main couples of a reality TV-like production. The whole project is based on method acting, where they need to immerse themselves in their characters for the duration of the filming.

I love this concept because it's pretty close to fake dating, which is my favourite trope. However, the lines blur almost immediately, which makes the relationship a tad superficial.

Amos is a grumpy introvert who's not big on social situations. Chase is a sunshine baby with childish tendencies and not a single serious or committed bone in his body. They are basically polar opposites, which makes their Pairing very promising strongly building on the grumpy/sunshine trope. Their relationship is intense from the very first moment even though they are acting. What was a bit weird for me is that I really couldn't find an actual ac5ing phase that morphed into more. It was more like feelings from the very beginning, and they were both in colossal denial. I can't tell you why this bothered me so much.

I like Amos's character. He is very relatable and tries very hard to establish some boundaries with Chase to keep his calm safety. However, Chase quite literally buldozes right through them. There were quite a few conversations about consent, mostly because of the intimate roles they were playing, but I never quite got the enthusiastic yes from Amos. He went along with a lot of things because of the role that he would rather not do. And Chase took full advantage of it.
I think Chase's overwhelming golden retriever energy was planned to be cute and funny, but for me, it came through as rather immature. (Clue melodramatic storming out at some point). It was never really explained why he is so commitmentphobe, other than he had no clue cuddling can be so much fun. And without the backstory, his behaviour is just childish.

Amos, on the other hand, is the very positive voice of reason. He makes sure the communication is clear between them and that they are on the same page. It is a very mature thing to do.

Other than their story, there is a brief subplot for their fellow costars, which is a lot of fun and a lot interesting.

(I also kinda think the timeline of the story was messed up a lot.)

Overall, this book had a few great features, like the concept and Amos's character and a few not so great ones, like Chase's immaturity and the superficial plot. This won't be my favourite book from the author, but it fits in the lighthearted world of the Franklin U series.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book to share my honest review.*