Review #427
So I read this steamy dark contemporary romance as a palate cleanser between fantasy books. The story held my attention but overall it wasn’t my favorite book. It was average for its genre, but I’m tired of toxicity being in romance. I understand it came with trigger warnings beforehand, but I feel like “dark” themes can happen while still showing feminism better. I’ve read one other by this author already and still have two more on my shelf to read in the future.
Biggest strength- The descriptions are written well, visceral and detailed.
There are some Wizard of Oz references but the plot and characters have no similarities . Red shoes. A sister named Dorothy. A poppy greenhouse. A secretive man hidden behind a curtain. “There’s no place like home” quote from her dead sister, and so on. It could’ve been made more obvious but there’s not much point since the plot or themes weren’t trying to match. If they’re gonna hire two narrators, why not have Nicholas speak his dialogue during her points of view?
Here my thoughts while reading (including spoilers):
Wretched starts with grief at a funeral. Our heroine’s older sister, who also raised her, has died and didn’t know she needed to speak at the memorial. She wonders if her parents know that their daughter has died or if her father is still in prison. There’s a lot of back story in the first chapter which makes it a bit slow.
Learning about Dorothy, her other sister, that she apparently hates, makes me wonder how important her family will be in this story that’s marketed as a dark romance.
I’m super glad that it’s in first person. When Nicolas has his own chapter, the narrator changes to make, which makes me super happy. When there is cursing in print books I don’t care. But when audiobooks have excessive curse words, it’s a bit annoying.
The bar scene is toxic since she shows she’s not interested and Nicolas not to follow her, but he does anyway and acts like it’s sexy. I don’t like that he ignored her request and that she thinks it’s sexy that he stalked her like prey through the bar. Sex scenes aren’t really hot for me when they don’t know each other and there’s no tension built up.
It’s sad that the best she’s ever had is in a bar bathroom that lasted a couple minutes…
It’s super gross that adult women call their father, Daddy still … and are competing for his affections.
“Let go of me” – she says
“No” (the MMC says)
Toxic …
Their second sex scene is definitely hot and dirty. Especially since it’s from his point of view of enjoyment.
Chapter 17 has poetry all of us sudden- the attempt at character depth feels forced.
I don’t understand any reason why Nick likes anything about her.
At the halfway point, the poetry is unique but still weird to me
The climatic scene was predictable except for Cody. I was hoping she’d save herself a bit better instead of being saved but it fits the genre.
I’m also glad that 12 months passed for the epilogue.