Sara B > Recent Status Updates

The lore drops lightning fast. There’s speed in here.

“I can look for us.”

Dead. I am deceased.

The virginity trope done well for once. I see a lot of reviews bashing the construct even being used, but she’s not ashamed or even all that pressed about it. She has a plan. She has a friend to support her and made a game out of it with her. She even found a guy who wanted to be there for her, not the bedpost notch. It’s not fetishized and it’s not part of some plan to harm her. It just is.

This went from slow and cringey to kicking my feet in about two pages. This is the Dawes I’m used to. Reading an author’s back catalog backwards shows where she’s grown so much in the last decade.

I should have known better than not to see his reaction to dub con would be like this. I really hoped he would apologize and make it better. I hope he gets shot during the finale. I hope she laughs.

Delicious first five chapters. Simone feeds the soul like nobody else. Mark’s POV is funny and sad and I’m irritated we have to go back to Isolde now.

Sweet merciful Lord. Jacob Morgan is narrating Mark? After tolerating the other two narrators for 2.5 books, I’m giddy.

They have both been in their heads for too long. I’m annoyed.

We are 46% in and she doesn’t know what he does for a living? I cannot.

And…the swear jar emerges after 1.58 books. We were doing so well.

I realize I’m willfully engaging in a fake dating, marriage of convenience story. But everybody’s reasoning is bullshit and I’m so tired already. And yet I still wanna know what happens. I’m officially hate reading this until it gets better.

Cute so far. I should go back and read the others first, but I’m intrigued.

Oh sweet lord…not anther swear jar. Retire this micro trope. It just turns the kids into props.

It’s hard to continue with this without anyone to root for.

Oh goodness! The yearning!! Yes, please.

It only took one more percent to resolve some of my concerns. Although, this is sounding a whole lot like Southern Heartbreaker right now. Like almost word for word.

OK. I cannot read one more gender role, recovering perfectionist monologue. This was such a fun ride and now the wheels have come off along with my ability to care.

I shouldn’t binge authors. The reoccurring plot lines are showing.

There are so many characters and subplots these two could playing around in and still figure out that he’s nothing like her ex and that she is terrified of intimacy.

I can already tell I’m gonna love this. Best friends to lovers and nicely flushed out characters right off the bat? Time jumping emails? Immediate family? Witty but not cringe exposition? Sign me up.

Sweet baby Jesus, the navel-gazing and neurosis is too much. Get these characters out of their heads and into a real situation. The third act breakup is coming and I almost don’t care.

Do I smell a third act breakup coming? The tension is high.

Have to switch to Kindle for a while. His female voice is the worst in the bedroom. Eww.

Nice start. Pacing is good. Characters are solid.

Tim Paige is an insufferable narrator. He should only read men’s parts, and even then his delivery is grating. He ruined Off to the Races for me, too.

This feels a lot like Indigo Ridge with the “accidental” death undertone. She’s about to head to the bar. Let’s see if history repeats itself.

If you ever wondered if Fifty Shades of Grey had been expertly written, possibly spicier, and paced properly, you should read this series. It’s important to look at this as one big book instead of five shorter ones, as the cliffhangers do the work they are intended to do. I’m looking forward to starting the spinoff series with Ireland. Revisiting this after more than a decade has been fun.

Yearning is excellent. I love yearning.

Her guilt about her nonexistent role in her husband’s death? Exhausting.

Love the meddling mother-in-law.

I’m charmed. Finally. It took a minute.

Get out of your own way.

If she doesn’t make the turn soon, I’m gonna stop reading. I cannot with this.

Smiling. So much smiling.

This is precious. They’re being dragged to the wedding now. His inner alpha is hilarious. The audio is fantastic.