Marita > Recent Status Updates

You'll readily give up any info to this apparent good-guy-CIA-man whose motivations you don't really know, rather than demanding more info from the law enforcement in your town that you've known and trusted for ages, if you don't want to trust in your man and his team?

I just can't get over her running off alone with (to her) a male stranger who's just giving her info on her man out of the goodness of his heart....?

You haven't known your man for long, but you don't know this stranger at all!

Your man gave you back more money than your ex conned you out of, so what's his play here? Steal it back? He could have just kept it no?

I don't need all my heroines to be badass operatives or whatever, but at least make your civilian heroine somewhat level-headed and not actively making things more dangerous for everyone involved.

And okay, I fully acknowledge that River has only been given the partial truth to the situation she's been put into.

But where are the critical thinking skills?

She knows they're getting into something involving the CIA's shady work, and when strange CIA man appears out of the blue to tell her that he's CIA and her man's the evil one, she could maybe consider the source?

Which brings me to my main gripe really - fucking civilians (of whatever gender/biological sex) in fucking military/espionage-related RS.

They're...just....so...dumb.

Information is the greatest commodity in this world and is usually your greatest asset in dangerous situations.

But civilians will just...give away any and all info at the slightest prompting to random strangers who are not obviously on their side.

River even acknowledges at one point on the way to the motel that if the stranger's aim was to con her into taking her away and murdering her, then he's really good!

?????

And this isn't a red flag screaming at you to maybe stay in the vicinity of people who know you and find out the truth from them????

Instead, you're just expecting to be conned by anyone who fucks you, so you'll believe anyone at all over him?

I fully get that you don't trust your instincts at all, and apparently find it easier to just expect to be conned by any man you get close to.

But to then just...believe this stranger telling you he's CIA and volunteering all this probably classified info to you about your man's apparent criminal side, and not for once think maybe you should ask your man for the truth rather than just go anywhere with said stranger?

River violently lurches between pushing away the people she was closest to, then latching on to a stranger who gave her some explosive orgasms, then immediately pushing away said stranger when she gets closer to him.

If you're at a point when you immediately trust a random stranger telling you he's CIA and your man's an international fugitive, and you go with him to a motel without question for more info...bruh.

But now I keep dropping and picking it up again and again because of the same issue I had by 20%. River's relentless self-flagellation and relationship insecurities.

Jfc, you made a mistake and got conned by your shithead bf while your father was dying. So does that mean you're more sensibly/logically practical when it comes to personal relationships now? Nope.

I picked up this book again after stalling at 20%-ish for months. Just not as fully invested in Ezra and the Lost Boys as I was with the OG crew. Plus, I haven't read LB's Bliss Erie's so I'm not invested in those characters either.

It got real interesting after the 35% mark, and I'm particularly loving the blend of emotional innocence and mental maturity in Jax, as well as the chaotic brotherhood.

????????????????

THAT'S how this book is going to end...?! Seriously?!

This is like when you write a timed exam and take your time on the first 2 questions and write your answers neatly and prettily and then by time you're on your last 10 minutes you're practically slicing the page with illegible garbage just so it's on the paper.

Wtf was that ending?! The least satisfying resolution/conclusion I've ever read.

I'm so fucking confused. Did I miss a few pages in the middle or something?

How the fuck does it make any sense to falsely claim that she blackmailed him into quitting? Wtaf. And how does it solve any thing? They still technically broke the rules, so this bonehead, TSTL bullshit just makes her look like an absolute fucking asshole and an idiot for no reason. I'm seriously so fucking confused at the logic spiral.

Happy to report I can give him full credit for bringing up her being under the influence and firmly stopping the proceedings because he doesn't want to do anything that she would regret when she sobers up! Hallelujah to all the Romance gods!

I'll give him credit for his concern for her state of mind after their... conflagration.

But overall, I don't know what to feel, other than uneasy, that every time she's let her guard down around him emotionally, she's basically had to be drunk to do it. Unless it's her being dishonest with herself and blaming being under the influence, it seems super sketchy to me.

Okay buddy, idk where you got your sex ed from but you need to fully discuss protection before your first time with each other. And no, randomly asking her if she's on the pill in the middle of foreplay doesn't cut it, FFS. Pregnancy isn't the only thing you need protection for.

I swear all I get from his demeanour towards her is condescension and extremely reluctant lust. Does he even like her as a person?

And of course her lust for him means he doesn't have to deal with any consequences of his bullshit accusations. Ugh.

Wtf. How is the prelude to their first kiss him accusing her of using sex to advance her career, just because he's jealous and suspects her boss is into her?! And then when she gets rightfully pissed off, he shuts her up by pretty much assaulting her mouth...?

He's clearly been on Tumblr and AO3 too much if he thinks the correct response to "Make me, asshole!" is to grab her and force a kiss on her...

I was clearly giving her too much credit for having grown since her internship. There's being subtly, intelligently petty in getting your revenge and then there's.....whatever this is.

Who in God's name signs off an unprofessional, snippy work email as "The Big Pain In Your Ass" and just....hands ammunition like that to someone who has already told you that he's going to do his best to get you fired again? TSTL.

Okay, now this dude is straight up sabotaging her to her face and she's just naively rolling with the punches? While he keeps accusing her off trying to sabotage him just because his new client has worked with her before, and wants someone familiar on the account? Bruh. Project much?

Why would you accept not being added to the shared folder on a joint project and give him all the power re: the account files?

And he has the audacity to hold that over her head and threaten her into being civil to him in public, just so nothing reflects badly on him? And she's supposed to be the immature one? Really? Fuck off.

And father of the year, instead of running his company and minding his own business, is matchmaking and setting her up to work right next to him? Ugh, he can fuck off too.

And then when she has worked super hard to "earn" a place in her father's company again, she swallows her pride and goes to him first thing to apologise. And this asshole's first words to her are a personal comment about her acne being cured now? The fuck?

And he just continues to hold her mistakes AS A 17YO DURING HER INTERNSHIP over her head, as if she hasn't grown and had a whole ass career since then?

Yes, she made multiple basic errors but no one bothered to work with her and correct them, least of all this shithead?

And after this dude is done trashing her, her dad just sits there, piles on and calls her spoiled?

Yeah, and who's at fucking fault for doing the spoiling, you piece of shit?! She's still a child, you're the grown ass goddamn parent who has filled her head with unrealistic expectations!

This MC pairing makes me as uncomfortable as a teacher-student pairing.

It's one thing if the power imbalance between them is mitigated by other factors, but every scene just seems to widen that imbalance.

And okay, yes she was naive and unprofessional during the internship, but she was also just 17? And this 20-something fucking trashed her to her face in front of her father (who is their boss)?

"she was also being kind, which made Sadie a doormat, she supposed. Same difference."

Uh yeah, NO. Just no. There's a world of difference between being kind and being a doormat. You can be kind and still firmly establish boundaries. You can be considerate/understanding/forgiving and still stand up for yourself.

This attitude does not bode well for the next 75% of the book...

Gunnar's very real grief and attempts to deal with it are the only parts worth reading so far. But I already knew that aspect of the story would have me bawling my eyes out. I was not wrong!

And the dumbest part is Lauren's dislike of Sadie is entirely based on their father's lies that Sadie is not in contact because she's selfish (which Sadie does not correct). Tf?! How is it Sadie's fault that he was a shit father who emotionally abandoned her for his shiny new family and then denied Sadie contact with himself and Lauren after Sadie moved away as soon as she was an adult so she could live her life?!

This just reinforces my dislike of children as plot devices, whether they are cute/positive characters or decidedly the opposite.

Also, the internalised misogyny in a 12yo that no one attempts to address, yikes. She wants to make it big in the NHL (admirable goal) because women's hockey is going nowhere (yikes).

That just tells me more what shitty parents she had, because you don't form such opinions in a vacuum.

I also did not find Sadie and Gunnar's first meeting at all amusing or funny. Lauren told a stranger that her sister was a drug addict who was neglecting her to fuck her drug dealer boyfriend and would drive her to camp coked up. Is that supposed to make me admire Lauren's creativity? There are real-world consequences for spewing such fucked-up shit. But does Sadie set her straight? Nope, she gets her fast food...

Sadie's also taking on all the guilt for being estranged from Lauren, when it's abundantly clear that blame needs to be fully laid at their shithead father's door. He made it a point for Lauren not to get to know Sadie, so how is it Sadie's fault that she hasn't been able to remind in contact over the years?

Maybe my feelings at this stage are coloured by having a 12yo baby sister of my own but yikes. Sure my sis isn't dealing with losing a mother, having a father go to prison and being dumped on a sister she's barely known, but she's slowly developing some emotional maturity.

Already feels like Sadie is going to cut Lauren waaay too much slack and let Lauren treat her like shit instead of being real with her.

Also, what's with the overabundance of exclamation points?! Every third sentence ends in one, and feels really out of place in a story with two MCs with such heavy issues.

Don't know if I actually like these two, individually or as a couple. They both deserve each other, and yet also deserve better. Well, him mostly. She's an emotional coward, bordering on TSTL, who really needs to consider therapy. As does he tbh.