Bárbara’s Reviews > Heated Rivalry > Status Update

"... weren't there any nice men in Montreal, Shane?"
Ma'am? Apologize right now. Take it back or else.

"Shane had definitely snagged himself a ten."

And by being a solid 6 (4 When I'm mad).

Shane, I'm trying here, but you gotta work with me, man.

Okay, I'm going to stop for today because I have less than 100 pages left and it's not my idea to finish this today.
What I will say, however, is that I'm feeling this second half a lot more than I did the first one. True, if this gets to be a 4-star read it will be nothing short of a miracle... But it's definitely better now than it started off.

I'm probably not going to get a call to become the president of the Shane Hollander Fan Club... But I have to say, he's becoming slightly more tolerable lately. It was a pain the first half, though, I kept getting the same enjoyment from his POV that I used to get during Clash of Kings and Dance with Dragons with Davos 🙊
Ilya remains the best thing in the entire mess. Like, effortlessly.

SHANE HOLLANDER!!!!!! (imagine this said with the voice of Brad Pitt as Achilles in Troy when he's looking for Hector)
You made my Russian sad. So you have chosen... Death.

I speak in movie/TV/book quotes when I'm feeling the big feelings, sue me.
And to think that there's more to come in the "Ilya being sad" saga (I watched the show before reading, so yeah, again, sue me). I'm as fine as Ross was that one time.

"Jesus Christ, you're so fucking boring," Ilya muttered.


Yes, thank you. Those are the words I was looking for.

I love (and I'm using that term loosely) how Shane thinks it's "a choice" to name the twins Ruby and Jade, but he has no comment on the baby boy being named Arthur (which means he implicitly approves, I suppose)... At this point, I'm not surprised 😬

I am enjoying this, okay? That doesn't mean I don't have thoughts and opinions of the salty variety.
Also one thing I've noticed is that I basically talked about Ilya in every single one of my previous updates (I wouldn't blame myself, he's actually great). I want to prove that I'm capable of talking about my reading progress without focusing on him (not for this update though, evidently I failed already).

SHUT. UP! ILYA SAYING THAT FAST FIVE IS THE BEST ONE... It's just too much. I mean, if I'm being honest, 5 and 6 are my favorites. But it's the same.
A man of taste. Mostly, anyway, but eh... Nobody's perfect.