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Unofficial
Jess
Jessica Massey goes to bring soup for her sick boyfriend of five months to get the surprise of her life. Instead of resting in bed, Jess finds Kade in his kitchen. Naked. With the woman he told her was his cousin.
In a twist of fate, Lena is not his cousin (thank God), and Kade doesn’t think he cheated. Because they never had “the talk.” She may have been committed to this relationship, but he saw them as unofficial.
Lena feels terrible, and she pushes a friendship Jess didn’t know she wanted. When Lena introduces Jess to Landry Knight, he seems perfect. Exactly what she wants in a man. But as she gets to know him, she can’t figure out if the red flags are because of Landry or because she’s still in love with Kade.
Kade
The moment Kade Finely sees Jess out with another man, especially one he dislikes, he finds himself in a tailspin. Ever since she walked away from him, he’s been off his game. His childhood and past put him in a position to never want to let anyone get close again, but he failed. Jess did. And he misses her.
It’s time Kade steps up and shows Jess he’s ready for a relationship. A real one. If he’s going down, he’s going down fighting. He can’t just sit back and let her ride off into the sunset with Landry Knight. No, it’s time to make what they have official. If he can convince her he’s serious this time.
Jessica Massey goes to bring soup for her sick boyfriend of five months to get the surprise of her life. Instead of resting in bed, Jess finds Kade in his kitchen. Naked. With the woman he told her was his cousin.
In a twist of fate, Lena is not his cousin (thank God), and Kade doesn’t think he cheated. Because they never had “the talk.” She may have been committed to this relationship, but he saw them as unofficial.
Lena feels terrible, and she pushes a friendship Jess didn’t know she wanted. When Lena introduces Jess to Landry Knight, he seems perfect. Exactly what she wants in a man. But as she gets to know him, she can’t figure out if the red flags are because of Landry or because she’s still in love with Kade.
Kade
The moment Kade Finely sees Jess out with another man, especially one he dislikes, he finds himself in a tailspin. Ever since she walked away from him, he’s been off his game. His childhood and past put him in a position to never want to let anyone get close again, but he failed. Jess did. And he misses her.
It’s time Kade steps up and shows Jess he’s ready for a relationship. A real one. If he’s going down, he’s going down fighting. He can’t just sit back and let her ride off into the sunset with Landry Knight. No, it’s time to make what they have official. If he can convince her he’s serious this time.
- GenresContemporaryRomance
274 pages, ebook
Published May 2, 2024
About the author
Logan Gray
26 books36 followersLogan Gray is a writer and authorpreneur who likes to create books like artists like to create art. Description is important, but she wants to allow the reader to make the story their own. While she wants to give the reader what he or she needs to see the picture she's trying to depict, she doesn't want to fill the pages with unnecessary description to restrict how the reader views the characters or places.
While this may not appeal to all readers, she hopes it appeals to others who like you add their own touch to the story. Maybe they would rather the walls be white instead of gray. Maybe they'd like to envision the person is tall instead of average height. While the description as she sees it is there, it's not written so strongly the own interpretation cannot be made and applied. It gives the reader some creative freedom in a hobby that isn't always as flexible.
While this may not appeal to all readers, she hopes it appeals to others who like you add their own touch to the story. Maybe they would rather the walls be white instead of gray. Maybe they'd like to envision the person is tall instead of average height. While the description as she sees it is there, it's not written so strongly the own interpretation cannot be made and applied. It gives the reader some creative freedom in a hobby that isn't always as flexible.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
May 7, 2024
DNF- skim read —-I was here for the angst but the H is so immature and beta in his thinking that I can’t even. He’s been lying to himself so long that he doesn’t even realize he’s a liar. Jess and Kade have been dating for 5 months. They spend the night together at each others house constantly. Stay connected via text several times a day. He takes her to all family events/ dinners/kids recitals/games etc. So he tells her he has the flu to get out of a date night they had planned. She brings him soup and walks to him banging super model Lena on his kitchen counter.Hes been dating her for awhile.Kade seems more worried about
Lena than Jess. Wtf Kade???? His excuse is that they never had the talk about being exclusive so she’s not his gf. Hmmm why did he lie about having the flu then?? This guy is definitely not a critical thinker and is a few eggs short of a dozen. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed. All Kinds of bad stuff happened to him in his life to make him a cheating liar. Wake up Kade— bad stuff happens to most people and plenty of them don’t turn into liars and cheaters. I AlsoCan’t stand when the fmc’s looks are constantly dissed. It’s unappealing in a romance. She’s represented over and over as less than. We get it the author thinks she’s mediocre fried rice. I hate it when authors hate their fmc. Peeked at the end to see Jess take the liar back but didn’t read the epilogue because who gives a fck! Also do not like the writing style. It’s too clinical and sterile feeling.
Lena than Jess. Wtf Kade???? His excuse is that they never had the talk about being exclusive so she’s not his gf. Hmmm why did he lie about having the flu then?? This guy is definitely not a critical thinker and is a few eggs short of a dozen. Definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed. All Kinds of bad stuff happened to him in his life to make him a cheating liar. Wake up Kade— bad stuff happens to most people and plenty of them don’t turn into liars and cheaters. I AlsoCan’t stand when the fmc’s looks are constantly dissed. It’s unappealing in a romance. She’s represented over and over as less than. We get it the author thinks she’s mediocre fried rice. I hate it when authors hate their fmc. Peeked at the end to see Jess take the liar back but didn’t read the epilogue because who gives a fck! Also do not like the writing style. It’s too clinical and sterile feeling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2024
I hate doormat heroines 😐.
Tags: catches-him-in-the-act, cheating-hero, damaged-broken_hero, doormat_heroine, hero-hurts-heroine, hero-loved-or-loves-ow, manwhore-philanderer, om_drama, ow-drama, read, unlikable-hero, unlikable-heroine, waste-of-time, weak-heroine
Tags: catches-him-in-the-act, cheating-hero, damaged-broken_hero, doormat_heroine, hero-hurts-heroine, hero-loved-or-loves-ow, manwhore-philanderer, om_drama, ow-drama, read, unlikable-hero, unlikable-heroine, waste-of-time, weak-heroine
July 27, 2024
Oy boy.
This is the equivalent of the Three Stooges. Sad sack heroine, hero #1, hero #2.
Heroine catches her bf having sex with a sex kitten and is more concerned that he never had sex with her in the kitchen right next to the coffee pot that she bought him than she is finding him having sex. A little exaggeration, but not far off. As the H hides his naked self behind a pot, he excuses his actions by saying they never declared "Exclusive." This guy lives in a kindergarten world.
Sadly for this romance, the one person really, really upset about the sex in the kitchen is the sex kitten having sex with the H.
She's horrified he's made her the other woman, and ends up befriending the heroine much to the heroine's dismay, but kitchen sink side kick is a force to be reckoned with. This is the chick that needs a story.
Kitchen sink side chick is in love and engaged about 5 minutes after the kitchen incident and introduces the h to a new beau, a very attractive but gloomy Gus who didn't know that men could cook or do dishes. He, among many, many others in this book has a sad romance backstory. Heroine takes him on because she's desperate for a man, any man, and is really is a 1950s doormat wannabe disguised as a successful architect. Kind of an anti-Wonder Woman.
Once the H figures out that he's not all that since the h dumped him for being an unfaithful cad and never came back, he wants her. Of course he does. His bartender hates him, he got flack from his cousin, and he just isn't interested in bagging more babes.
He ends up stalking the new couple and things really don't improve.
Once hero #2 figures out he's literally #2, he's not a nice guy.
Hero #2.
"You're just a bitch who strung me along like he strung you along. And you get away with it because you're pretty, but the truth is, you're not that pretty. The fact you have perky tits and keep the goodies under lock and key makes you seem more attractive than you are, but your personality makes you ugly. You used to be a solid six on a good night, but now I can see you're nothing more than a three. I'm a solid nine, and while naked, you're at least a seven, it's not worth it anymore."
I hope that's not his Persuasive Argument because it didn't convince me he's the better choice.
Oh, and the book is written in the present tense which drove me crazy.
This is the equivalent of the Three Stooges. Sad sack heroine, hero #1, hero #2.
Heroine catches her bf having sex with a sex kitten and is more concerned that he never had sex with her in the kitchen right next to the coffee pot that she bought him than she is finding him having sex. A little exaggeration, but not far off. As the H hides his naked self behind a pot, he excuses his actions by saying they never declared "Exclusive." This guy lives in a kindergarten world.
Sadly for this romance, the one person really, really upset about the sex in the kitchen is the sex kitten having sex with the H.
She's horrified he's made her the other woman, and ends up befriending the heroine much to the heroine's dismay, but kitchen sink side kick is a force to be reckoned with. This is the chick that needs a story.
Kitchen sink side chick is in love and engaged about 5 minutes after the kitchen incident and introduces the h to a new beau, a very attractive but gloomy Gus who didn't know that men could cook or do dishes. He, among many, many others in this book has a sad romance backstory. Heroine takes him on because she's desperate for a man, any man, and is really is a 1950s doormat wannabe disguised as a successful architect. Kind of an anti-Wonder Woman.
Once the H figures out that he's not all that since the h dumped him for being an unfaithful cad and never came back, he wants her. Of course he does. His bartender hates him, he got flack from his cousin, and he just isn't interested in bagging more babes.
He ends up stalking the new couple and things really don't improve.
Once hero #2 figures out he's literally #2, he's not a nice guy.
Hero #2.
"You're just a bitch who strung me along like he strung you along. And you get away with it because you're pretty, but the truth is, you're not that pretty. The fact you have perky tits and keep the goodies under lock and key makes you seem more attractive than you are, but your personality makes you ugly. You used to be a solid six on a good night, but now I can see you're nothing more than a three. I'm a solid nine, and while naked, you're at least a seven, it's not worth it anymore."
I hope that's not his Persuasive Argument because it didn't convince me he's the better choice.
Oh, and the book is written in the present tense which drove me crazy.
April 5, 2024
stopped reading at 48%
1.5 stars
Jess, the heroine, such a dumb 🥲 it pains me to read her like Kade (the H) cheated on her in his kitchen, the one she used to make meals to him bc he doesn’t know how to lmao, and she caught him in the act with a woman he said it was his cousin and his excuse to cheat was that they didn’t have “the talk” and when both women were leaving his apartment (the ow didn’t know he was in a relationship) he called first for the ow - let that settle in.
So, Jess, of course, broke up with him and moves on with OM, let’s be real he wasn’t perfect but he still wanted to try with her and wanted a relationship with intentions to get married. Ohh, Kade , the now ex-boyfriend, was ready to mess around with an OW and he actually went to talk to her but he didn’t know she was JESS’ BFF omg
Anyway, after months the H is like ohh, I actually love her and I’m ready to be committed 🥹 so he gets jealous when he sees Jess and OM together and actually went to her house and saw their shadows doing the deed lmao I can’t.
So, now the part where I stopped reading. Jess is being stalked by the H at her workplace and then at her house where she was expecting OM and of course he arrives and drama llama. It pisses me off the part where the OM is throwing some truths to the H and Jess had the audacity to defend him like you don’t know him like I doo and then the convo went something like this:
Om: U still have feelings for him?
Jess: I don’t know
Om: ok let me know when you decide 👍🏻 cheers
Kade: u won’t fight for her?
Om: I can’t fight for someone who can’t decide if she wants to be with me or with the person who broke her heart.
Jess: ᵃ 🤪
ijbol
1.5 stars
Jess, the heroine, such a dumb 🥲 it pains me to read her like Kade (the H) cheated on her in his kitchen, the one she used to make meals to him bc he doesn’t know how to lmao, and she caught him in the act with a woman he said it was his cousin and his excuse to cheat was that they didn’t have “the talk” and when both women were leaving his apartment (the ow didn’t know he was in a relationship) he called first for the ow - let that settle in.
So, Jess, of course, broke up with him and moves on with OM, let’s be real he wasn’t perfect but he still wanted to try with her and wanted a relationship with intentions to get married. Ohh, Kade , the now ex-boyfriend, was ready to mess around with an OW and he actually went to talk to her but he didn’t know she was JESS’ BFF omg
Anyway, after months the H is like ohh, I actually love her and I’m ready to be committed 🥹 so he gets jealous when he sees Jess and OM together and actually went to her house and saw their shadows doing the deed lmao I can’t.
So, now the part where I stopped reading. Jess is being stalked by the H at her workplace and then at her house where she was expecting OM and of course he arrives and drama llama. It pisses me off the part where the OM is throwing some truths to the H and Jess had the audacity to defend him like you don’t know him like I doo and then the convo went something like this:
Om: U still have feelings for him?
Jess: I don’t know
Om: ok let me know when you decide 👍🏻 cheers
Kade: u won’t fight for her?
Om: I can’t fight for someone who can’t decide if she wants to be with me or with the person who broke her heart.
Jess: ᵃ 🤪
ijbol
April 14, 2024
Garbage. Hero NOT redeemable. Cheating scum IMO
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
May 26, 2024DNF @ 10%
On paper this looked like it would be an angstfest, but the execution zapped out all my feels. I really wish I would’ve checked the reviews first.
The book opens with Jessica walking in on her boyfriend Kade banging another woman. She quickly learns he never considered them exclusive because they never discussed it.
The problem was the writing. The third person present tense does not flow at all and takes away any character personalities/connections or feels. The opening scene should��ve been gut-wrenching, but I felt nothing… and I’m pretty sure Jess wasn’t feeling much either.
On paper this looked like it would be an angstfest, but the execution zapped out all my feels. I really wish I would’ve checked the reviews first.
The book opens with Jessica walking in on her boyfriend Kade banging another woman. She quickly learns he never considered them exclusive because they never discussed it.
The problem was the writing. The third person present tense does not flow at all and takes away any character personalities/connections or feels. The opening scene should��ve been gut-wrenching, but I felt nothing… and I’m pretty sure Jess wasn’t feeling much either.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
May 5, 2024The book follows the aftermath of the Jess, the FMC, walking in on Kade, the MMC, having smex with another woman. He had reasons for this behavior that are revealed throughout the story but in that moment, his response to Jess…they weren’t “official” and hadn’t had “the talk.”
Jess tries to move on and there’s a moment when Kade sees her (blurry images through the window cause he’s outside he house) having smex with the guy she’s dating. He realizes how painful it was for her to walk in on him - it was a great moment, especially when he knows that guy is going to sleep on the side of the bed he slept on when he stayed at Jess’ house.
Kade grovels and fights for a second chance with Jess. She has smex with OM while they are apart and he is celibate.
Jess tries to move on and there’s a moment when Kade sees her (blurry images through the window cause he’s outside he house) having smex with the guy she’s dating. He realizes how painful it was for her to walk in on him - it was a great moment, especially when he knows that guy is going to sleep on the side of the bed he slept on when he stayed at Jess’ house.
Kade grovels and fights for a second chance with Jess. She has smex with OM while they are apart and he is celibate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2024
Unofficial is officially one of the worst books I've read. I'm not one to shy away from cheating and angsty reads, but this was ridiculous. No, actually pathetic. I know this review is mean, but it is what it is. It wasn't even angsty or a rage read for me. Everyone was an idiot. Of course, and especially the FMC. She should have worn a sign saying "world's biggest pushover." The MMC had zero personality and had to do squat to get FMC back.
May 8, 2024
2.5 stars
The writing just fucked this up. Third person present tense is not the author’s strong suit. The story underneath was good. Though I ended up feeling like it was very tell not very show. Had some good grovel.
Somewhere around 65% I threw in the towel.
PS…those texts were so hard to read…fuck my poor eyes.
The writing just fucked this up. Third person present tense is not the author’s strong suit. The story underneath was good. Though I ended up feeling like it was very tell not very show. Had some good grovel.
Somewhere around 65% I threw in the towel.
PS…those texts were so hard to read…fuck my poor eyes.
August 16, 2024
Number one thing I need for a 2nd chance romance trope: Remorse.
If there isn’t any of that by the guilty party I
Can’t. This MMC showed remorse and growth, exactly what someone should do to prove they have changed.
If there isn’t any of that by the guilty party I
Can’t. This MMC showed remorse and growth, exactly what someone should do to prove they have changed.
Read
September 24, 2024This is some douche bag BS if ever I’ve heard some before. Like, wow dude. The implied relationship is absolutely there. But he wants to claim a technicality for what he did as “not cheating”, is absolute cowardice. If everything you are doing is committed relationship level then you’re in a relationship. You don’t need a discussion to that effect. Life doesn’t have clear boundaries, goals, or limits, for everybody or thing. As an adult you learn to “read the room” to understand situations you find yourself in. An immature or new to adulthood person could come out with this BS when they get busted. But a career stable adult, late twenties somethings that this book is describing, is not the level of person who spout this nonsense. I mean, granted, these days people shirk so much dignity to get out of any level of life responsibility, or to be a clown on social media, that I can see this becoming a common behavior. “We never had the talk about exclusivity”, a sad reality of anyone who says this has a huge lack of respect for themselves. And should remain single or just date dumb children who they can get away with never having “the talk with”.
Honestly, most people don’t get “the talk” about most things in life. The sex talk, the puberty talk, the break up/divorce talk, why you didn’t get in to college or a promotion talk. Does that mean you don’t understand something? Or your place in life? NO! This MMC’s stupidity in saying they never had the talk but in every way was behaving as an exclusive partner in a relationship is childish. The FMC’s need to have “the talk” about why he cheated, because he absolutely did cheat, was also stupid. I get that it was a mindf#€k that she couldn’t figure out where the signs were that they weren’t a committed couple. But honestly it was a sad somewhat one sided conversation between these main characters I could have done without. If lame MMC wanted to pull a lame excuse for his cheating then the FMC should have just ghosted him because that is all he was worth. I mean, when you scrape shit off your shoe you don’t go back to find out why it was on your shoe in the first place or reminisce about it after the fact. You remember it happened and to watch where you step moving forward. End of.
Oh I’m only at the 12% mark so far. I’m looking forward to see where this shitshow goes now. The MMC would have to be phenomenal for me to ever see him as more than a selfish childish dimbo at this point.
Honestly, most people don’t get “the talk” about most things in life. The sex talk, the puberty talk, the break up/divorce talk, why you didn’t get in to college or a promotion talk. Does that mean you don’t understand something? Or your place in life? NO! This MMC’s stupidity in saying they never had the talk but in every way was behaving as an exclusive partner in a relationship is childish. The FMC’s need to have “the talk” about why he cheated, because he absolutely did cheat, was also stupid. I get that it was a mindf#€k that she couldn’t figure out where the signs were that they weren’t a committed couple. But honestly it was a sad somewhat one sided conversation between these main characters I could have done without. If lame MMC wanted to pull a lame excuse for his cheating then the FMC should have just ghosted him because that is all he was worth. I mean, when you scrape shit off your shoe you don’t go back to find out why it was on your shoe in the first place or reminisce about it after the fact. You remember it happened and to watch where you step moving forward. End of.
Oh I’m only at the 12% mark so far. I’m looking forward to see where this shitshow goes now. The MMC would have to be phenomenal for me to ever see him as more than a selfish childish dimbo at this point.
May 8, 2024
Disgusting H. 🤮🤢
June 12, 2024
I really don't know what to say about this one. Kade's actions were stupid based on his past, so that didn't make any sense to me. I know a character's past is supposed to make you understand their actions, but with this one it made me feel the exact opposite. I would think he would have more compassion towards Jess. Their relationship was definitely implied so he is definitely a cheater regardless of the words that came out of his mouth. As they say "Actions speak louder than words". I almost DNF'd this but I wanted to see how it did all play out. I don't know why since I found both characters lacking. I think the biggest issue I had with the book was the writing style. It kept pulling me out of the story. Anyways, there goes a few hours of my life.
August 27, 2024
I read a few reviews before starting this book and that made me unsure to read it or not. Curiosity killed the cat and I gave it a shot.
The book started with a bang: caught in the act cheating. Normally I’m not in the mood for cheating of any kind, but since the heroine didn’t stay celibate and the hero did, I thought it wouldn’t be that bad. How wrong could I’ve been? This hero didn’t feel any remorse in the beginning. He didn’t cheat because they didn’t have the “exclusivity talk” yet. 🙄 The heroine came off strong and I liked her spice. She told him how it was, when you’re dating for 5 months, have clothes and toiletries at each others place and you’ve met each others family… there’s nothing casual about it, you’re IN a relationship. This goes beyond any exclusivity talk. So far so good. The hero is left in the cold and the heroine finds herself a new man. But the author couldn’t make the OM a descent guy, because how could be otherwise root for a reconciliation with the cheater? Let’s make this a red flag kinda OM, so the zero would be the better option out of these two. It took the dipshit hero a long time to come to his senses. Her moving on with the OM was the ultimate push he needed. Unfortunately that only made me think that once someone else is playing with your discarded toy, it’s shiny again and you want to have it back. I assume the author felt the same way, with the amount of explaining she did that this wasn’t the reason he wanted to “fight” for her.
What I disliked most about the story was all the gaslighting and romanticising the cheating. The dip💩 bulldozed his way back into her life and several people glossed over the cheating because they didn’t have the exclusivity talk yet, and the same thing happened with them as well and look how happily married they are now. She even started believing this crap. Of course the “hero” had “reasons” to cheat, oh sorry silly me 🤦🏼♀️ NOT cheat but taking advantage of his one sided casual relationship. It’s always the same old story, lame.
Then the friendship between the h and the woman he cheated with. What’s up with that? She had forced on page time and was such an unnecessary character. Besides being the OW that was caught in the act she didn’t have any purpose to this story. The blurb made me believe they would become BFF’s but that’s hardly true.
This plot was 100% meant to be a great story. Unfortunately the execution was the complete opposite.
Safety:
Not safe. Cheating. Descriptive sex H and OW + h and OM. Hero reformed manwhore, celibate during separation. Heroine not celibate during separation. No OW drama, she became friends with the h 🙄 OM drama with the new man, but he turns out to be a douche to make the H look like a gem. H was cheated on before and that’s why he can’t do commitment. Basically the same old story.
The book started with a bang: caught in the act cheating. Normally I’m not in the mood for cheating of any kind, but since the heroine didn’t stay celibate and the hero did, I thought it wouldn’t be that bad. How wrong could I’ve been? This hero didn’t feel any remorse in the beginning. He didn’t cheat because they didn’t have the “exclusivity talk” yet. 🙄 The heroine came off strong and I liked her spice. She told him how it was, when you’re dating for 5 months, have clothes and toiletries at each others place and you’ve met each others family… there’s nothing casual about it, you’re IN a relationship. This goes beyond any exclusivity talk. So far so good. The hero is left in the cold and the heroine finds herself a new man. But the author couldn’t make the OM a descent guy, because how could be otherwise root for a reconciliation with the cheater? Let’s make this a red flag kinda OM, so the zero would be the better option out of these two. It took the dipshit hero a long time to come to his senses. Her moving on with the OM was the ultimate push he needed. Unfortunately that only made me think that once someone else is playing with your discarded toy, it’s shiny again and you want to have it back. I assume the author felt the same way, with the amount of explaining she did that this wasn’t the reason he wanted to “fight” for her.
What I disliked most about the story was all the gaslighting and romanticising the cheating. The dip💩 bulldozed his way back into her life and several people glossed over the cheating because they didn’t have the exclusivity talk yet, and the same thing happened with them as well and look how happily married they are now. She even started believing this crap. Of course the “hero” had “reasons” to cheat, oh sorry silly me 🤦🏼♀️ NOT cheat but taking advantage of his one sided casual relationship. It’s always the same old story, lame.
Then the friendship between the h and the woman he cheated with. What’s up with that? She had forced on page time and was such an unnecessary character. Besides being the OW that was caught in the act she didn’t have any purpose to this story. The blurb made me believe they would become BFF’s but that’s hardly true.
This plot was 100% meant to be a great story. Unfortunately the execution was the complete opposite.
Safety:
Not safe. Cheating. Descriptive sex H and OW + h and OM. Hero reformed manwhore, celibate during separation. Heroine not celibate during separation. No OW drama, she became friends with the h 🙄 OM drama with the new man, but he turns out to be a douche to make the H look like a gem. H was cheated on before and that’s why he can’t do commitment. Basically the same old story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2024
I’m on the fence….
2.5/5
This books reminds me of many a Reddit post, in fact I even replied to a similar posting of whether it’s cheating if exclusivity isn’t verbalised. I know this didn’t end up being the whole reasoning and premise, but it set the tone.
The whole book for me personally was swings and roundabouts. One minute I liked it, the next minute I didn’t. The Third person pov in the present tense was distracting, it didn’t make it easy to read. Within the dialogue I was jumping in and out of the story.
For me it was also conflicting in places….
“Do you want to continue seeing me, and me only? Or do you want to see other women?"
“I don't want to stop seeing you," Kade answers honestly. "But I can't commit to just one woman. I'm sorry, but it's just not who I am."
“I can respect that."
Hold the damn phone. "You can?"
Jess nods. "Yeah, I can. I don't like it, but I feel like you're finally being honest”
Wtf!!! No there is no respect there whatsoever. If he’d told the FMC in the beginning then yes she had a choice, but there was nothing respectful about what the mmc did. I felt the author was trying to please all audiences, but it missed the mark for me. It wasn’t the cheating in the first place that I disliked as I love a good cheating betrayal story, it was that reaction from the FMC that put me on the back foot. Yes she verbalised her feelings throughout the story and he realised his mistake later on and his real feelings emerged, but it felt a bit to much like the author was trying to keep a balance that didn’t need to exist in the first place. He cheated plain and simple. Like I said it was explained in the book, but it did distract from the story for me. The interwoven type language of “your feelings are valid”, type response just doesn’t work in a cheating scenario, especially when there’s betrayal.
The last third of the book I enjoyed the most, and the writing seemed the most genuine and organic. It did drag on in places, but overall I liked the ending.
2.5/5
This books reminds me of many a Reddit post, in fact I even replied to a similar posting of whether it’s cheating if exclusivity isn’t verbalised. I know this didn’t end up being the whole reasoning and premise, but it set the tone.
The whole book for me personally was swings and roundabouts. One minute I liked it, the next minute I didn’t. The Third person pov in the present tense was distracting, it didn’t make it easy to read. Within the dialogue I was jumping in and out of the story.
For me it was also conflicting in places….
“Do you want to continue seeing me, and me only? Or do you want to see other women?"
“I don't want to stop seeing you," Kade answers honestly. "But I can't commit to just one woman. I'm sorry, but it's just not who I am."
“I can respect that."
Hold the damn phone. "You can?"
Jess nods. "Yeah, I can. I don't like it, but I feel like you're finally being honest”
Wtf!!! No there is no respect there whatsoever. If he’d told the FMC in the beginning then yes she had a choice, but there was nothing respectful about what the mmc did. I felt the author was trying to please all audiences, but it missed the mark for me. It wasn’t the cheating in the first place that I disliked as I love a good cheating betrayal story, it was that reaction from the FMC that put me on the back foot. Yes she verbalised her feelings throughout the story and he realised his mistake later on and his real feelings emerged, but it felt a bit to much like the author was trying to keep a balance that didn’t need to exist in the first place. He cheated plain and simple. Like I said it was explained in the book, but it did distract from the story for me. The interwoven type language of “your feelings are valid”, type response just doesn’t work in a cheating scenario, especially when there’s betrayal.
The last third of the book I enjoyed the most, and the writing seemed the most genuine and organic. It did drag on in places, but overall I liked the ending.
September 24, 2024
Meh
This was a struggle read for me. Maybe it’s because the buildup to the getting caught was so fast and the move on was also so fast that after everything happened and those almost 20 pages I was bored of them getting together again.
So I kind of wish we had the buildup of them throughout the five months before we had the caught in the act.
Because I will tell you that after 100 pages, I really didn’t want to read this anymore, but I really needed to finish because this was such a short book.
This was a struggle read for me. Maybe it’s because the buildup to the getting caught was so fast and the move on was also so fast that after everything happened and those almost 20 pages I was bored of them getting together again.
So I kind of wish we had the buildup of them throughout the five months before we had the caught in the act.
Because I will tell you that after 100 pages, I really didn’t want to read this anymore, but I really needed to finish because this was such a short book.
Read
August 16, 2024DNF I lost interest after the caught in the act scene which was good.
April 13, 2024
Cheating = H goes on 3 dates with OW and at end of 3rd date, brings OW home for some intimate fun times on kitchen counter. h and H had been together for 5 or so months. H had brought h to meet family/friends, h had gone out with H's family on her own, H and h had spent almost every night together, H was constantly texting/calling and spending time with h, sooooo, unsurprisingly, the h thought her and the H were exclusive. H told h that they never had that talk, so they were not actually exclusive and what he did was not cheating....Except, everyone, like EVERYONE, who knew the H & h looked at the H like he was a total douche and that despite not having "the talk" that it was incredibly obvious they were a couple and it was definitely cheating what H did.
h sees H with OW = h walked in on H banging OW on kitchen counter
Grovel = H went out with OW to prove to himself that he was not falling for h, and of course, after the fact, H realizes he is in love with h. Due to H's past (fiancee and bff went behind his back to hook up, H and fiancee break up, fiancee and bff get married), H swore to himself that he would never fall in love again. Spoiler alert - he failed. H makes efforts with h - apologizes in person, eventually explains his past to h, sends flowers/fruit bouquet/gifts to h, continues to stop by (ok, maybe a little bit of stalking) h's work and home, etc. H really does a lot of grovel and self realization which was relatively satisfying.
h in this was not a doormat. After the breakup, she goes on to date. H stays celibate; h is not celibate. h made h sweat it out and made him prove himself.
Good read.
h sees H with OW = h walked in on H banging OW on kitchen counter
Grovel = H went out with OW to prove to himself that he was not falling for h, and of course, after the fact, H realizes he is in love with h. Due to H's past (fiancee and bff went behind his back to hook up, H and fiancee break up, fiancee and bff get married), H swore to himself that he would never fall in love again. Spoiler alert - he failed. H makes efforts with h - apologizes in person, eventually explains his past to h, sends flowers/fruit bouquet/gifts to h, continues to stop by (ok, maybe a little bit of stalking) h's work and home, etc. H really does a lot of grovel and self realization which was relatively satisfying.
h in this was not a doormat. After the breakup, she goes on to date. H stays celibate; h is not celibate. h made h sweat it out and made him prove himself.
Good read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2024
If you know me, you know that cheating is not just a line in the sand for me. Sand is pliable. It's easily changed. Cheating is a 10-foot deep gash in concrete. I hate it, I avoid it, and if I stumble across it then it hurts in a way that I don't find enjoyable, so I scour most reviews to make sure that doesn't happen. I even have a shelf fully dedicated to cheating books on Goodreads so that I never stumble across it accidentally.
So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this book and the summary intrigued me. That just doesn't happen. At least it hasn't since I intentionally read my last cheating book more than 15 years ago. But I was reading another book and just having trouble getting into it (no fault of that book - just setting it aside to better get in the mood to read it) and this one intrigued me enough to make me borrow it on KU. Yet my gash in the concrete softened enough to be a line in the sand. And even that became just a little bit blurry. After all, the cheating is right there in the summary, so I know exactly what I'm getting into.
The fact that it literally happens from the first chapter/first page worked to its advantage, since I was not emotionally invested in these characters at all. If we had gotten the entire 5 month relationship and then the cheating scene mid book, that would've been a no-go for me. But being brand new characters, it wasn't heartbreaking, beyond my "solidarity sister" moment with the heroine.
If I was a fair person, I would say that the title of the book fits and this doesn't fully describe a traditional cheating scenario. And while it does blur the lines that they weren't official, he was deceitful, which means he knew he was in the wrong.
In all honesty, this was a 3 star book. Nothing in my rating reflects the cheating - I knew what I was getting into, and I find it ridiculous when reviewers rate a book because they didn't like something that is clearly mentioned in the summary or trigger warnings.
However, it would've definitely benefitted from an editor. There were some typos - not a ton, but enough that I noticed (including a name that is spelled wrong at one point and that really bugs me). There were also some speech patterns and repeated uses of names in conversations that were far from natural. So I took a star off for that.
The other star was because, while I love books written in third person - I feel it's a dying art form - this book was written in third person and....present tense.
Present. Freaking. Tense.
I felt like I was being narrated to the entire time, so it was a distraction and hard to focus throughout the entire book. To make it worse - I had an episode of "Hoarding" playing in the background, so the narrator's voice on the show became the narrator of my personal read-through. Go ahead and laugh. I know I did.
But, if you're paying close attention, you see that I've given the book 4 stars when I've clearly explained my rating being 3. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. No need to badger me.
I had to up my rating for two very important reasons (mild spoilers to follow):
1) The girl he cheated with was immediately pissed off on Jess' behalf. She actually defended her more in that moment than Jess did, herself. And then she pushed for friendship later in the book. While I'm not opposed to female characters being an issue to the main character (without the cheating aspect, I love me some OW drama, so long as the OW gets what's coming to her) this was such a lovely change of pace that it was deserving of a half a star upgrade. Let's normalize all of this! And my second reason...
2) The heroine moved on!
To the author, my heartfelt: THANK YOU!!!! While we're on the subject of normalizing behaviors, let's put this example as a headliner on the list in the darkest permanent marker. While I, admittedly, don't read cheating books, I do read books that feature betrayal and/or second chance romance and I am so beyond sick of the manwhore that sluts around during a breakup while the heroine saves herself as the pristinely innocent maiden with a renewed hymen who can no longer even imagine letting a man sully her nether regions, unless he is the one-true love (aka douchebag) who broke her heart months or years earlier.
This heroine doesn't go on a few chaste dates and let a potential new man give her a peck on the cheek or the lips. No. My girl sets up some necessary boundaries for herself and sticks to them, then gets her freak on with the new guy. And the cherry on top?
Half a star upgrade for a heroine who moves the hell on! I honestly debated on upping the star rating even more because it's so freakin' rare - even though readers have been screaming for it for decades. But alas, the present tense storytelling doesn't let me rate this higher than 4 stars. It really was a distraction for me.
That being said, even with that obstacle, this author managed to hook me into a cheating book and love the heroine and borderline forgive the hero. I say borderline because I'm not as nice as romance heroines. He cheated because REASONS, but screw that, he still acted like a douche and I enjoyed seeing him suffer for the bulk of the book.
So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this book and the summary intrigued me. That just doesn't happen. At least it hasn't since I intentionally read my last cheating book more than 15 years ago. But I was reading another book and just having trouble getting into it (no fault of that book - just setting it aside to better get in the mood to read it) and this one intrigued me enough to make me borrow it on KU. Yet my gash in the concrete softened enough to be a line in the sand. And even that became just a little bit blurry. After all, the cheating is right there in the summary, so I know exactly what I'm getting into.
The fact that it literally happens from the first chapter/first page worked to its advantage, since I was not emotionally invested in these characters at all. If we had gotten the entire 5 month relationship and then the cheating scene mid book, that would've been a no-go for me. But being brand new characters, it wasn't heartbreaking, beyond my "solidarity sister" moment with the heroine.
If I was a fair person, I would say that the title of the book fits and this doesn't fully describe a traditional cheating scenario. And while it does blur the lines that they weren't official, he was deceitful, which means he knew he was in the wrong.
In all honesty, this was a 3 star book. Nothing in my rating reflects the cheating - I knew what I was getting into, and I find it ridiculous when reviewers rate a book because they didn't like something that is clearly mentioned in the summary or trigger warnings.
However, it would've definitely benefitted from an editor. There were some typos - not a ton, but enough that I noticed (including a name that is spelled wrong at one point and that really bugs me). There were also some speech patterns and repeated uses of names in conversations that were far from natural. So I took a star off for that.
The other star was because, while I love books written in third person - I feel it's a dying art form - this book was written in third person and....present tense.
Present. Freaking. Tense.
I felt like I was being narrated to the entire time, so it was a distraction and hard to focus throughout the entire book. To make it worse - I had an episode of "Hoarding" playing in the background, so the narrator's voice on the show became the narrator of my personal read-through. Go ahead and laugh. I know I did.
But, if you're paying close attention, you see that I've given the book 4 stars when I've clearly explained my rating being 3. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. No need to badger me.
I had to up my rating for two very important reasons (mild spoilers to follow):
1) The girl he cheated with was immediately pissed off on Jess' behalf. She actually defended her more in that moment than Jess did, herself. And then she pushed for friendship later in the book. While I'm not opposed to female characters being an issue to the main character (without the cheating aspect, I love me some OW drama, so long as the OW gets what's coming to her) this was such a lovely change of pace that it was deserving of a half a star upgrade. Let's normalize all of this! And my second reason...
2) The heroine moved on!
To the author, my heartfelt: THANK YOU!!!! While we're on the subject of normalizing behaviors, let's put this example as a headliner on the list in the darkest permanent marker. While I, admittedly, don't read cheating books, I do read books that feature betrayal and/or second chance romance and I am so beyond sick of the manwhore that sluts around during a breakup while the heroine saves herself as the pristinely innocent maiden with a renewed hymen who can no longer even imagine letting a man sully her nether regions, unless he is the one-true love (aka douchebag) who broke her heart months or years earlier.
This heroine doesn't go on a few chaste dates and let a potential new man give her a peck on the cheek or the lips. No. My girl sets up some necessary boundaries for herself and sticks to them, then gets her freak on with the new guy. And the cherry on top?
Half a star upgrade for a heroine who moves the hell on! I honestly debated on upping the star rating even more because it's so freakin' rare - even though readers have been screaming for it for decades. But alas, the present tense storytelling doesn't let me rate this higher than 4 stars. It really was a distraction for me.
That being said, even with that obstacle, this author managed to hook me into a cheating book and love the heroine and borderline forgive the hero. I say borderline because I'm not as nice as romance heroines. He cheated because REASONS, but screw that, he still acted like a douche and I enjoyed seeing him suffer for the bulk of the book.
April 9, 2024
Let me sum this up in 1 sentence:
Hot mess on a collision course for a train wreak….
Hot mess on a collision course for a train wreak….
June 25, 2024
Two stars feels more accurate to how I felt about the book since I had to force myself to finish it, but I wanted to give at least three because it was nice to see a cheatee get to move on entirely while the cheater remains celibate. I guess I've read too many of the inverse and it lowers my standards.
I just think Kade is a gross hero with his continued insistence that he didn't cheat. The last time he thinks it to himself on page is 59%, but he may continue to believe it beyond that. And Jess brings up the fabulous point that It just never felt satisfyingly addressed. And the book tells us that Jess seeing them together was traumatic, but it was constantly treated with such low angst that I didn't feel that Jess was all that affected by it.
There's also some interesting parallels between the three relationships (Sam and Kade, Kade and Jess, and Jess and Landry), one the book points out but the other went unspoken. Kade treats Jess the way Sam treated him and he realizes this when he talks about his past, but Jess also treated Landry the way Kade treated her when she thinks
This segues into a pitfall that a lot of these books have of retconning really hard in the last third of the book. They have to make the other man cartoonishly bad and then ignore or rewrite history on the wrong-doings of the hero. #JusticeForLandry Suddenly Landry is this misogynist who thinks all women are whores, and even more suddenly Kade has "never lied to [Jess] before. He's skirted around the truth or omitted information, but he's never flat out lied." Oh, word? Maybe we should ask his cousin Lena about that to be sure.
I do also just wanna include this typo because it threw me off so bad and shows that Landry never had a chance:
I just think Kade is a gross hero with his continued insistence that he didn't cheat. The last time he thinks it to himself on page is 59%, but he may continue to believe it beyond that. And Jess brings up the fabulous point that It just never felt satisfyingly addressed. And the book tells us that Jess seeing them together was traumatic, but it was constantly treated with such low angst that I didn't feel that Jess was all that affected by it.
There's also some interesting parallels between the three relationships (Sam and Kade, Kade and Jess, and Jess and Landry), one the book points out but the other went unspoken. Kade treats Jess the way Sam treated him and he realizes this when he talks about his past, but Jess also treated Landry the way Kade treated her when she thinks
This segues into a pitfall that a lot of these books have of retconning really hard in the last third of the book. They have to make the other man cartoonishly bad and then ignore or rewrite history on the wrong-doings of the hero. #JusticeForLandry Suddenly Landry is this misogynist who thinks all women are whores, and even more suddenly Kade has "never lied to [Jess] before. He's skirted around the truth or omitted information, but he's never flat out lied." Oh, word? Maybe we should ask his cousin Lena about that to be sure.
I do also just wanna include this typo because it threw me off so bad and shows that Landry never had a chance:
September 24, 2024
I don’t know where to begin.
The book is written in 3d person present tense which is weird. It looks like something from a script that has to be edited.
Then the plot and the character.
The only person I liked was the other woman.
All the rest are trash.
The heroine has been dating the hero for five months, she knows his family, she goes to his flat to take him some soup since he told her they couldn’t meet since he was sick, but she find him having sex with another woman, a woman who called him days before and he told her she was his cousin.
The hero denies the heroine is his gf, and says they’re only dating unofficially. lol. These people are in their 30s I suppose. Ow cries, is angry and apologizes with the heroine. She didn’t know she was the ow because the hero picked her up at a bar and she thought he was free.
The hero doesn’t try to stop the heroine and he acts disappointed that both women (not the heroine) are leaving. Days later he talks to the heroine and tells her he’s sorry she misunderstood and the heroine tells him she’s not the casual kind of woman.
Weeks later ow introduces her to a nice man that the heroine decides to date and has sex with after two months. That’s when the hero decides he wants her back, and he’s ready for commitment.
So he ruins her date with om and the heroine, instead of kicking him out and going out with her new date, basically tells them she doesn’t know what she wants. Of course om is angry, but the author couldn’t leave it like that, she has to make om a complete asshole, a borderline psycho and maybe even an abusive one. The fight they have with the hero towards the end was like being back to their early teens. Embarrassing.
The hero explains his issues because he once were engaged and found out his fiancé had been cheating with his bff for years. So what? He basically behaved in the same way because he cheated on his gf. I hated him. He was hypocritical and selfish, even when the heroine explained how he should have behaved and what he did wrong he still doesn’t admit he’s an asshole cheater who did what his ex did. Had he really been honest with his intention that they weren’t exclusive he should have told her that he was seeing other women and not lying to her about ow being his cousin. But as the pathetic little loser he was, he wanted both his gf and other women too. He says ow was the first one but of course had the heroine not found out about them he would have kept seeing ow and others. The reasons the heroine gives for choosing him are pathetic. Because he sends her gifts and flowers, because he helps her with dishes, and he’s nice. Well, other men are just like that and they’re not cheating liars and assholes. Jesus these women. How low is their bar? How low are they ready to settle? And making other man a psycho and an abusive asshole is a cheap way to make the heroine choose the less stinky of the two shits. Please, spare me.
No, I don’t care how he groveled and how he changed he’s simply not worthy. Being cheated on apparently didn’t teach him anything at all. He should have known what kind of hurt he could cause her, and how wrong it was. If he didn’t mean to be exclusive he should have been honest, but he couldn’t even do that so I’m sorry but he deserved his ex cheating on him with his bff.
Eventually I could not even feel any angst because the heroine was a pathetic doormat who took him back as if he were the last man on earth.
Yuck. And them being all friends with ow and her new man was weird as fugg.
The book is written in 3d person present tense which is weird. It looks like something from a script that has to be edited.
Then the plot and the character.
The only person I liked was the other woman.
All the rest are trash.
The heroine has been dating the hero for five months, she knows his family, she goes to his flat to take him some soup since he told her they couldn’t meet since he was sick, but she find him having sex with another woman, a woman who called him days before and he told her she was his cousin.
The hero denies the heroine is his gf, and says they’re only dating unofficially. lol. These people are in their 30s I suppose. Ow cries, is angry and apologizes with the heroine. She didn’t know she was the ow because the hero picked her up at a bar and she thought he was free.
The hero doesn’t try to stop the heroine and he acts disappointed that both women (not the heroine) are leaving. Days later he talks to the heroine and tells her he’s sorry she misunderstood and the heroine tells him she’s not the casual kind of woman.
Weeks later ow introduces her to a nice man that the heroine decides to date and has sex with after two months. That’s when the hero decides he wants her back, and he’s ready for commitment.
So he ruins her date with om and the heroine, instead of kicking him out and going out with her new date, basically tells them she doesn’t know what she wants. Of course om is angry, but the author couldn’t leave it like that, she has to make om a complete asshole, a borderline psycho and maybe even an abusive one. The fight they have with the hero towards the end was like being back to their early teens. Embarrassing.
The hero explains his issues because he once were engaged and found out his fiancé had been cheating with his bff for years. So what? He basically behaved in the same way because he cheated on his gf. I hated him. He was hypocritical and selfish, even when the heroine explained how he should have behaved and what he did wrong he still doesn’t admit he’s an asshole cheater who did what his ex did. Had he really been honest with his intention that they weren’t exclusive he should have told her that he was seeing other women and not lying to her about ow being his cousin. But as the pathetic little loser he was, he wanted both his gf and other women too. He says ow was the first one but of course had the heroine not found out about them he would have kept seeing ow and others. The reasons the heroine gives for choosing him are pathetic. Because he sends her gifts and flowers, because he helps her with dishes, and he’s nice. Well, other men are just like that and they’re not cheating liars and assholes. Jesus these women. How low is their bar? How low are they ready to settle? And making other man a psycho and an abusive asshole is a cheap way to make the heroine choose the less stinky of the two shits. Please, spare me.
No, I don’t care how he groveled and how he changed he’s simply not worthy. Being cheated on apparently didn’t teach him anything at all. He should have known what kind of hurt he could cause her, and how wrong it was. If he didn’t mean to be exclusive he should have been honest, but he couldn’t even do that so I’m sorry but he deserved his ex cheating on him with his bff.
Eventually I could not even feel any angst because the heroine was a pathetic doormat who took him back as if he were the last man on earth.
Yuck. And them being all friends with ow and her new man was weird as fugg.
July 30, 2024
From the blurb, this story sounded perfect for me. But once I started it, well...This Hero (Is he really, though?) was kind of a dick. And not in the cruel/rude way. He is more of a dick in the "He's screwing any woman who will open her legs to him" kind of way. He he is literally screwing 4 others at the same time. The dude is a total walking STD,
And at the same time, he spends most of his free time with just the heroine in this story. These two leave their shit at each other's homes, date often, cook at each other's places, and pretty much act like a couple. He's okay with screwing multiple partners this whole time and when he lies about being so sick he has to cancel on of his dates with heroine, she (soup in in hand) walks in on him screwing someone else. I love cheating stories usually, but this one just had such an ick factor to it. He's unrepentant, and is actually stunned that heroine isn't okay with him banging all of his side pieces. I mean, OBVIOUSLY! They haven't had the couples talk, so she should KNOW he's out fucking other women. For me, there's really no coming back from that. How's she ever going to trust him ever again after that?
And he's only interested in her for real when he sees her with another man.
Then there's Jess. She's hooking up with her new dude, who is into her, but she's pissy at him all the time. For watching sports, not helping her clean, etc etc.
The story just went downhill from there. I just could not give less of a shit about either of these wonderful characters.
July 28, 2024
Oh I dont know: Spoilers
I am just not sure about this. It started out alright but went kind of down hill for a bit. There was a pretty good balance of thought life and dialogue. I know that a lot of people are blaise about sex but it just felt weird reading about Jess sleeping with someone else and only after a couple months while knowing she isn't over Kade. Here is a woman who, yes was hurt, but she had some red flags that she ignored and slept with a guy she didn't have strong feelings for. I don't know it just didn't feel like it was something this character should have done, especially so soon. The author should have stuck with her not being really upset about the new guy sleeping with someone else instead of later her telling someone that it hurt when she found out. We want to read about the connection between two people that even when hopeless and hurt, one can't explain why one holds on. I don't know. I didn't care for that part. And on a side note, to match the selfish guy, the sex should have been constant with his character and not been good. Could have been a better read.
I am just not sure about this. It started out alright but went kind of down hill for a bit. There was a pretty good balance of thought life and dialogue. I know that a lot of people are blaise about sex but it just felt weird reading about Jess sleeping with someone else and only after a couple months while knowing she isn't over Kade. Here is a woman who, yes was hurt, but she had some red flags that she ignored and slept with a guy she didn't have strong feelings for. I don't know it just didn't feel like it was something this character should have done, especially so soon. The author should have stuck with her not being really upset about the new guy sleeping with someone else instead of later her telling someone that it hurt when she found out. We want to read about the connection between two people that even when hopeless and hurt, one can't explain why one holds on. I don't know. I didn't care for that part. And on a side note, to match the selfish guy, the sex should have been constant with his character and not been good. Could have been a better read.
August 10, 2024
I usually avoid cheating books like the plague, but I read this one.
Third person POV
Strangely, you end up liking Lena (girl she found in the kitchen with her BF) and even the cheating BF (who wasn’t officially her BF), Kade.
I thought the new relationship the FMC had after her breakup (that wasn’t technically a breakup) was kind of a stretch. The first and only time she tries to move on, she does it with a caricature of a human that is beyond unbelievable.
We eventually learn why Kade did what he did, and even though I kind of liked him by the end, I don’t see how Jess could ever be with him again after seeing him with Lena. I just can’t. That cannot be undone. So while it was a decent grovel, I wasn’t buying the reconciliation.
I think the author did a good job writing all of the emotions Jess, the FMC, experienced.
I also loved that Jess wasn’t celibate after she moved on. I also really loved that Kade got to see the shadows of her and Landry be intimate. I hope it was burned into his fictional retinas forever. Kade was also celibate. All of those factors made me give this a 3 vs a 2 because the Landry character was unreal and over the top.
Third person POV
Strangely, you end up liking Lena (girl she found in the kitchen with her BF) and even the cheating BF (who wasn’t officially her BF), Kade.
I thought the new relationship the FMC had after her breakup (that wasn’t technically a breakup) was kind of a stretch. The first and only time she tries to move on, she does it with a caricature of a human that is beyond unbelievable.
We eventually learn why Kade did what he did, and even though I kind of liked him by the end, I don’t see how Jess could ever be with him again after seeing him with Lena. I just can’t. That cannot be undone. So while it was a decent grovel, I wasn’t buying the reconciliation.
I think the author did a good job writing all of the emotions Jess, the FMC, experienced.
I also loved that Jess wasn’t celibate after she moved on. I also really loved that Kade got to see the shadows of her and Landry be intimate. I hope it was burned into his fictional retinas forever. Kade was also celibate. All of those factors made me give this a 3 vs a 2 because the Landry character was unreal and over the top.
June 15, 2024
I do, but I don’t…..
So, the general premise of this book, I liked. I like a good cheating plot, and this one felt like a good lower angst version. I also felt like the grovel matched the betrayal here, which is always a bonus. I ended up liking the MC in the end, which is a feat when reading a cheater story.
Here’s what I didn’t like.
I didn’t love the third person, present tense. It felt weird and stilted. I also didn’t love that we would read a scene, and the. A few pages later one of the characters would be rehashing that scene to someone else and basically repeating it all word for word…..so it was like reading several parts of the story twice!
This book would make a good entry level cheater read if you’re hesitant about the trope. The writing just maybe isn’t my style, but I enjoyed the meat of the story. Wouldn’t read again, but I would recommend to others who enjoy cheating romances.
So, the general premise of this book, I liked. I like a good cheating plot, and this one felt like a good lower angst version. I also felt like the grovel matched the betrayal here, which is always a bonus. I ended up liking the MC in the end, which is a feat when reading a cheater story.
Here’s what I didn’t like.
I didn’t love the third person, present tense. It felt weird and stilted. I also didn’t love that we would read a scene, and the. A few pages later one of the characters would be rehashing that scene to someone else and basically repeating it all word for word…..so it was like reading several parts of the story twice!
This book would make a good entry level cheater read if you’re hesitant about the trope. The writing just maybe isn’t my style, but I enjoyed the meat of the story. Wouldn’t read again, but I would recommend to others who enjoy cheating romances.
July 27, 2024
1. Kade was a cheater. If he really thought they weren’t “official” and it was ok for him to be sleeping with other women, he wouldn’t have felt that he needed to lie to Jess about Lena being his “cousin” and about being sick so that he could break his date with Jess to sleep with Lena.
2. Kade wasn’t just a cheater; he was also a liar. He admitted to himself that he had deliberately let Jess believe that they were excusive because he knew that he would lose her if he told her that he was sleeping with other women.
3. The only reason that Kade was finally honest with Jess about Sam was because she still wasn’t willing to give him a second chance and he was desperate. Otherwise, I think he would have kept it from her.
4. Kade only agreed to tell Jess about Sam if she promised to never speak of it again. That felt like a huge red flag; I think he was still WAY too hung up on her.
2. Kade wasn’t just a cheater; he was also a liar. He admitted to himself that he had deliberately let Jess believe that they were excusive because he knew that he would lose her if he told her that he was sleeping with other women.
3. The only reason that Kade was finally honest with Jess about Sam was because she still wasn’t willing to give him a second chance and he was desperate. Otherwise, I think he would have kept it from her.
4. Kade only agreed to tell Jess about Sam if she promised to never speak of it again. That felt like a huge red flag; I think he was still WAY too hung up on her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 24, 2024
I went into this book understanding it was about a betrayal and a man wanting to earn his forgiveness. I actually read the entire thing and didn't skim. That being said... I loved it. Please do not go into these books if you're just gonna complain about them being about exactly what they were described to be about.
Here is what I loved.... I loved the honest way it happened. I loved the reality that it took time for Kade to realize how he was in the wrong and how he missed out on something amazing. I loved his thought process and I absolutely believe his past is an understandable reason for what he did. Not an excuse, but a reason. He also took that reason and learned from it. He recognized his mistake eventually and took responsibility for it. Yes it took time. He was an idiot at first because that's what makes these books great. Some people can recognize a mistake right away and some it takes time. I loved this book and believe the author did an incredible job with the characters.
Here is what I loved.... I loved the honest way it happened. I loved the reality that it took time for Kade to realize how he was in the wrong and how he missed out on something amazing. I loved his thought process and I absolutely believe his past is an understandable reason for what he did. Not an excuse, but a reason. He also took that reason and learned from it. He recognized his mistake eventually and took responsibility for it. Yes it took time. He was an idiot at first because that's what makes these books great. Some people can recognize a mistake right away and some it takes time. I loved this book and believe the author did an incredible job with the characters.
April 4, 2024
Not terrible but not that great. I felt like the story overall wasn't fleshed out well. Kade's character was written very shallow, and the "cheating" aspect wasn't ever directly addressed from his POV which left a lot lacking. Did he truly like Lena or was he simply using her? What did he do with her on their dates, was he sincerely investing time in with her? Was he actually interested in her? Did he have to force himself or talk himself into smexing her or was he totally into it with no regard to Jess at all? His feelings about her were all just glossed over in an indirect way and left many questions without answers. The whole storyline felt basic and generic. Overall, just not a very in-depth book and we are "told" so much instead of shown. This was my first time reading this author, not sure I'll try another book.
August 9, 2024
2.75*
Creo que la ejecución esta mal,capaz hubiera funcionado si ella lo hubiera superado y despues de un tiempo se reencontraban.El hecho de que salga con alguien mas (sabiendo que ambos quieren algo serio) teniendo aun sentimientos por el Ml estuvo mal.Aunque el OM era tremenda porqueria de hombre.
Hablando de si es o no infidelidad yo creo si lo es ,por las actitudes,acciones que el tenia con ella.
Al final me gusto el libro y la pareja,hasta me llego a caer el Ml mas que la Fl,lo malo fue lo que escribi en el primer parrafo
Creo que la ejecución esta mal,capaz hubiera funcionado si ella lo hubiera superado y despues de un tiempo se reencontraban.El hecho de que salga con alguien mas (sabiendo que ambos quieren algo serio) teniendo aun sentimientos por el Ml estuvo mal.Aunque el OM era tremenda porqueria de hombre.
Hablando de si es o no infidelidad yo creo si lo es ,por las actitudes,acciones que el tenia con ella.
Al final me gusto el libro y la pareja,hasta me llego a caer el Ml mas que la Fl,lo malo fue lo que escribi en el primer parrafo
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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