bookboredbird

[bookboredbird]

The C*ck Down The Block - Amy Award

★★★★☆

Tropes - miscommunication, best friends to lovers, fake dating, football romance, slow burn, he falls first

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This book was sooo good even with a slow start. Between the curvy FMC and her chickens, that alone is enough to qualify for four stars. The humor throughout the story is amazing as well, with side characters you'll love, a football family full of himbos, and an ex-p*rnstar-mother who sends our FMC exotic *toys*, you really cannot go wrong.

As much as I dislike football as a sport and don't really follow it, it is not a primary point in the story besides the MMC's family who all play for the same team, and mentions of the upcoming season. If you're looking for a sports-heavy story this is not for you, it focuses more on the love story and the FMC's upcoming high school reunion.

The split POV is just a chef's kiss since it shows the growing feelings from our main gal and the resurfacing or intensifying feelings from our main guy. It also shows their more scandalous feelings for each other, especially from the MMC.

The only thing I truly disliked was the weird paparazzi appearances throughout the story. As well as the whole standing-up-to-the-mean-girl speech toward the end(it felt very cringey and made me want to hide my face). WHILE valid points were made, it just felt so Netflix/Wattpad. Apart from the occasional cringe-worthy moment and the strange focus on her once porn making mom, the book was great!

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SPICE!!

praise kink, exhibitionism, restraints, mentioned phone sex. Not the best but still pretty good.

#amy award #book review #bookstagram #booklr #book rating #books #bookblr #books and reading #reading #romance #bestfriends to lovers #slow burn #he falls first #fake dating #football #football lover

[bookboredbird]

Gracefully Yours - Jennifer Chipman

★★★☆☆

Tropes - heavy miscommunication, only one bed, slow burn(?), fake marriage, best friends to lovers, third-act breakup(?)

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Overall, I would have enjoyed this book if it weren't for certain tropes in it, and also the weird out-of-the-blue third-act breakup that wasn't really a breakup. I saw a video on TikTok for this book and thought it looked good but the video overhyped it.

The plot line really drew me in and the idea of a fake marriage pact was very alluring, however, there were various discrepancies in it. Chipman's writing had many grammatical and punctuation errors throughout this novel that were hard to ignore but did not make the story unbearable to read. Personally, it's a bad pet peeve for me but if you do not mind then the story is great.

There were also certain plot holes in the story, but I did not read the first novel before this. These books are marketed as stand-alone but without the knowledge of the plot for the former novel, I think I just missed portions of this novel. Sometimes it would be explained later but at that point it was out of place.

This novel also uses a split POV system where it alternates between chapters. I usually really enjoy this but I felt like with the miscommunication trope being used so heavily, the MCs both had similar thoughts which made the story rather repetitive.

However, I really enjoyed the overall storytelling and how Chipman explored a different type of slow burn. One character knew his feelings but it just took her longer to catch on. But he also built her a library sooo...

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ALSO THERE IS SPICE!!! 🌶️

Mainly it is very vanilla but if you squint there's a bit of a breeding kink and exhibitionism. Also major use of good girl, which lowkey was great. Other than that it's not the best I've read.

#book review #booklr #bookblr #reading #bookstagram #book rating #romance #bestfriends to lovers #only one bed #miscommunication #slow burn #fake marriage #marriage of convenience #college