“Bravery wasn't an identity, so much as a choice.”

If Redford Morgan has a million haters, I'm one of them. If Redford Morgan has ten haters, I'm one of them. If Redford Morgan has one hater, it's me. If Redford Morgan has no haters, then I am no longer on this earth.

I am the first person to admit that I am picky about my romance books, however! I don't think my pickiness was the issue here. Between the phrase "Then he cracked, like a perverted egg" (not the only egg comparison in the book either?) being used in the male POV when he accepted he was sexually attracted to Chloe and the incessant use of the word sticky, this entire book was a sensory nightmare.

Beyond that... you cannot simply have your MMC think "oh, that was perverted" or "oh, thinking like that makes me sound like a pervert" after every creepy thing he thinks and act as though that has redeemed him of how entirely fucking creepy he is. There were so many lines in this book that made this man sound like a nightmare. In fact, his entire POV was a glaring red flag - one that his past relationship trauma did not excuse.

(This isn't mentioning... in public....)

If this book had been simply about Chloe and her family, particularly her grandmother (whom I loved) I probably would have really enjoyed this book. If the romance had been absent, I feel like - beyond being freed from the sticky clutches of Superintendent Pervy Yolk - we might have actually gotten more of Chloe's character development, which I really wanted.

As it was, the focus is so romance based (when I say romance, I mean sex. Any of the "romance" aspects just felt like a side-effect of the fact they were horny) that despite the fact we do see Chloe accept more help, I feel like we missed out on her rediscovering herself. I wanted her to make more friends, to realize that more people could accept her for who she was. Maybe even a realization that some of her past friends just thought she didn't want to be around them anymore because she had never properly communicated her needs. She does have this development, to an extent, but I wanted more.

All of that being said, this book was not for me. I appreciated Chloe's chronic illness rep and thought it was really well done, I loved every second her grandmother was on page, and hated pretty much everything else.