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crispycritter's Reviews (516)
This book makes me want to compliment Ice Plant Barbarians 🥴
I love a bad book but there wasn’t much that was entertaining about this other than the premise - a Shrek fanfic.
Donkey is reimagined as Donny - a centaur and attempted rapist. Beck aka Shrek is hot (how could you) and eats people (but only the uggos). And we hate Lord Farquaad aka Lawrence the fiancée because he’s banging his sister. Liona is an atrocious person. Even a hot swamp ogre deserves better than a Liona. What is going on here.
Additional negative stars for the writing - was this written by an 11 year old who accidentally watched a porno? At least it was short.
Donkey is reimagined as Donny - a centaur and attempted rapist. Beck aka Shrek is hot (how could you) and eats people (but only the uggos). And we hate Lord Farquaad aka Lawrence the fiancée because he’s banging his sister. Liona is an atrocious person. Even a hot swamp ogre deserves better than a Liona. What is going on here.
Additional negative stars for the writing - was this written by an 11 year old who accidentally watched a porno? At least it was short.
Big Bull Durham vibes and I LOVE IT.
KT Hoffman's writing was beautiful and I can't wait for their next book.
KT Hoffman's writing was beautiful and I can't wait for their next book.
Seriously more people need to be reading these books. This is like the adult version of the paranormal romances you used to read in middle school and high school. Freaking solid writing. Solid character work. Solid plots. Bangin covers. Cool ass setting. Did you kinda vibe with Bride by Ali Hazlewood? This series is better. So much better. This is what you’re looking for. Can’t wait for the next full length book. I’m just savoring the rest of the novellas until December 2024.
So very bad for so many reasons. The writing (say and one more time, lady). The homophobia. The doormat with no agency and no backbone. The lies on lies on lies.
In 2011 Edith Zimmerman wrote a borderline creepy article about Chris Evans for GQ Magagzine. People joked that if she added 50k words and a happily ever after to the article it'd make a great romance novel. I didn't realize that the GQ article was the (uncredited) inspiration for Funny You Should Ask.
Eighteen pages in and things weren't really clicking for me, which is why I will be eternally grateful for folks who write extensive negative reviews of books. Sometimes it makes you go oh, I will definitely like this. And other times (like here), it's confirmation that I don't need to suffer through a book just to say I finished it.
Eighteen pages in and things weren't really clicking for me, which is why I will be eternally grateful for folks who write extensive negative reviews of books. Sometimes it makes you go oh, I will definitely like this. And other times (like here), it's confirmation that I don't need to suffer through a book just to say I finished it.
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Cat Sebastian is such an incredible writer. I don't think anything can top the perfection that is We Could Be So Good, but dang - this comes close.
Also the baseball - the love of baseball - just oozes off the pages. Many books marketed as sports romances use sports as window dressing: a MMC is a hockey player in name only. It's arbitrary what sport they play, really, it's just an indicator to the reader that they're hot. But baseball matters here, and it's clear how much love Sebastian has for the game.
". . . nobody has ever written about baseball without it being a metaphor of some kind or another . . . Now, though, [Mark] thinks that the game may have earned those metaphors. It's slow and often seems pointless. It's beautiful, when it isn't a mess. There's a vast ocean of mercy for mistakes: getting hits half the time is nothing short of a miracle, and even the best fielders are expected to have errors. The inevitability of failure is built into the game."
Also the baseball - the love of baseball - just oozes off the pages. Many books marketed as sports romances use sports as window dressing: a MMC is a hockey player in name only. It's arbitrary what sport they play, really, it's just an indicator to the reader that they're hot. But baseball matters here, and it's clear how much love Sebastian has for the game.
". . . nobody has ever written about baseball without it being a metaphor of some kind or another . . . Now, though, [Mark] thinks that the game may have earned those metaphors. It's slow and often seems pointless. It's beautiful, when it isn't a mess. There's a vast ocean of mercy for mistakes: getting hits half the time is nothing short of a miracle, and even the best fielders are expected to have errors. The inevitability of failure is built into the game."
My tolerance for poor quality writing in monster romance is high - but this sounds like it was written by a horny adolescent using their best old-timey voice.