readbykatherine's Reviews (90)

emotional funny hopeful fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The Love Hypothesis

Ali Hazelwood

DID NOT FINISH: 63%

Usually I love a good idiots to lovers trope, but in The Love Hypothesis, the trope falls flat because only the FMC is the idiot in this book rather than both of them. 

Then there's Adam. I get that he's based off of Kylo Ren, but other than that he has very little personality outside of being the standoffish and rude professor. 
emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Love Flushed wasn't horrible, but it also wasn't great. 

As this book is a continuation of the All Access series, I knew that Annie and Lincoln were exes who still had feelings for each other, but damn! I was not expecting the soap opera levels of drama that were revealed in this book that bordered on unbelievable. 

It is revealed half way through the book that Lincoln's mother, a conservative politician,  was concerned how her son's relationship with Annie would effect her campaign. To get them to breakup, she threatened Lincoln with his brother's healthcare bills. (Theo, Lincoln's younger brother was in accident with their alcoholic father that caused him to become an amputee.) So, Lincoln having to comply to save his younger brother ghosts Annie on the same day they had originally planning to elope on. Then when Lincoln finally reconnects with Annieshe is too hurt to listen to him and ghosts him back. This horrible miscommunication last almost ten years before the start of this book! Are you fucking kidding me!


In short, the idea was good, but the execution fell flat for me.

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The series just gets better and better with each book. I loved Brie and Felix!

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I really liked the concept of this book–exploring accessible and inclusive kink—but the execution fell flat.

It felt like the kink scenes were holding together two separate stories that the author was trying to tell. One of the stories was of a disabled sexologist discovering that she enjoys being submissive and that it doesn’t detract from her achievements or abilities while the other story was of a man letting go of the walls he’d built up after he’d been cheated on and manipulated by an older partner. I would have liked the book to be a bit longer to wrap up the loose ends before jumping to the main couple married in the epilogue.


I did really enjoy Frankie’s group of friends and would still consider reading further in the series for them.

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Skin of a Sinner

Avina St. Graves

DID NOT FINISH: 65%

Dnfed at 65%. 

Dubious consent happens several times throughout this book (what I've read at least) and it is completely unnecessary to the plot of the story. 

I understand that the author was trying to show that that both the FMC and the MMC have a dark side that is drawn to one another, but dubious consent isn't the way to go about it because at the end of the day dubious consent is just rape in disguise.

Dubious consent leads to victim blaming (i.e. the FMC was aroused so it was ok for the MMC to finger fuck her, at the scene of the crime, after just brutally torturing and killing her potential rapist.) 

There are crimes worse than death and I cannot root for the leading man when he rapes the FMC all while declaring his love for her while doing it.

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