didnt like this book and skimmed most of it, but damnit, I need to read the next one.
Clunky and ultimately unsexy
From the blurb, this book is right up my alley.
The beginning is super clunky with the backstory being “explained “ via unnecessary dialogue, You know the drill, “Oh, I feel so bad about this because of the childhood abuse I suffered at the hands of my mother and Ive only gotten over it because I went to therapy.
” Second person, “its true, you know how insecure you are because your mom never told you about your dad, but take heart because you are so hard working, graduating from school early.
” Yeah. There are a number of repeated phrases and some continuity issues, and some hilariously misused idioms, Im not sure why no one these days knows how to use an adverb, but this author also lacks the skill.
So, the beginning is sloggy, It starts getting better once the backstory is done, Then the most unsexy trope comes along to slap you in the face, Im turned on by being physically and emotionally threatened, Yeah. There are amazing ways you can work physical dominance into sexy times and there are super hot ways you can work power dynamics into sexy times and none of those ways are used here.
Its just your basic, Im going to come because some sexy, jerk stranger is treating me like a.
Anyway, Im out. Not for me. Sad, because I was really in the mood for this kind of story, As soon as I began this book, I knew it was going to be a mess of a series.
Thererebooks and from all the filler written in this one book, I can tell half the books arent necessary.
Grown ass adults with important jobs bullying another woman because they think she is a gold digger when she was exactly raised as them.
Heroine who is the reincarnation of a small kitten because she has the backbone of a butterfly,
The author writes the less subtle hints: the flight attendant, Luke, Brads PA I already forgot her name, the completely random description of a man seated in the waiting room of the designer building like please make an effort.
No one gives a shit about the abandoned house and therere pages and pages of its description.
No one gives a shit about the vampire count either, Why bother with this subplot when you already ass write the main plot Seriously FOCUS,
What kind of a shitty P, I. Declan has hired if he cant tell him right away Harlows job She went to college, she graduated and shes been doing her job for a whole year at the farm, how incompetent you can be to not know that!
Jacinta reminds me of Nan from the Rosemary Beach series by Abby Glines.
Petulant, spoiled and insecure woman who has the balls of her brother in her Chanel bag,
Brad and the grandparents lack of discipline towards the children theyre fuckingyears old but are discussed like babies would make me take a one way ticket to the East coast if I was Harlow.
Once again, she is a passive and kinda boring sorry not sorry character,
Finally, what the fuck is in the water if everybody is in a polyamory relationship Why Nana wants to push Harlow to the guys when they know each other forminutes A disfunctional family is not a cute trait.
And ewwwww to Oliver and Holden, Even if theyre not blood related, they were raised together since they were kids so making them a couple is a big no.
Ohmygod. My heart hurts right now, I don't read bully romance, I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary, After finishing up the Guardian books and wanting more from the author and having to wait for book, I figured I'd give Abandoned Girl a shot.
I admit it, I was hooked, Maybe it's the fact that she's a stunt horse trainer for the movies, . . or that she wants to be an exotic animal vet, . . or that she's been so damaged by her mother and yet manages rises above all of that, Or the insane chemistry snuck in there, Whatever it was, I was rooting hard for Harlow from the beginning,
Having no idea how bully romance was going to play out, I was wary to see how she was going to meet the "siblings".
It was as much of a slap in the face as I was expecting, But Harlow not only manages to hold her own in the face of adversity, but manages to see their humanity and genuine goodness despite their flaws and stabs at her.
She wants so much to be loved, My heart about cracked with hers by the conclusion of the first arc,
A delicate plucking of the heartstrings, I'm looking forward to the next book, Speechless
This book, . . Wow. Utter brilliance. Dark contemporary RH romance that is not YA or academy, This book is about ayear old who never knew her father and discovering who her family is after an incident with her biological mother.
Harlow had grown up in a foster home due to her mom using drugs, She was loved and cared for at this family but still experienced bullying and self doubt, She strove to make something of herself without any handouts, She is interesting and we'll rounded, Interests that are not common and fun to read about, She however is faced with a lot of hatred and cruelty as her adoptive siblings do not want her there.
Some seem to be scared she will ruin things and upset the status quo, Others are fearful she is only after the family money, They all have different reasons but they seem to stem from fear,
There are three that seem to hate her the most: Jaxon, Jacinta and Declan, Jacinta is cruel and selfish, It's going to be hard for me to like her, We get a brief glance at Kai and Oliver too, They don't seem to be as weary of her and want to accept her, but also don't do anything to stop their siblings.
Not much on Holden or James yet, I like the friends she is beginning to make and glad that she has them, I was crying at the end, The emotions keep off the page and pierce your soul, I'm so intrigued to learn more of the story, It's very captivating. It's intense at times, but very well written with great character arcs, Multiple POVs. Slow burn at the moment but building with relationship development, Sexual tension out the wazoo, Definitely ready for more. Read this book and devour it! is a very intense book, I read the whole night to finish it,
Its a new adult bully romance,
The Heroine is aroundyears old,
Harlows birth mom is a drug addict and an abusive mother, But luckily her mother worked vor Melinda and Chuck when she was born and they had a daughter the same age like Harlow, called Maxine.
Both girls became best friends,
Harlow is a vet and worked in Chuck and Melindas family business, training and treating horses,
But when her mother dies, the secret who is her Dad is revealed and she is thrown into another journey, the journey to get to know her Dad and his adopted seven Kid, who are around her age.
And this turns out to be very complicated,
I love that Harlow is mature and wants to develop that connection she never had with a biological parent, and wont let the siblings block that path for her.
I really like her character and honesty, Although she has her vulnerable moments, she doesnt let them tear her down and is a strong woman.
Her junkie mum passes away and she discovers her birth father is a billionaire, Enter inhot adopted brothers andjealous adopted sister and that's when the story really begins, This is a slow burn but there is a lot of sexual tension and it keeps you wanting more and more.
The characters are well developed and you know there is hidden story's about each of them that will be shown later in the series.
IT WAS GOOOD. family drama and all. it was really entertaining af, I hated giving this book andreview, The story itself is fantastic, the world building is great, the characters are fleshed out and we learn a little about a few of the siblings backstories.
Why does it get astar then
This is why:
This is a bully romance so I expected some truly epic but subtle, ways that these siblings were going to try to convince Harlow to pack her bags.
What I got was petty high school bullshit from people who are ostensibly adults and heads of their own businesses.
The guys and Jacinta were all adopted out of terrible situations, yet when it comes to Harlow who had life far worse and for far longer, they give zero fucks.
In fact, they think throughout the entire book that they are entitled to their hatred because somehow Harlow is going to screw up their family dynamic and these grown ass adults cant seem to reason out that their actions against Harlow create a self fulfilling prophecy.
It is stated more than once that the adopted kids all but worship their father and yet somehow no one seems to realize if they hurt Harlow they are hurting their Dad and pissing him off No one is that stupid especially not when there are seven brains involved.
The thing that really takes the cake for me is just how determined some of these characters are to believe that Harlow is the one at fault for all the tension and problems within the family.
Cause blame the victim right Making childish choices and then continuing to plot the deserved revenge against Harlow can you feel my sarcasm here makes all the sense in the world wouldnt you agree Especially when you have angered and disappointed your father and grandparents too.
Hopefully in the next book well start to see some redemption arcs coming and some scheming that is more adult than teen.
If not, this whole series is going to be one giant train wreck, Ive given this.rounded up to. It was a great but but I had quite a couple of problems with it, First of all it was very slow paced, I found the start very boring as nothing really happened at the start, Personally I think the description makes it seem as though the book will be more fast paced, but she doesnt even meet her father until aboutof the way into the book.
My other problem was some of the characters, At the start I really didnt like Maxine, Like what kind of friend is friends with the people that are mean to you, She also seemed super duplicitous and even snobby, I did manage to tolerate her nearer the end when she kind of disappeared from the story, I also despise Jacinta. I know that I am supposed to hate her but I am pretty sure that somewhere in the next books she will be forgiven by the main character.
The author also tries to make the reader sympathise with her by showing her point of view, This doesnt work for me though and her POV makes her sound even more spoilt and childish, Harlow, have some fin self respect,
After everything she has survived, Harlow should have known better than to stick with such obviously abusive people.
And if her dad and grandparents cared, they wouldn't have pushed the issue,
It doesn't matter WHY someone abuses, People are responsible for their own actions, And the worst one was Jacinta, who got out of her own abusive house atand could barely remember it.
I'm freaking sick of books making abuse okay because 'reasons, ' Purposefully destroying someone's life like that is never okay, Also, how old are these aholes Personally, I would have flipped them the bird and met them in court.
No modelling contract means they couldn't use her image at all, much less in that way, It could have been worse, Born to a junkie mother, Harlow was "adopted" by a wonderful, wealthy family, She was loved even if she never quite fit into their world, Now a graduate with a veterinary degree, Harlow is set to follow her dreams, Instead, her mother dies and the mystery of her father is revealed, Harlow has a family. However, when she flies across the country to meet her father, it's apparent her seven stepsiblings do not want her there.
And led by her sister, they will make sure she doesn't stay,
I love RH and my favorite subgenre is contemporary, I also believe it's the most difficult to make believable, It's one thing to have fated mates in the paranormal realm it's quite another to create a story where multiple desirable guys willingly agree to share one girl.
One night, sureforever, no way, So contemporary RH needs the perfect setup and the perfect cast, Then you need to establish individual relationship dynamics along with an overall harem relationship, Chemistry is tricky oneonone to make it work in a polyamorous relationship takes talent, So, when I find a book/series where all of my requirements are met, I get excited, This book got me excited!
Harlow is the key to its early success, She is the proper amount of 'damaged' with childhood trauma, so she is interesting, She is intelligent and hardworking, She is beautiful and friendly but socially inept, She is also strong and resilient, Her new situation with her new family feels natural, not contrived, It allowed for immediate tension and mistrust, The author didn't need to make the characters jump through hoops to find a reason to dislike Harlow.
The bullying is obvious and onetime extreme but not ridiculous, It's believable. And so far, none of the guys have gone so far, there's no coming back, To me, it's the perfect setup for the future,
The side characters are fantastic, I love Harlow's foster parents, her dad seems okay, if maybe a little weak, and I adore Nana and Poppy.
Her brothers are a mixed bag who I look forward to getting to know better, Oliver is an early favorite of mine, I'm not sure why Thomas and Holden exist since they had absolutely no part in the story, This was my only criticism of the future harem, It's large, there will need to be lots of character development, Jacinta is the only character I disliked, I realize she had a role to play as villain, however, it's going to be difficult to get beyond her flaws.
A character can be a bully, do mean things and still be forgiven depending on the "why", Jacinta's motivation is due to her deepseated insecurities about not being good enough and being replaced, Also, because she is spoiled and doesn't want to share what is hers, She is pathetic. She's been raised most of her life with unconditional love and incredible wealth, So, she believes it was all a lie or she's simply a bi, She controls her brothers using emotional manipulation, she acts knowing it will not only hurt her new sister but her dad and grandparents.
She damages the company brand out of immaturity and spitefulness, And why would Alex and Shane still be interested They seem really nice and she has proven she doesn't deserve them.
I don't see how she is ever trusted, It's a shame, I love female friendships but I am rooting for Harlow to find a female friend outside of the family.
Can't wait to read book two, Here's hoping Harlow gets some revenge, .