Edi's Reviews > Bad Reputation

So many competing factors

I have to start by explaining how I rate books. I can’t wrap my hard around giving most of them five stars. There’s nowhere to go from there! What makes more sense to my brain is 1 star = a horrible book, 2 = pretty good but also contains one or more things that made me “downvote” it a little, 3 = a solid, average, good book (the vast majority of my ratings), 4 = above average with some really impressive aspects, and 5 = spectacular, one of the best books I’ve ever read.

I love a good “romcomish” book, but I really, really don’t like explicit descriptions of sex. I always check the reviews carefully before I choose any book that sounds like it even MIGHT contain that sort of thing, and then I avoid them. I don’t mind if other people want to read them but it’s just not for me. If I accidentally get one despite my efforts, I never give it more than 2 stars so I’ll remember later that it had stuff I didn’t like and not re-read or recommend it.

Although I didn’t see it mentioned in any reviews at that time, this book DOES contain explicit sex. However, I can’t bring myself to give it 2 stars, and this is why: the character of Cole and the way he interacts with the world is so incredibly real to me that I have to give credit where it’s due and bump this one back ip.

I happen to have a dear friend who is a fairly famous actor, what I call “B+ list”, on the cusp of the A list just like Cole is in this book. Also like Cole, he is a truly good, kind man who values his integrity deeply. And I swear some of the things Cole said and did and felt in this story could easily have been copied precisely from my friend. It’s remarkable and deserves recognition.

So yeah. By my rules this ends up with 3 stars, which is not bad at all. The sex knocks it down a little, but the incredible attention to character pulls it back up. As I said: Credit where credit is due.