Genre: New Adult, Romance, Dark Romance
Publication Date: August 17, 2023
Rating: 3 Stars
Goodreads Blurb:
When I received the location for the Bonfire, I never imagined I would end up at the house of a champion boxer, let alone be caught in the midst of a tumultuous love triangle between his two hotheaded sons vying for my attention.
Who will I choose?
-Cole, a charming, bring-home-to-the-parents type.
Or
-Blaine, an obnoxious tattooed playboy. Who would gladly watch the world burn.
What’s even worse?
I am attending their college after swearing them off forever. Combine it with the added chaos of having their psycho ex-girlfriend as a roommate, excessive alcohol consumption, and an unwelcome stalker. Making my freshman year of college an epic and unforgettable journey.
Review:
I received an email last week that the author, Juniper Blaire, had sent me a copy of her book, Loved and Hated, which had been on my TBR. This was so unexpected and so very cool that I immediately had to open it and start the journey with Aspen, Cole, and Blaine!
Here are some of the goodies in this one you may enjoy:
– Virgin FMC
– Love Triangle
– Good Girl/Bad Boy
– Sports Romance (Boxing)
– Touch her and 💀
– Stalker
What I loved about the book:
1. This thing was exploding with delicious toxicity!!! This reminded me a lot of Beautiful Disaster, both in plot and in the overall feeling of the book. We have a bad boy that makes you shiver even though you know he is “bad for you”.
2. It had the perfect amount of sexual tension to leave the reader thirsting for more…and then we got it!!
The spice was 🥵🥵🥵 The book was chalked full of naughty good times and Blaire even gave us Ghostface chasing his girlfriend as prey for sexy times on Halloween. That was an auto bump for my rating because, fuck yes and thank you!
3. The MMC, Blaine, was so well written. He truly is what set this thing higher in my mind than Beautiful Disaster. What set him apart was his willingness to be committed to her when she said that’s what she wanted and he was overall a fantastic/romantic partner once they were linked, in my opinion. I couldn’t care less about some of the things in his past before he knew her, and I chalked up his being aggressive about her with other guys to him just being young and not in control of his emotions.
4. I actually really liked Blaine’s nemesis Sebastian. We got a little bit of his backstory and we got to see him support Aspen a bit, and I thought he was sweet in that playboy way. I would definitely read a spin-off story if his was the MMC!!!
5. I would ALSO read a spin-off story involving the parental love triangle from twenty years prior. I WANT THAT TEA SPILT!!!
What I wasn’t a fan of:
1. OH MY GOSH, what long chapters you have my dear!!! I am a short chapter whore and seeing that a chapter was going to take me 40 minutes to read was a nightmare for me personally 😬
2. Unfortunately, I didn’t like most of the characters.
Aspen was super naïve to the point of being annoying at times, which is probably my least favorite FMC characteristic, especially in college romances. I also found her really immature, especially when it came to women in Blaine’s past. Food coloring in toothpaste was a “Really?!?!” moment for me. Also, automatically assuming Blaine’s only long-term girlfriend other than her was a psycho without knowing anything about her? In the name of all that is feminism, what.the.actual.hell. We knew she had the ability to be smart and strong with how many times she straight up walked away from Blaine, but for the most part her disappointing characteristics shone more, which was unfortunate.
Aspen’s best friend Maddie was just an overall terrible person. I don’t recall a single point in the story where I thought she had any good or worthwhile qualities. However, I will hand it to the author that she was very realistic. I’ve definitely known my fair share of Maddies.
If you took Aspen’s and Maddie’s worst characteristics and wrapped them up in one person, that person would be Nicole, one of Blaine’s hookups and Aspen’s roommate. Similar to Maddie, I felt she was realistic, just not a great person.
Maddie’s roommate was the only female character I recall even liking in this book, and she was literally on page for like 3 paragraphs.
Cole was…not my favorite. I don’t want to spoil anything specific, but he’s a blonde guy in a romance book so you know she ain’t ending up with him. Also, what is it about guys in romance novels named Cole that they just turn out to be kinda the worst???
3. While the description in the book was great, the writing at times was disjointed and inconsistent. For example, we didn’t know that Blaine or Cole were into boxing until about halfway through the book, and then it became a big deal. I felt the story could have benefited from this being brought up earlier and incorporated as a plot point from the beginning.
There were also inconsistencies about where people were sitting, what they were wearing, etc. Overall, small things that weren’t a big deal especially if you don’t tend to see those things or they don’t bother you.
4. Nowhere did I see that this book would end on a cliffhanger, so I was a little disappointed that that wasn’t pointed out before I started reading. If I go into a book knowing it’s going to have a cliffhanger, I tend to read it a little differently; slower (so I can remember things for if they are key later) and extra notes are highlighted in the kindle (that I can refer back to when I read the sequel).
Final Thoughts:
If you loved Beautiful Disaster and the After series, you will probably eat this up!
Thank you to Juniper Blaire for gifting me a copy of this book allowing me the privilege to read it. The thoughts and opinions expressed above are honest and my own.
Brittanica Bold's Book Babblings 