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lmurray43's review
5.0
Love and other Phobias is a story about Sophie who has experienced so much in her 23 years. First there is a sexting incident that causes shame on her and her family. There is also her brother who has batteling depression and after the sexting incident ends his own life. For years Sophie has blamed herself for all of the bad things that have happened in her life. She starts a business with her best friend Katie and she is able to do well in life, but her phobias keep her from living a normal life. All of this changes when her building cathes fire and a sexy fireman named Cam has to litterly carry her from the building to save her life.
mooncricketjp's review
2.0
Ok.
I liked this enough to want to finish reading it but, overall, it just didn’t seem realistic. Considering it was a contemporary romance, that just seemed off to me.
I liked this enough to want to finish reading it but, overall, it just didn’t seem realistic. Considering it was a contemporary romance, that just seemed off to me.
prationality's review
1.0
TW: this book has a scene of suicide, discusses the behavior that led to suicide and for added fun a throwaway line of homophobia.
Ok let's start with the one thing I did like - while this does involve the trope of misunderstanding (with a flavor of mistaken/misleading identity) communication was Paramount. Aside from Cam not mentioning who he was (in relation to their previous history), he was all about talking through anxieties and fears and unsavory things. Not just for Soph but also himself.
I appreciated that a lot since I'm a big proponent of talking through issues to understand why they are issues.
Now here's the thing. The rest of this book is painful af and not in a good way. this has all the wrong check marks. If anything the one thing I did like was hugely tainted by how painful this book was as a ROMANCE NOVEL. Spoilers beyond this point
- Scheming, manipulative friend who goes above and beyond what you'd consider betrayal and REALLY stabs the heroine in the back a lot.
- Sibling hatred on a level I can't quite grasp. We're not given any context for how awful PJ is towards CJ beyond the fact he was a soulless bastard their parents supported.
- Clueless af parents (three sets!), two sets of which directly contributed to the issues our hero and heroine faced all their lives.
- There's 6 women with names and multiple speaking lines of significance. 3 of them are the aforementioned clueless mothers (bonus that two of them fully admit they were neglectful that helped foster manipulative behavior against the heroine & hero). One is the heroine and two spend most of their speaking lines treating the heroine like shit and accusing her of being any number of horrible things.
there's also a scene in the middle, when the couple decide to have sex. On the one hand they do have a frank discussion about what unprotected sex can lead to (well insofar as pregnancy goes). Great guys. My complaint lays in the fact while Cam went into knowing 100% how committed he was to a future together, he also feared and suspected if he told Soph who he really was she would never have trusted him.
Now call me over sensitive but I feel like having (I think 15 times?) unprotected sex together when you're sure she wouldn't trust the "real you" sounds like a dick move. Bordering on uninformed consent.
He knew that she was grappling with how the supposed actions he did when they were kids "screwed up her life". He knew that she had A LOT OF TRUST ISSUES. Just because he didn't know the cause didn't mean his belief he could "fix" the problem was justified.
He knew, and privately agonized, over the fact she had all these issues and had just had a fairly decent trauma occur (her condo being set a blaze plus the hospital plus falling unconscious at least twice due to stress plus the emotional upheaval of trusting who she thought was a complete stranger to come into her home PLUS a serious fight with what she believed was her only friend.
His news that he's that dude who she believes ruined her life all those years ago would have probably tanked their chances (in the immediate sense). So he withheld that information until it was forced into the open. AFTER they began their physical relationship and admitted deeper feelings.
(I'll pause to point out this book maybe happens over 5 days total, epilogue not included)
In any other circumstance what he did would label him a villain (his actions are a less magic induced more reality induced reason why I loathe the romance endgame of at least two different fantasy series).
Less spoiler filled, I just bought into none of it. The most trutful part I felt was in the therapist office when he said "nah brah you more than likely have ANXIETY not phobias, so let's develop a way to handle these" (though the way he stated it and how quickly he stated made me side eye his declaration)
The novel felt too short to really develop a lot. Soph and Cam are kept isolated away from other chars mostly because it could cause problems. Nichols needed the big reveal fight at the end otherwise the wrong kind of tension would occur and make the romantic plot really shady.
I had hopes for this - suffering from a variety of anxieties myself, I wanted to have a second chance romance to really enjoy, but this left me feeling upset mostly.
Ok let's start with the one thing I did like - while this does involve the trope of misunderstanding (with a flavor of mistaken/misleading identity) communication was Paramount. Aside from Cam not mentioning who he was (in relation to their previous history), he was all about talking through anxieties and fears and unsavory things. Not just for Soph but also himself.
I appreciated that a lot since I'm a big proponent of talking through issues to understand why they are issues.
Now here's the thing. The rest of this book is painful af and not in a good way. this has all the wrong check marks. If anything the one thing I did like was hugely tainted by how painful this book was as a ROMANCE NOVEL. Spoilers beyond this point
- Scheming, manipulative friend who goes above and beyond what you'd consider betrayal and REALLY stabs the heroine in the back a lot.
- Sibling hatred on a level I can't quite grasp. We're not given any context for how awful PJ is towards CJ beyond the fact he was a soulless bastard their parents supported.
- Clueless af parents (three sets!), two sets of which directly contributed to the issues our hero and heroine faced all their lives.
- There's 6 women with names and multiple speaking lines of significance. 3 of them are the aforementioned clueless mothers (bonus that two of them fully admit they were neglectful that helped foster manipulative behavior against the heroine & hero). One is the heroine and two spend most of their speaking lines treating the heroine like shit and accusing her of being any number of horrible things.
there's also a scene in the middle, when the couple decide to have sex. On the one hand they do have a frank discussion about what unprotected sex can lead to (well insofar as pregnancy goes). Great guys. My complaint lays in the fact while Cam went into knowing 100% how committed he was to a future together, he also feared and suspected if he told Soph who he really was she would never have trusted him.
Now call me over sensitive but I feel like having (I think 15 times?) unprotected sex together when you're sure she wouldn't trust the "real you" sounds like a dick move. Bordering on uninformed consent.
He knew that she was grappling with how the supposed actions he did when they were kids "screwed up her life". He knew that she had A LOT OF TRUST ISSUES. Just because he didn't know the cause didn't mean his belief he could "fix" the problem was justified.
He knew, and privately agonized, over the fact she had all these issues and had just had a fairly decent trauma occur (her condo being set a blaze plus the hospital plus falling unconscious at least twice due to stress plus the emotional upheaval of trusting who she thought was a complete stranger to come into her home PLUS a serious fight with what she believed was her only friend.
His news that he's that dude who she believes ruined her life all those years ago would have probably tanked their chances (in the immediate sense). So he withheld that information until it was forced into the open. AFTER they began their physical relationship and admitted deeper feelings.
(I'll pause to point out this book maybe happens over 5 days total, epilogue not included)
In any other circumstance what he did would label him a villain (his actions are a less magic induced more reality induced reason why I loathe the romance endgame of at least two different fantasy series).
Less spoiler filled, I just bought into none of it. The most trutful part I felt was in the therapist office when he said "nah brah you more than likely have ANXIETY not phobias, so let's develop a way to handle these" (though the way he stated it and how quickly he stated made me side eye his declaration)
The novel felt too short to really develop a lot. Soph and Cam are kept isolated away from other chars mostly because it could cause problems. Nichols needed the big reveal fight at the end otherwise the wrong kind of tension would occur and make the romantic plot really shady.
I had hopes for this - suffering from a variety of anxieties myself, I wanted to have a second chance romance to really enjoy, but this left me feeling upset mostly.
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