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thebrainlair's review against another edition
Loved this. 2 main characters who are nerds. One with a physical disability and one with a mental disability. Reading this deepened my belief that "disability" is such a stupid word. One more way people are "othered". I loved how Alyssa Cole worked through this concept in this, way too short, novella. It stands out in the Reluctant Royals series as being more realistic. Would have liked to see more of Reggie's and her twin Portia's (sta
herskullinabook's review against another edition
4.0
I overall enjoyed the story of Reggie and Gus. I loved how both were POC and of different backgrounds both ethically and financially. As someone who is in a interracial relationship it is important for me to see that represent in stories. I loved the relationship that these two formed throughout the story. Because this is a novella the relationship as well as the story was very fast pace. For me I wish the story was longer as well as I would’ve liked to see how the project turned out seeing as it was apart of the plot. All in all if you looking for a cute romance I would definitely recommend this book.
enbyfinley's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
topy_loving_books's review against another edition
3.5
Loved her crushing on his voice for years and them falling for each through screens first. The fact he's the one saying "I love you first" and not pressuring her to do the same. Them geeking about escape rooms based on a tv show.
Reggie being a kick-ass entrepreneur with an armada of wheelchairs, all with bad ass names. And the fact she lives in a old-style colonial house.
And Gustave is an adorable autistic man who struggle with the social aspects. But I struggled with his name which is an old fashion french surname so it was quite a turn of for the MMC. But loved to have an Asian hero.
Reggie has ataxia, which means she has poor muscle control that causes clumsy voluntary movements. Causing difficulty with walking and balance, hand coordination, speech. So she uses a wheelchair and has medical therapy and medication to help her with ataxia. I appreciate learning about that, as I never heard of it before. It's good to make us realise that not everybody using a wheelchair is paralysed. But other factors may implied.
I which the story was longer to give more time to the characters to really talk about their own struggle. And to have more time to know each other IRL. Also I would have love them to meet her family. I'm definitely curious about the book dedicated to Reggie's twin sister and her silver fox Scottish duke...
Reggie being a kick-ass entrepreneur with an armada of wheelchairs, all with bad ass names. And the fact she lives in a old-style colonial house.
And Gustave is an adorable autistic man who struggle with the social aspects. But I struggled with his name which is an old fashion french surname so it was quite a turn of for the MMC. But loved to have an Asian hero.
Reggie has ataxia, which means she has poor muscle control that causes clumsy voluntary movements. Causing difficulty with walking and balance, hand coordination, speech. So she uses a wheelchair and has medical therapy and medication to help her with ataxia. I appreciate learning about that, as I never heard of it before. It's good to make us realise that not everybody using a wheelchair is paralysed. But other factors may implied.
I which the story was longer to give more time to the characters to really talk about their own struggle. And to have more time to know each other IRL. Also I would have love them to meet her family. I'm definitely curious about the book dedicated to Reggie's twin sister and her silver fox Scottish duke...
corrieroe's review
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Bullying
corvingreene's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved Reggie and Gus! I wish this had been a full-length book, but I loved the great disability and wheelchair user rep, as well as neurodivergent rep. So far this was my favorite of the series.
shannonigans322's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
With the acquisition of several new sister counties' library cards, I was finally able to complete this Alyssa Cole series and I absolutely loved it! The inclusion, the realness, the absolutely adorable infatuation...I wanted more from this couple, but this novella is wonderful.
pewterwolf's review against another edition
4.0
Review coming soon but the diversity! The disability representation! The neurodiverse characters! Why have I not read this series sooner?!
Review taken from The Pewter Wolf, which will be going live in early/mid April 2020.
Another day in self-isolation, another romance audiobook (kinda annoying as my brain can’t seem to focus on one of my most anticipated reads of 2020; Kathy Reichs’s [b:A Conspiracy of Bones|46158947|A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan, #19)|Kathy Reichs|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569508733l/46158947._SY75_.jpg|76007658]. Should I audiobook this from my local library to help?). Yeah, for someone who isn’t much a romance reader, this seems to be me at the moment.
But, romance! And a romance novella in a series I keep seeing and am intrigued like heck over. I kept flip-flopping over which novel in the series to read first: [b:A Princess in Theory|35271238|A Princess in Theory (Reluctant Royals, #1)|Alyssa Cole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501702014l/35271238._SY75_.jpg|56629976] (the first) or [b:A Prince on Paper|38622940|A Prince on Paper (Reluctant Royals, #3)|Alyssa Cole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541431198l/38622940._SY75_.jpg|60239078] (the third). But when I saw Can’t Escape Love randomly on Scribd's 30 Day Free Trial and saw it was a novella for the series, I went for it. I didn’t know where it fitted in the series, but thought this might be a good place to test the waters.
Regina is taking her pop-culture media enterprise, Girls with Glasses, to the next level. She’s all ready to go… expect insomnia has hit her at the worst time. The only thing that has helped her in the past with this issue is the voice of the puzzle-obsessed live-streamer Gustave Nguyen. Problem: he’s deleted his archive.
Gus is good with puzzles. So him creating an escape room themed round a romance anime should be easy. Expect he knows nothing about the anime - or romance in general. Then anime expert Regina comes crashing into his life in an unexpected way, the two make a trade: his voice for knowledge.
But when their online friendship begins to have IRL chemistry, can the two escape love?
This was such fun. I’ve been very lucky with the romances I’ve read during self-isolation that all have me wanting the happily ever after, but Can’t Escape Love had something more to it.
One aspect of the novella I really enjoy was diversity. I think this is a big thing for the series as a whole. Here, we have Regina (Reggie) who is black woman, a wheelchair user, in charge of her business and life. And with Gus, he is on the neurodiverse spectrum and he is very open and very direct about his struggles (and this helps with the story as his directness gets rid of the miscommunication troupe we see so often in romance novels). It’s refreshing to see this in stories and it handle so well.
This was, also, a slow burn. The chemistry is there and we know, almost as soon as they met in real life that they like and want each other, but the slow burn of them getting together worked really well in this novella without it feeling forced.
I am going to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of the narrator to this audiobook at the start. I felt her reading was a little slow, but I warmed to her and her reading surprisingly quickly and am intrigued to see what she does with the rest of the series.
Plus, this novella does run along side the second novel in the series, [b:A Duke by Default|35564582|A Duke by Default (Reluctant Royals, #2)|Alyssa Cole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1516640638l/35564582._SY75_.jpg|56993493], as the lead is Reggie’s twin sister, so if you don’t want to be spoilt, maybe read Duke first then Can’t Escape Love.
But I really liked this and I do have plans to read/audiobook more in this series. I have Prince On Paper on my kindle and am trying to figure out when I can read the first two novels.
Review taken from The Pewter Wolf, which will be going live in early/mid April 2020.
Another day in self-isolation, another romance audiobook (kinda annoying as my brain can’t seem to focus on one of my most anticipated reads of 2020; Kathy Reichs’s [b:A Conspiracy of Bones|46158947|A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan, #19)|Kathy Reichs|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569508733l/46158947._SY75_.jpg|76007658]. Should I audiobook this from my local library to help?). Yeah, for someone who isn’t much a romance reader, this seems to be me at the moment.
But, romance! And a romance novella in a series I keep seeing and am intrigued like heck over. I kept flip-flopping over which novel in the series to read first: [b:A Princess in Theory|35271238|A Princess in Theory (Reluctant Royals, #1)|Alyssa Cole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501702014l/35271238._SY75_.jpg|56629976] (the first) or [b:A Prince on Paper|38622940|A Prince on Paper (Reluctant Royals, #3)|Alyssa Cole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541431198l/38622940._SY75_.jpg|60239078] (the third). But when I saw Can’t Escape Love randomly on Scribd's 30 Day Free Trial and saw it was a novella for the series, I went for it. I didn’t know where it fitted in the series, but thought this might be a good place to test the waters.
Regina is taking her pop-culture media enterprise, Girls with Glasses, to the next level. She’s all ready to go… expect insomnia has hit her at the worst time. The only thing that has helped her in the past with this issue is the voice of the puzzle-obsessed live-streamer Gustave Nguyen. Problem: he’s deleted his archive.
Gus is good with puzzles. So him creating an escape room themed round a romance anime should be easy. Expect he knows nothing about the anime - or romance in general. Then anime expert Regina comes crashing into his life in an unexpected way, the two make a trade: his voice for knowledge.
But when their online friendship begins to have IRL chemistry, can the two escape love?
This was such fun. I’ve been very lucky with the romances I’ve read during self-isolation that all have me wanting the happily ever after, but Can’t Escape Love had something more to it.
One aspect of the novella I really enjoy was diversity. I think this is a big thing for the series as a whole. Here, we have Regina (Reggie) who is black woman, a wheelchair user, in charge of her business and life. And with Gus, he is on the neurodiverse spectrum and he is very open and very direct about his struggles (and this helps with the story as his directness gets rid of the miscommunication troupe we see so often in romance novels). It’s refreshing to see this in stories and it handle so well.
This was, also, a slow burn. The chemistry is there and we know, almost as soon as they met in real life that they like and want each other, but the slow burn of them getting together worked really well in this novella without it feeling forced.
I am going to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of the narrator to this audiobook at the start. I felt her reading was a little slow, but I warmed to her and her reading surprisingly quickly and am intrigued to see what she does with the rest of the series.
Plus, this novella does run along side the second novel in the series, [b:A Duke by Default|35564582|A Duke by Default (Reluctant Royals, #2)|Alyssa Cole|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1516640638l/35564582._SY75_.jpg|56993493], as the lead is Reggie’s twin sister, so if you don’t want to be spoilt, maybe read Duke first then Can’t Escape Love.
But I really liked this and I do have plans to read/audiobook more in this series. I have Prince On Paper on my kindle and am trying to figure out when I can read the first two novels.
karlynrose's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5