Reviews tagging 'Death'

Hawke by Jescie Hall

19 reviews

alis143's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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amanda_reads13's review

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dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Nicole "Cole" uprooted her whole life to be with her very Catholic/conservative boyfriend Patrick. Everything is going as planned until Patrick's "friend" Hawke moves into their house after being released from prison. 

I HATE the cheating trope and there is no excuse for it. Ya, Patrick was a misogynistic jerk, but no one deserves to be so blatantly disrespected by their partner. If you want to be with someone else, then breakup with your bf! Ugh! It was also weird how she would just "play house" with Patrick in front of Hawke then become jealous when Hawke is around other women. 

Hawke has recently been released from prison for
murder. He was convicted of driving under the influence and killing his best friend in a car accident. Only, that is not the whole story.
We get the impression that he is this bad boy who does nothing but bang random women and do drugs with his vagrant friends. But really he is a broken and sad boy who has endured so much loss, trauma, and pain.
He has never truly been loved or respected by anyone. He has always been looked down apon or cast aside.
All he really wants is for someone to love and understand him, his rough exterior is nothing but a mask. 

Cole is a lost woman. She thinks that she has a good life. Sure Patrick is a bit of a misogynistic ass, but he loves and takes care of her. As her relationship with Hawke grows she realizes how truly blind she has been. Patrick sees her as an accessory to creating this picture perfect life. He never consults her on any decisions, gaslights her, and completely disrespects her. 

Overall, she was very judgemental and childish. Unfortunately, there wasn't much growth to her character. She spent the whole time whining about how she was cheating on her "perfect" boyfriend with Hawke, but never did anything to change the situation.... 

Patrick
it turns out is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He was the one who killed Hawkes best friend. He then fled the scene and pinned it on Hawke. Hawke not only lots his best friend, but he was then forced to take the fall for his death. At least Patrick got what was coming to him.


A few things - I really wish this had been dual POV. That would have added so much to the story. The writing was ok, but the story did drag and become very repetitive (Especially with Cole reprimanding herself that the cheating is wrong and her talking about Hawkes lip ring -mentioned 1000x). I felt like we didn't really dig deep enough into the characters and they felt a bit one dimensional. 

Tropes: enemies to lovers, opposites attract, cheating, taboo, roommates, force proximity
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questionablereads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An absolute banger of a book that is being shelved as "I wish I would have read sooner." I love this innocent (but not so innocent) FMC/bad boy spicy as heck story. Yes, there is a cheating trope ... it's not dubious cheating, it is CHEATING cheating. Period. 

With that clearly stated, the morally gray, did time, tattooed, muscular, dark haired, lip pierced man Hawke is absolutely sinfully dark and delicious, and moving forward, if it ain't that Hawke kind of love, it ain't it. 
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caseybottiger's review

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dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kermione15's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Honestly, I might have enjoyed this if the JA controversy hadn't happened in the middle. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

I should have tread the CWs, as I LOATHE cheating tropes. But since I paid for this book, I wanted to finish it. 
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rossi29's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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sabrina7's review

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  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

this book honestly sucked so bad and that’s really all thanks to cole. hawke was a cutie and i liked his character a lot but holy shit cole was sooooo very annoying. she was awful and judgmental from the very beginning and then went so far to claim that she wasn’t that way !!  her back and forth “oh i love hawke” to “do i really know the real hawke” was absolutely insufferable. anyways she definitely did redeem herself toward the end and got a lot cooler but oh my god she was so tough to stand for the vast majority of the book. the ending was also a LOT and felt pretty unrealistic in the way everything worked out perfectly which definitely took away from the story for me. i mean how likely is it really that
two rich white men (patrick and his dad) would actually be put away for the crimes they committed ? the answer is not very unfortunately
i really only kept reading this for hawke and overall don’t regret my decision to finish the book but i definitely won’t be reading anything else by this author. 
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bookreaderblair's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

This book was so tense and I was honestly ready to strangle the FMC for not having a backbone, but she fully redeemed herself.  This was an incredible redemption story.  So good!
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lion3's review

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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enchantingreads_rosyreviews's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“The last thing [my father] told me was to never let anyone define what they don’t understand, and that no one can characterize who you are but you... He was the strongest man I’ve ever met. I decided I’d embrace the name for my father and hunt through life like a hawk. Always went by it.”
 đź–¤
THANK YOU Jescie for a FANTASTIC book with AMAZING character development. I definitely fit the Cole mold and I’m just waiting to find my Cam 🥹. This book is beautifully written with suspense, discovering oneself, recognizing toxic relationships, managing trauma, and learning to look underneath societal labels to find someone’s ACTUAL value.

We all deserve to love and be loved. While this book broke my heart at times, it also made me laugh throughout and it felt like a warm hug at others because it reminded me of Hawke-like and Kid-like figures in my own life.

Also, since I listened to the audio as well, I want to shout out Avery Caris for her stellar performance. She had an emotional journey to go through for this book, narrating all of it from her character’s perspective, and I was with her the entire way. She had me hooked from the first few pages! And Joe Arden, I see why people love him and will listen to anything he does. The emotional depth he brought to Hawke, the playful flirtation he brought to Kid, and the pure douche-baggery (is that even a word? Eh, I’m gonna make it a word.) for Patrick was flawless! This was my second Blue Nose & Joe production and I am such a fan! They are doing great things and bringing rich and complex stories to life in the best way. 
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