Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Home Wrecker by Sara Cate

5 reviews

katierosecrane's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

I loved all the different perspectives in the book, although it made it hard to follow who was who at points. 

This is such a great book to explain and understand poly relationships! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Outing, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Homophobia, Alcohol, Hate crime, Blood, Cursing, Death, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Infidelity

mj_86's review

emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexual content, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, and Biphobia

Minor: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic relationship

potalian's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Infidelity

Moderate: Infertility, Death of parent, Biphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Grief

weelasswithabook's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

CW: References to assault, infertility, graphic sexual content, cheating, violence, religious bigotry, internalised biphobia, homophones, parental death, marriage in trouble 

👫 + 👬 +🧍‍♂️👫 

🌟 Forced Proximity
 🌟 Marriage in Trouble 

🌈 Polyamory 
 🌈 Bi MMCs 

🌶 Threesome
 🌶 Double the fun 
 🌶 Submission/Dominance scenes 

So infidelity and infertility are my main triggers. This just showcases the trust I put in SC the fact that I just ignored those warnings and just went for it anyway 🤣 

First and foremost, I wouldn't necessarily let the infidelity immediately turn you off completely reading this. It's done in a certain type of way that it works with all the relationship dynamics at play in the beginning of the book. So yeah, trust the process if you can. 

I loved this book. It has the perfect balance of heat and heart that I've come to expect from Sara Cate, where neither overpowers the other and work in harmony with one another, blossoming together throughout the course of her stories. 

The Home Wrecker combines heartbreaking elements such as infertility, internalised biphobia, religious trauma, and loss and the beginnings of a new relationship to, not "fix" these things, but to allow the three to work together symbiotically to help heal and support one another. 

Polyamory can be done badly, and I have definitely read bad polyamory. But this was a great example of how it's written into a story well. Communication, boundaries, open and frank discussions. 

I wondered how it was going to be handled with Briar and Caleb already having a child in the picture, but I loved a particular scene with Briar discussing how relationships look with their daughter and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. 

Will this make you cry here and there? Probably. Will you be swooning? Probably. Will you be sweating over it? More than likely. 
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cursing, Infertility, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Biphobia, Death, and Homophobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Pregnancy

_bookish_lauren's review

emotional reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

Overall: 4.5/5
Spice level: 4/5
Tropes: cheating, corruption kink, marriage in trouble, brother’s ex

Representation: 2 MMCs are bisexual, poly romance

CW: bi-phobia, bi-erasure, homophobia, religious trauma, parental death, difficulty conceiving

Listen, Sara Cate is always, always, always going to bring. The. Heat. And maybe (probably) even make you question your own sexuality and limits. 

This is one of the few instances I've been ok with the cheating trope because it evolves into a polyamorous relationship. Otherwise that trope is a hard pass. But it worked here. 

There is so much strong character development among all 3: Briar, Caleb, and Dean. The evolution of Briar and Caleb figuring out their own desires and sexuality was enough to have me enthralled. But the way they wrapped Dean in so much love and reassurance was so beautiful. 

Now that love didn't come easy, at least not for Caleb. But all the same, it did. 

Something I truly appreciated was the parental death happening off page but the author making sure to write in that grief process and how it was navigated by the characters. It was important to their bond. 

The flashbacks written throughout offered a lot of insight into the connections between the characters but also their own development. 

I devoured this story and can't wait to see how Lucas and Isaac's stories come out! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, Grief, Biphobia, Infertility, and Religious bigotry