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marrz's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
rfish0615's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
3.5
wartse's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
bernzrose's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
hupsy_hups's review against another edition
5.0
A really fun rivals-to-lovers story. Also love that they were secretly talking all the time.And I liked how Rhodes was helping Iliana in the end.
biblioberry's review against another edition
4.0
uhh the best way for me to describe this would be the bisexual sapphic lovechild of fangirl and you've got mail (which would be a 90s simon vs. if simon and blue hated each other irl for everyone who doesn't watch ancient hetero romcoms with mom) with a dash of the classic pepperoni etl to spice it up (aka known as pipxrooney from loveless if you happen to live under a rock and haven't read the best work of fiction ever published and yes I will shamelessly promote that book in all my reviews until I die) (although I'm serious the resemblance to pepperoni was starting to grow uncanny)
oh and. our protagonists happen to be prolific fangirls of alice in wonderland and this book comes with adorable snippets from their gorgeous alicexqueen-of-hearts webcomic and I swear it is worth reading for that alone<3
(cons: I occasionally felt this book was a tad too white and rhodes kinda annoyed me at some points but mostly? this was 98% worth it)
oh and. our protagonists happen to be prolific fangirls of alice in wonderland and this book comes with adorable snippets from their gorgeous alicexqueen-of-hearts webcomic and I swear it is worth reading for that alone<3
(cons: I occasionally felt this book was a tad too white and rhodes kinda annoyed me at some points but mostly? this was 98% worth it)
yasharulz1010's review
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
themermaddie's review against another edition
3.0
oh boy, this one frustrated me. on one hand, enemies to lovers + secret identities + sapphic women is EXACTLY my type. some thoughts in no particular order:
unfortunately it had way more issues that got in the way, and i feel like they mostly had to do with a misunderstanding of both tropes.
right out of the gate, iliana and rhodes hate each other with so much intensity that it kinda unnerved me how much it focused on their anger w each other. at the same time, they were already so in love with each other online. i feel like the whole point of enemies to lovers and secret identities is to build up the intensity of their dual relationships over the course of the book; when they already start at the extremes of love/hate, where do you go from there?
i was so disappointed by the lack of reconciliation storyline that's usually such a focus of enemies to lovers stories. there was maybe two days between rhodes deciding to help iliana and the capstone project, where i DID like the slowly burgeoning relationship between them, but then they got together too fast and it felt very insta love. their relationship was defined by big explosive events without any of the sweet little moments in between to show why this relationship was worth rooting for. this tends to happen when the characters fall in love BEFORE the events of the book and we're just meant to assume everything was perfect with them. i want to watch them fall in love! that's why i picked up the book!
i feel like sarah turning out to be the saboteur was meant to be more of a bombshell than it was. she was an awful friend from the very beginning (which makes more sense now that ive read the ending) but there were still basically no positive traits about her; neither iliana nor rhodes' perspectives gave me anything to like about her so i didn't particularly care when her and iliana's friendship broke, which was obviously supposed to be an emotional scene. iliana feels guilty at one point for steamrolling sarah for their whole friendship but i literally never saw sarah be anything but manipulative the whole way thru so what is the truth. also there was a random one line thrown in about sarah being in love with iliana and then it's just never mentioned again? why was that there?
neither of the voices were very distinct, which i feel is pretty important in an alternating pov book. i also thought some of the dialogue was kind of didactic and a little forced, but tbh i'd probably let it slide. rhodes' pov was mostly marked by thoughts about wanting to cry all the time, which i guess isn't bad?? but when that's what i look for to remember who's pov i'm reading from, it kinda seems like a bad sign. that being said, i liked the evolution of rhodes' art and her depression, i think she was surprisingly the one i empathised most with in the book. besides griffin, who was lovely, and his and rhodes' relationship was very sweet and perhaps the strongest in the book.
maybe i'm just whining at this point, but sometimes the writing style got a little too simplistic to the point where i just couldn't figure out what was happening. it took me until 2/3 through the book to realise why iliana had gotten arrested, which was WAY too late especially when that particular conflict was raised in chapter 3. i didn't realise that the ink was an actual act of sabotage until it was explicitly stated by one of the characters bc it was written so vaguely that it seemed like an accident. little things like that added up and it made the overall book feel very disjointed.
the reason why this book is a 3 star instead of a 2 star is because i finally started to get sucked into it in the last quarter of the books. this is mostly due to the writing style, it was very flowery and romantic and even if there wasn't a very good base on which their relationship was built, the writing was just so in love with them that it kind of won me over by the end. i'm a romantic ok!
unfortunately it had way more issues that got in the way, and i feel like they mostly had to do with a misunderstanding of both tropes.
right out of the gate, iliana and rhodes hate each other with so much intensity that it kinda unnerved me how much it focused on their anger w each other. at the same time, they were already so in love with each other online. i feel like the whole point of enemies to lovers and secret identities is to build up the intensity of their dual relationships over the course of the book; when they already start at the extremes of love/hate, where do you go from there?
i was so disappointed by the lack of reconciliation storyline that's usually such a focus of enemies to lovers stories. there was maybe two days between rhodes deciding to help iliana and the capstone project, where i DID like the slowly burgeoning relationship between them, but then they got together too fast and it felt very insta love. their relationship was defined by big explosive events without any of the sweet little moments in between to show why this relationship was worth rooting for. this tends to happen when the characters fall in love BEFORE the events of the book and we're just meant to assume everything was perfect with them. i want to watch them fall in love! that's why i picked up the book!
i feel like sarah turning out to be the saboteur was meant to be more of a bombshell than it was. she was an awful friend from the very beginning (which makes more sense now that ive read the ending) but there were still basically no positive traits about her; neither iliana nor rhodes' perspectives gave me anything to like about her so i didn't particularly care when her and iliana's friendship broke, which was obviously supposed to be an emotional scene. iliana feels guilty at one point for steamrolling sarah for their whole friendship but i literally never saw sarah be anything but manipulative the whole way thru so what is the truth. also there was a random one line thrown in about sarah being in love with iliana and then it's just never mentioned again? why was that there?
neither of the voices were very distinct, which i feel is pretty important in an alternating pov book. i also thought some of the dialogue was kind of didactic and a little forced, but tbh i'd probably let it slide. rhodes' pov was mostly marked by thoughts about wanting to cry all the time, which i guess isn't bad?? but when that's what i look for to remember who's pov i'm reading from, it kinda seems like a bad sign. that being said, i liked the evolution of rhodes' art and her depression, i think she was surprisingly the one i empathised most with in the book. besides griffin, who was lovely, and his and rhodes' relationship was very sweet and perhaps the strongest in the book.
maybe i'm just whining at this point, but sometimes the writing style got a little too simplistic to the point where i just couldn't figure out what was happening. it took me until 2/3 through the book to realise why iliana had gotten arrested, which was WAY too late especially when that particular conflict was raised in chapter 3. i didn't realise that the ink was an actual act of sabotage until it was explicitly stated by one of the characters bc it was written so vaguely that it seemed like an accident. little things like that added up and it made the overall book feel very disjointed.
the reason why this book is a 3 star instead of a 2 star is because i finally started to get sucked into it in the last quarter of the books. this is mostly due to the writing style, it was very flowery and romantic and even if there wasn't a very good base on which their relationship was built, the writing was just so in love with them that it kind of won me over by the end. i'm a romantic ok!
smolartist11's review
emotional
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
izzybooks_2000's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
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