A review by schausjk
At First Spite by Olivia Dade

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to like this one. There's good things about it, like a fat love interest, interesting portrayals of depression, and the way it talks about job hopping. However, the main characters felt a little two dimensional compared to the previous Olivia Dade book I'd read, although I did enjoy the nuance that was there. The male love interest being the ex-fiancé's brother (who'd pressured him to end the wedding to begin with, and is also more like a father figure apparently) was way too much of an ick for me. I didn't get the chemistry there at all, and without that a lot of their choices made little sense to me. I found the way the characters talked annoying. The constant references to "Professor Google" was... really something, and the meme references will definitely leave this book feeling a bit dated. The groveling felt underwhelming, the monsterfucking references were over the top, and the spiteful actions didn't feel spiteful enough (or make good enough use of the fact that this was a spite house- like that sets up a lot of potential for close contact but in the end it was only used for communicating through windows).

On the spicy side, there were some good scenes especially right before they get together, but when they did get together it got kind of boring for me. Just not the thing for me, I guess.