Breathless by Cat WynnMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
⭐ 1 Star
🌶️ 1 Spice
Ugh, I wanted to pull my own hair out and beat our FMC with it. I do not think I have ever met such an unlikable lead in my life. The fact is, it does not matter if you give her a heartbreaking backstory that is meant to pull at your emotions. If she acts like a complete butt hole, has the personality of a brat who always wants her own way, and constantly disregards what everyone else wants, that does not make for a good lead. She infuriated me to no end. I wanted to scream at her.
The fact is, she begins the book with a social disorder and trauma that stops her from going outside and interacting with the outside world. However, when the plot decides it is necessary, she magically overcomes all of this with no real character growth to support it. To make matters worse, later on, when she is faced with someone with a similar disposition, she instantly dismisses it in favor of her own feelings.
There were moments where I 100 percent felt for her. My heart genuinely bled for her. But she would immediately throw all of that away by making another awful decision or acting in a way that made her incredibly difficult to like.
The truth is, she was not too bad at the start of the book, but by the halfway point, I was just about ready to DNF and throw in the towel.
Sadly, here I am after finishing it instead, wondering... what on earth was this? The story could have been GREAT. I mean SOOO good. But instead, I got a patchy storyline where several moments felt like they had been thrown in randomly, with no rhyme or reason. It felt like the story was trying to patch over massive plot holes but only ended up making everything feel even less coherent. It left me with so many questions, and even by the end a lot of things were still unanswered. I was left confused, muttering, "What??" and scratching my head.
With there being more unlikable characters than likable ones, reading this book felt a bit like having my fingernails pulled out. I struggled not to skim read and had to force myself to keep going at every turn. Every time things started looking up, the rug was pulled out from under my feet, and I was right back to square one.
Now, if I overlook my raging dislike for several of the characters and cover one eye to ignore the massive problems with the story, I am still left with subpar spice that honestly might as well not have been there.
It is really, really hard to enjoy a book when almost everything is pushing you toward Dislike Town at breakneck speed.
There were a couple of things that were not totally horrible. The FMC's best friend was solid, even if I wish she had been developed more to feel like a real person rather than just someone who appeared when needed. Then there was the MMC. He was not totally horrible either... though at this point I feel like I am grasping at straws.
Sadly, to sum it all up... nope.
It was very nearly a DNF for me. I hardly ever give out 1 star ratings, but I genuinely struggled to find enough positives to rate it any higher.
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