I don’t know why but something kept bothering me about this book. I don’t know if it was the weird kinda slow burn or something else but something did definitely bother me

"Just the way a woman loved is meant to bloom. Like a rose in spring.“ I gave this book a try simply because of the beautiful cover. I knew from the first page on, I‘d regret it. I really tried to enjoy it, i did! but L.J. Shen really ruins everything she touches, im so sorry. This book is a dark romance retelling of Beauty and the Beast with tropes such as arranged marriage, billionaire, enemies to lovers, sunshine x grumpy and age gap. The characters are all incredibly stupid and corny. The fact that the female MC (Dallas) is a lazy klutz who will never work bc she’s too "stupid“ and is addicted to food, is beyond misogynistic. Even tho Dallas tries so hard to be feminist, she never succeeds. All her "feminist power women“ quotes could’ve also been told by an Incel who’s trying to prove that "he doesn’t hate women that much“. Ugh The male MC (Romeo) is so incredibly corny, if you’d tell me this book was written by a 13 year old, I‘d believe you. This man was in a children fight ring when he was 6 and had to fight for food? Sure!! This man didn’t laugh once since he was 4 (mind you, he’s 31 now)? Sure!! You don’t get much insight about the MCs at all and if it’s all just shallow and fake deep. Sad Tumblr quotes our 12 year old selves reblogged in 2014, only to realise they were embarrassing. Also, way too many pop culture references. You’re telling me the male MC is supposed to speak sophisticated (which many other side characters joke about - so it’s cannon), yet uses quotes as "my wife is a bad ass bitch“, "i’ve seen that on tik tok“ and mentions kanye west?? It was all just super cliche and not worth remembering. There are dozens of books just like this one. I hated the CONSTANT MISOGYNY in this book, it made it really hard to read. It got better during the ending, but during the first 30 Chapters it was really hard not to just quit reading bc the misogyny got so bad at certain points, it made me sad. Examples: in this book women are not worth anything if they’ve been touched by a man before marriage. Of course men are allowed to touch and be touched. Women are described as "ruined“ once they do something with a man. A woman is nothing unless she’s married. Her father can decide whom she will marry and she has no word in it. A woman is used as a trophy and has to look exactly as the man wants it. EWWW. Now for the few positive things i have to say about this book: The cover is really pretty and if you read the book not expecting much, it’s okay. Nothing really happens, like there’s no story line and no event building up and you know how it ends, but there are certain chapters that really pull you in and I had my moments where I really rooted for Dallas and Romeo. It doesn’t have much spice but the spicy scenes are written well. Apart from the fact they often don’t make sense. You’re telling me he fcked her with her underwear on? He broke her hymen with his tongue because he wanted to make another dude mad (again slight misogyny) and during some scenes I couldn’t for the love of god, figure out in what position they were. Would I tell anyone to read this book? No. But if you already own it give it a try - like I said, some chapters are funny.

2.5 stars. I loved the cover of the book and the first 85% of the book but the end… I was disappointed but the book is not bad but the end really made it bad.