The Belle and the Beard

After reading [b:The Spanish Love Deception 54189398 The Spanish Love Deception Elena Armas https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610900883l/54189398.SY75.jpg 84555384], I couldn't get through another book with needlessly combative main characters. In both these books, the mcs interaction was almost exactly like thisheroine: I have a problem but I absolutely don't want your helphero: you obviously need my help. Take it!heroine: no, absolutely not!rinse and repeat about 200 times until the hero helps the heroine and then although she's upset it works out in the end.I truly don't understand why these authors kept putting their heroines in positions where the heroes would continually violate their wishes and this was framed as a good thing? In these situations, the heroine is being so needlessly stubborn in the name of feistiness that the heroes' overbearing actions seem like common sense but I hate the implications of this. I'm very uncomfortable when people's explicit wishes are ignored so I particularly hate it when authors construct situations where ignoring someone's wishes is the right thing to do. Don't see myself finishing this.

I really enjoyed this book, and I thought it was perfectly cast. Jo Raylan and Zachary Webber were brilliant. I loved that the author included pansexuality in the story, and it felt like a natural part of it. The author didn't make a big song and dance about being inclusive in her storytelling, she just was. I will always love that.
Linden and Jasper are such a fun couple, and I really enjoyed their dynamic.
The side characters in this story are all the things. Especially Linden's parents. I laughed so much. I hear his siblings have books too, so I'm going to need to move them up my TBL because I need more from his family.
My only issue was the way it felt necessary to keep trying to show that the heroine was an independent woman by telling the reader rather than showing it with her actions. It felt very much like an ‘I am woman, hear me roar' thing and it wouldn't have been that off-putting if it wasn't continuous throughout the book. That being said, I really enjoyed Jasper's progression through the story, and how Linden helped her see things through a different lens.