Book: Broken Rival - A Novel by Tessa Bailey
Reviewed by Anonymous
Rating: 4/5
Thank you Avon and Harper Audio for the gifted ARC, finished copy, and audiobook. All opinions are my own.
Tessa Bailey stretching some non-romcom literary muscles, and you know what, I really enjoyed this new direction from her, exploring something outside of what we’ve seen from her before.
Immediately, I was pulled into this sort of dystopian world, where people from the (dying) future, have been misusing time travel, disrupting and causing danger in the past (/our present).
There is kind of a love triangle, but one of those ones where it’s pretty obvious who the choice will be. (We only really get to know Ramsey of the two, and I absolutely LOOOVED him! Heavy on the touch her and die -ness of it all. 🔥🫠)
The slow burn was so good, with tension off the charts, even through some conflicted and confused feelings from Magnolia.
Now, Magnolia is a bit on the younger side as a protagonist (18/19) and I thought she read pretty accurately for her age 👀 (just a heads up if you tend to shy away from younger characters.)
Also, I think I was hoping for a bit more from the time travel aspect than we were given? Like, I wasn’t exactly sure how it worked in this world, but also, I am someone who loves to read about time travel, but doesn’t really want to think about it too much because headache 😆, so that part didn’t bother me too much in the grand scheme of things.
But also, I think I was expecting a bit more actual time travel, and there just really wasn’t all that much…not that time travel itself wasn’t a huge driver of the plot.
Another thing I was hoping at bit more from was the ending. 🫣 I was feeling like we were heading toward a thrilling cliffhanger, but…we weren’t? It ended, and I think this is a standone? I guess I was thinking maybe this was the start of a series, but it’s not? I don’t think? 🤷♀️
Needless to say, the ending was maybe a little underwhelming for me, but overall I still REALLY enjoyed my time with this one.
Audiobook notes: DUET NARRATION! Mollie Stark and Aaron Shedlock were both excellent, working together flawlessly through all the various characters. I felt completely absorbed by their narration, and highly enjoyed the audio!
What this book is giving:
✅ Time Travel / New Adult Romance
✅ DUET Narration
✅ (But, Primarily Single POV)
✅ Girl out of her place in time
✅ 2 Brothers (Militia Commander & High School Golden Boy)
✅ Everyone wants her dead
Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5
🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 5