The Words: An Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Romance

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Lennon didn’t destroy me…I destroyed her. Her hopes. Her dreams. The ability to trust and open her heart again. It’s gone...I took it all away from her." Lennon is tasked with helping him graduate and they end up striking an unlikely friendship. Just after graduation, Phoenix and Storm catch their big break, not before Phoenix betraying Lennon in a big way and destroying their friendship. Then he starts pumping them. My breath comes out in choppy, desperate pants when his thumb rubs my clit in a measured rhythm while he drives his fingers inside me frantically. The contrast is too much for me to take. I grip the edges of the keyboard, unable to keep playing. I moan into the mic, the lyrics I was supposed to be singing trapped in my throat because all I can focus on is this euphoric feeling taking over. The one part that really REALLY bothered me was when he threw a liquor bottle straight at Lennon. He didn't hit her....but he was close. That right there was a full stop for me. There's no excuse for that 👀 like, none. I'm trying to read about romance, not a abusive relationship 🤷🤷🤷 she even says that the red flags are everywhere and this is a point of no return but then its not mentioned again 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 What's the matter, fatty? Cat got your tongue?" She laughs. "Oh, that's right, it can't. Because your mouth is always stuffed with food." (Just a single example out of a lot.)

The Words: An Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Romance The Words: An Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Romance

The bullying in the book comes from her peers and not the love interest, which I found interesting since it was sold as a bully romance. My issue is that the author made the specific choice to have them only refer to her as fat, cow and pig with one scene happening where she has literal pig slop thrown on her.

I love how she initially came to work for the band, because she needed that money, but also because she saw an opportunity to get on revenge on Phoenix. And while her revenge didn’t rlly go anywhere, because she saw how much self-loathing Phoenix already has for himself, that only highlighted her compassionate side. i think i’ll just bullet point what i didn’t like, bcos it wasn’t that deep. just enough for me to kinda roll my eyes and move on: Lennon & Phoenix first kiss was so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 their first time was hella awkward 🥴🥴🥴 but when they brought the heat in their hate sex?? That was 🔥🔥🔥

The Words: An Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Romance by Ashley The Words: An Enemies-to-Lovers Standalone Romance by Ashley

But delve deeper and there’s a whole tonne of hurt brewing away. He doesn’t allow anyone to get close. How do you make someone believe you’re sorry when you’re living your dream because you stole it from them?” His low, raspy voice is a turbulent current of water, pulling me under. However, it’s the haunting, desperate look in his eyes that’s my undoing. Because I didn’t conquer my demons for some stupid guy or because I wanted acceptance. I did it for me.

I initially wanted to stop shortly after I started reading the book but I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt and I guess a chance to see if it was part of just the journey but the fact that the glow up happens at 25% and the negativity just continues to 58%, I decided to DNF it. all the band members are tested for STDs the day the h arrives to be the babysitter. The MCs do not use protection with each other. She's on birth control. He does say, at some point (not to the h), that he always uses condoms, but with his substance abuse, I'm not sure how he could know that 100%. Especially given he didn't even recognize the h while under the influence. And then he screws that groupie after the h arrives... and no mention or discussion of condom usage with the h.... so who knows. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The Words (Audio Download): Ashley Jade, Teddy Hamilton, Erin

OM drama - the h gets friendly with the H's bandmate in the 4 years later timeline. He kisses her, and the H freaks out. Also, during the 4 years they are apart, the H goes to see the h at school, and he sees her with her boyfriend, and gets upset and leaves without talking to her. Unless it comes in the form of a 5'2", feisty, loudmouth girl who just so happens to hate your guts.And all of this time I was only waiting for Phoenix to right what he did wrong and when he did? I never said a bad word about Phoenix Walker in my whole life. He deserves the world. Guilt? I don’t claim that negative energy, he went through so much already. He is my baby. ♥️ Also I’m the biggest hoe for love letters and after reading Phoenix letters to Lennon I was ready to beat up prior me who was shittalking about Phoenix. 🤣

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he relentlessly pursues her once they get all of their initial shit out of the way (took a while but it was hella fun), and i respected how transparent he was? he was the one putting his heart on the line, opening himself up to a lot of pain Lennon could potentially inflict on him... and i suppose she does bcos she holds him at arms length for so long it breaks him bit by bit... and again, i lived for that shit ahaha. seeing him in pain added an extra ten years onto my life span for sure.

As a reader, I love broken, tortured and imperfect characters, and this story delivered this in spades. My heart bled for these characters and their pain. She's a doormat and goes on tour with him as a babysitter for money. Again. I understand why she becomes a babysitter, but the fact that a full grown man needs one makes me cringe. I can’t talk about this book without mentioning the side characters, because they were as much a part of this as the main characters, cause there were so many of them. I talked about Lennon’s father already, but the people on Phoenix side were as important. All his band members, especially Storm and Memphis were great secondary characters. Skylar was another amazing character and I absolutely adore her friendship with Lennon! I’m excited and scared for Skylar and Memphis’ story, because after reading The Words I know it’s going to be equally as messy if not more, but I love Skylar so much and can’t wait to read the happy end she deserves. but at least Skylar and Memphis are in the works!! praying that Gwen bitch is a lying skank🥰 im scared for their book this bcos they were angsty (and exhausting) enough as side characters so i can’t imagine what their full length book is gonna be like, damn. I didn't particularly like either character but at least Phoenix stayed true to himself and managed to redeem his actions by the end. Can't say the same for Lennon who was indecisive all the time. Her hot / cold attitude was frustrating. She had a real issue with Phoenix but she'd put it aside all the time cause the sex was great or he was in pain and she was the only one who could understand and support him. But every now and again she would remember why she was upset and fight with him again.