The characters in the book had this sense of over sensitivity. You see it clearly in certain parts of the book, even if it isnât that serious, like when archer goes âare you making fun of me?â Bree goes âno, neverâ, and I guess thats a main theme in the book, oversensitivity for sore subjects that have been previously ignored, and maybe it is because of my tendency to tease and make fun of the people I love, but it made the book feel a little surface level for me. If the author had given the relationships their own inside jokes, or let them have more laughs together, it wouldâve given them all more depth, which I would say was missing in some areas. The spinoff book, âTravisâ, it was marketed to be his redemption arch. I didnât think he needed much of a redemption in the first place, whats the worst thing he did, pay a hooker to fuck his innocent older brother? Thats just manly competition, itâs the real world. No one expects a grown ass man to be THAT clueless. And on some level, Archer did exclude himself from the world. At the very least, he didnât try to put himself back in it, which is a seperate issue in itself. You can say itâs victim blaming, you can say itâs not being prepared for the real life. Was Travis an asshole in the first book? yes. Was what he did wrong? yes. But he is a good man, and I saw that even in Archerâs Voice. Bree and Archer still resenting him after he SAVED THEIR LIVES was unnecessary. If I were Archer, I wouldâve been pissed at him, yes, but nothing that he did required a whole redemtion arch. Also, a comment on the writing, reading AV alone was fine, but reading Travis, it felt almost like Mia Sheridan was a one trick poney. It felt the same, not as a continuation, but in a way that felt like the author has exhausted all their talent on the first book and didnât have much to put for the 2nd story, even when it is about a completely different couple. Travis felt kind of like reading a more boring version of the first book. I got so much less attracted to Archer at the end, cause it felt like the author kind of overly tried to make him seem âfixedâ, and he turned almost like a robot. I wouldâve loved to see some more vulnerability from him at the end, and in the second book. The ending felt also a bit childish, like they played too much into the perfect ending, a whole town learned to speak sign language fluently for one person, and he now owns the town. I wouldâve loved to see more realistic things like since he was an illegitimate child, he couldnât have inherited, or at the very least, him turning the role down, cause its just weird that he went from not talking to anyone, not wanting to, to just magically being healed and leading a whole town of people who just magically respect him now. Both books also ended too early, even with the epilogues. They felt rushed, like they tried to get the whole story out too fast. I did really, really enjoy the book though, contrary to what I have previously written about it. It was entertaining, it was cute and romantic like it was supposed to be, it was a unique plot, it gave us two extremely handsome men to write fan fiction about.
