My Love/Hate Relationship with Open Heart
My Opinion (This could get long, friends!) and may contain spoilers -
I’m in a love/hate relationship with this book series. I LOVE the characters, especially the main character, who seems to be the most balanced out of all of them, even though Valentine can be a bit flaky when it comes to their friends. Can we get more hang-out time with them, PB, please?
What I’m hating, and that’s a strong word, it’s more of a mild dislike is that after three books, our MC hasn’t gotten so much as an “I love you” from any of the LIs. Hell, we haven’t even chosen to be exclusive with any of them or even expressed that they want an open relationship (which was done well in PM and RCD).
In my playthrough, my MC is Michael, and he is in a relationship, or at least I think he’s in a relationship with Ethan, but in the last couple of chapters, it certainly doesn’t feel like it. During the hangout with Bryce at the escape room at the end, Bryce is kissing him; There were opportunities in the laser tag scene to get a little alone time with either Raf or Bryce yet again. I’m sure in Jackie’s diamond hangout scene; we’d have an opportunity to kiss her too. Make it make sense!
And don’t even get me started on that leather scene with Ethan. It was oddly timed and wildly inappropriate, even more so if Ethan isn’t your love interest. I also felt a bit cheated. Either you go home with him and get the leather outfit and some one-on-one time with Ethan, or you fade to black at the hospital with no real explanation, closure, or even a conversation about what had just happened with the team. That could’ve been a great time to maybe further the relationship and get into Ethan’s head about his decisions as of late. Trust me, I don’t mind a bit of kink in my stories (I prefer it, actually), but that scene just felt like rewarding bad behavior.
Another thought is that we have so many great characters who don’t get enough screen time, aside from our LIs. I know I’d love to play as Elijah and look into his drug study or play as Jackie and see how the chief resident position is going. What about Bryce. He had the shake-up in the operating room. I’d love to play the stress and how he worked it out.
Does anyone else feel some kind of way about Open Heart right now?
