Shame: An Enemies-to-Lovers College Romance (Purity)

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I am the target market here. I love the virgin/manwhore trope. Virginity bets are my thing. College romance is my favorite. I even identify with the Purity culture religious upbringing…. And yet… this was baaaaaaad She needs space so he gives it to her. Then when they meet up an unspecified amount of time later he tries to explain and apologize. She’s exceptionally angry that he didn’t believe she was a virgin before their first time and he’d told people “she’s probably lying” about it. (An ex of hers had lied and told H that they had had sex once before they broke up). She accuses him of being an actor and now she cant trust anything he says or does. This book had so much potential, truly sad.. it had this old school college book vibes like Beautiful Disaster, nerd and off campus series. It started off so damn well. We get lots of ‘youre mine’, desire, cravings, lust.. the sexual chemistry was 👌🏼 were also given a lot of praise kink and a little daddy too 😜

Also with this one I felt like it was VERY unrealistic that she would just so openly talk about wanting to lose her virginity on the internet…I looked past the manwhore/virgin combo bc the author was saying what a huge grovel it had.....there was literally no grovel. Half the book the heroine is already aware he is manipulative anyways. It just had no tension or stakes. She forgave the one infraction he did that she didn't know about almost immediately. If this was an epic grovel than romance books are dead to me 😂 This is the sister from the book in purity. She's trying to break away from The church's purity culture aka the church wanting wo!Enzo to stay chaste and virginal til marriage, not have sexual thoughts, etc. He tells her more things and she agrees to friendship sort of. He agrees he’ll “be cool” if she wants to date others (though he’s dying inside). A week passes and they hang out more. He invites her dinner with his mom and grandparents. The grandparents had disowned his mom for getting pregnant with H when she was just a teenager. At the dinner H tells grandpa he’s absolutely not going to work for their company (a restaurant that promoted conservative Christian values) and he’ll have to make amends with the daughter (his mom) they disowned if he wants family to take over. The h decides she loves him and tells him so after dinner. HEA.

She pulls a Britney and has taktok videos telling people about her experiences and then announces that she's going to dispose of this little hymen in 30 days. Kinks are thrown in at random in the cheesiest most awkward way possible. No depth at all. It’s got it all… and not a single one is done well or organically, it’s all talked to death and the hero is already a card carrying expert as he’s sexed literally all the people in all the ways dozens of times. Nothing at all is exclusive to the MCs. Nothing. I felt there was way too many tropes and other things added. It was chaotic. For example H had sex with men too. I was like what? Not that I am against it but it just felt coming from left field. Then him being manwhore, unable to love, tortured hero and player. Since I’ve literally slain the only other book I’ve read of this author, I was feeling a lil bit guilty and I’ve decided to give her another try. Skyler Mason, a devoted reader of romance novels, brings her passion for the genre to life in “Shame.” Known for her ability to craft compelling stories with strong heroines, Mason delves into the depths of human emotions and delivers a tale that will leave readers longing for more. CharactersAaaaaannnndddd she does it on TikTok, because this is 2023 and teenagers do everything publicly on social media.