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A review by shaylee_reads
Hothouse Flower by Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Ratings:
Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Overall:⭐⭐⭐.75/5
Sadness:💧/5
Romance:❤️❤️❤️❤️/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance.
Tropes: Age Gap (5 Years), Friends to Lover, Secret Relationship, Slight Forbidden Relationship, Grumpy/Sunshine.
Content Warnings: Body Shaming, Bullying, Eating Disorders, Panic Attacks, Parental Abuse, PTSD, Parental Abuse (verbal), Wrongful Incarceration, Nightmares, Fatphobia, Sexual Assault, Riots, Permanent Scaring, Parental Neglect.
Hothouse Flower by Krista and Becca Ritchie is the second book in Calloway Sisters series and the fifth book in the Addicted Universe. Hothouse Flower follows the youngest and wildest of the Calloway sisters, Daisy who is now officially eighteen and excited to explore not only the world but her career in modeling on her own. That is until Paris, Fashion week, where Daisy eyes are open to the bruilty reality of the modeling industry.
With her modeling career crumbling around her, Daisy calls the one person she can trust, Ryke Meadows. Together they explore Daisy's new found freedom and the feelings that may or may not be between them.
I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't very excited for this book. I wasn't really the biggest fan of Ryke in the other books and I wasn't really digging him with Daisy but I will say I was presently surprised by how much I enjoy this book.
I'm not gonna say that I absolutely loved this book because that wasn't the case and honestly, I don't really have a reason why I didn't love this book. There was just something about it that I wasn't really vibing with.
It could be the fact that I still don't absolutely love Ryke. Although this book made me like his character a lot more than I did in the last four books, I still wouldn't put him super high on my favorite characters list.
Once again I'm not 100% why I don't absolutely love Ryke. Honestly majority of my feeling towards this book and it's characters are just based off of vibes and vibes only.
I will say I liked being able to see Ryke’s point of view of his relationship with Lo and it broke my heart to see that Ryke thinks that he is expendable to Lo especially with how much he loves Lo and would do anything for him. I loved watching their relationship grow and become stronger.
I also liked seeing how he was dealing with his feelings towards his dad and watching their relationship change and grow.
I'm gonna be honest, I have a love hate relationship with Jonathan Hale. Yes, he was verbally abusive towards Lo but he also cares so much for his children and would do anything for them. Speaking of doing anything for his children, can we talk about the fact that he gave up drinking for them… honestly, I never thought he would do that.
I know a lot of people think that Ryke is a pedo and groomer and I'm not going to go much into this but I will say that I don't agree with that.
That being said I do think there was a better way KBR could have delt with the age gap between Daisy and Ryke that would have made it feel less icky. I think they should have had a time jump between Kiss The Sky and Hothouse Flower and made Daisy around the age of 24-25, yes that would have made it so Ryke is around 30-31 but in my personal opinion a 30 year old being with a 25 year old isn't as bad as a 25 year old being with a freshly 18 year old. Honestly I think that would have made it lot easier for people to get behind their relationship.
Now that we talked about all that, let's talk about the walking sunshine that is Daisy. I very much enjoyed Daisy's character and as the youngest of 3 girls, I could very much relate to her and what she was going through.
Just like Daisy, I have delt with mental health problems but never really brought them up because I felt like other peoples problems where worse them mine and deserved more attention. I loved watching Daisy find the strength to talk about what she was going through and realizing that her mental health and problems are just as valid as her sisters.
This book really shows that some of the happiest people can have some of the saddest times in their life.
I also loved watching Daisy start to become her own person and create her own path. Watching her stand up to her mother and stop doing everything her mother just to make her happy made so happy.
Speaking of her mother, Samantha Calloway can go suck a fucking dick.
Now let's discuss Raisy, like I said earlier I wasn't 100% behind them in the past books but I was surprised with how quickly I started to really like them together in this book. I think it's hard for me not to love them when Ryke was really the only person there for Daisy. He helped her through so much shit and allowed her to truly be herself. Ryke was truly Daisy's rock and I just couldn't help but love them.
Also, some of the spicy scenes between them had me shook especially the sun roof scene, like hot damn I was not expecting that. Also the fact that he calls her sweetheart *swoon*
Overall, I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would and have really grown to love Daisy and Ryke and their relationship. I'm excited to see what more is in store for them.
Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Overall:⭐⭐⭐.75/5
Sadness:💧/5
Romance:❤️❤️❤️❤️/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance.
Tropes: Age Gap (5 Years), Friends to Lover, Secret Relationship, Slight Forbidden Relationship, Grumpy/Sunshine.
Content Warnings: Body Shaming, Bullying, Eating Disorders, Panic Attacks, Parental Abuse, PTSD, Parental Abuse (verbal), Wrongful Incarceration, Nightmares, Fatphobia, Sexual Assault, Riots, Permanent Scaring, Parental Neglect.
Hothouse Flower by Krista and Becca Ritchie is the second book in Calloway Sisters series and the fifth book in the Addicted Universe. Hothouse Flower follows the youngest and wildest of the Calloway sisters, Daisy who is now officially eighteen and excited to explore not only the world but her career in modeling on her own. That is until Paris, Fashion week, where Daisy eyes are open to the bruilty reality of the modeling industry.
With her modeling career crumbling around her, Daisy calls the one person she can trust, Ryke Meadows. Together they explore Daisy's new found freedom and the feelings that may or may not be between them.
I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't very excited for this book. I wasn't really the biggest fan of Ryke in the other books and I wasn't really digging him with Daisy but I will say I was presently surprised by how much I enjoy this book.
I'm not gonna say that I absolutely loved this book because that wasn't the case and honestly, I don't really have a reason why I didn't love this book. There was just something about it that I wasn't really vibing with.
It could be the fact that I still don't absolutely love Ryke. Although this book made me like his character a lot more than I did in the last four books, I still wouldn't put him super high on my favorite characters list.
Once again I'm not 100% why I don't absolutely love Ryke. Honestly majority of my feeling towards this book and it's characters are just based off of vibes and vibes only.
I will say I liked being able to see Ryke’s point of view of his relationship with Lo and it broke my heart to see that Ryke thinks that he is expendable to Lo especially with how much he loves Lo and would do anything for him. I loved watching their relationship grow and become stronger.
I also liked seeing how he was dealing with his feelings towards his dad and watching their relationship change and grow.
I'm gonna be honest, I have a love hate relationship with Jonathan Hale. Yes, he was verbally abusive towards Lo but he also cares so much for his children and would do anything for them. Speaking of doing anything for his children, can we talk about the fact that he gave up drinking for them… honestly, I never thought he would do that.
I know a lot of people think that Ryke is a pedo and groomer and I'm not going to go much into this but I will say that I don't agree with that.
That being said I do think there was a better way KBR could have delt with the age gap between Daisy and Ryke that would have made it feel less icky. I think they should have had a time jump between Kiss The Sky and Hothouse Flower and made Daisy around the age of 24-25, yes that would have made it so Ryke is around 30-31 but in my personal opinion a 30 year old being with a 25 year old isn't as bad as a 25 year old being with a freshly 18 year old. Honestly I think that would have made it lot easier for people to get behind their relationship.
Now that we talked about all that, let's talk about the walking sunshine that is Daisy. I very much enjoyed Daisy's character and as the youngest of 3 girls, I could very much relate to her and what she was going through.
Just like Daisy, I have delt with mental health problems but never really brought them up because I felt like other peoples problems where worse them mine and deserved more attention. I loved watching Daisy find the strength to talk about what she was going through and realizing that her mental health and problems are just as valid as her sisters.
This book really shows that some of the happiest people can have some of the saddest times in their life.
I also loved watching Daisy start to become her own person and create her own path. Watching her stand up to her mother and stop doing everything her mother just to make her happy made so happy.
Speaking of her mother, Samantha Calloway can go suck a fucking dick.
Now let's discuss Raisy, like I said earlier I wasn't 100% behind them in the past books but I was surprised with how quickly I started to really like them together in this book. I think it's hard for me not to love them when Ryke was really the only person there for Daisy. He helped her through so much shit and allowed her to truly be herself. Ryke was truly Daisy's rock and I just couldn't help but love them.
Also, some of the spicy scenes between them had me shook especially the sun roof scene, like hot damn I was not expecting that. Also the fact that he calls her sweetheart *swoon*
Overall, I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would and have really grown to love Daisy and Ryke and their relationship. I'm excited to see what more is in store for them.