Review of No Place Like Home by Chassidy Ann
(Book 2: Men of Steel Series)
No Place like Home by Chassidy Ann | My rating: 3 of 5 stars. Review on Goodreads
No Place Like Home is the second book in the Men of Steel series by Chassidy Ann. It is about two men whose pasts are entwined and who come back together later in life to finally hash out their differences. It’s a childhood-friends to enemies, then enemies-to-lovers romance set in the construction industry.
Overall, I struggled with this book because of the characterizations being too stark, the way women are portrayed in the story and the superfluous amount of detail the author goes into about secondary aspects of the story.
I liked the way the main love interests made one another stronger and helped each other to overcome their struggles, and thought they were sweet once they worked out their differences.
No Place Like Home could use some firm editing to take out details that aren’t important to the story. It would ultimately help the reader to be able to focus on the main story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Characterizations
The characters in the book are very black and white. Villains? You know they’re bad because they really never let up from being bad. One example is the teacher that Justin tries to talk to.
Full Facts: The School Teacher Villain Would Just Never Happen
As an aside, I really dislike when authors get things wrong about the education system. Because it’s pretty easy to research and see how things really are. Just a quick poll of teacher friends would give an author a font of knowledge about how teachers are taught to speak to their students’ stakeholders.
There are actual problems with education but the way the teacher spoke to Justin and his mother would literally never happen. If the teacher did act that way I can almost guarantee that the parents or guardians would go straight to the principal or the school board. And then that teacher would risk losing their certification for lack of professionalism. Which, why did Justin and his mother not know what to do in this situation? Justin’s sister is in high school. It’s not like they were unaware of how schools work. They’ve been through preschool all the way to this point in the education system.
Eventually, they do go to the principal but it’s still done in a way that is unrealistic. If you’ve read my other reviews you’ll know I have a hard time getting past inaccuracies authors make about the educational system.
Parents have the power in today’s school ecosystem, and no teacher would get away with the way that the teacher was so negative from the start.
Black and White Character Actions
It happens in a lot of other places in No Place Like Home too, where characters are so unfaceted their personality is almost a caricature of an actual personality. One example is when someone at another table comes on to one of the main characters at dinner. The situation in and of itself is unrealistic, in my opinion. One, the man was taking care of his parents at dinner so he was being presented as a full-ass adult. Secondly, the MCs were by all evidence on a date themselves.
So why would a random person come over and proposition one of the MCs at all? It goes against all social norms that this would even happen which makes the resulting actions even more over-dramatic and unrealistic.
Then the other guy is full force trying to get into William’s pants with little finesse. Then, when William turns him down he has a full tantrum. It was just hard to believe something like that would ever happen.
Justin’s Mother?
I had a big problem with Justin’s mother and thus the whole setup for the story in No Place Like Home. Ultimately it strikes me as sexist and this was hard for me to get past.
The setup is that Justin’s mother had to rely on Justin to help her parent her children, and the only explanation was that she was ‘never one to do things on her own’.
Why did she have to have the only male in the family left to step up and come home to help? She couldn’t have held it together so Justin could have finished school? Why not? With no explanation, it implies that she just (faints) couldn’t because she’s a (faints again) weak female. I could not get past this major plot issue because it says much about what the author thinks about women.
Okay. But when someone is unexpectedly widowed, that doesn’t work… You have to suck it up and take care of your kids, full stop. The author makes a specific choice to characterize the mother as so weak that she just can’t function.
Before Justin’s father died he was a construction worker. Which would have meant he was out of the house a great deal so Justin’s mother would have had to take care of the kids then, right?
Her complete inability to parent her children was a mystery to me. Explaining it would make it better, I think and it never was. And it made me feel like the author just really doesn’t like women very much. Why is the mother characterized as so weak? Like what happened to her? Was it mental illness or just a lack of ability to be a full person? Maybe it’s that her character wasn’t developed enough.
Too Much Detail
The author gets bogged down in mundane details, sometimes narrating actions in a way that is more like a screenplay instead of a novel. This made it difficult to see the important parts of the story, instead learning about a lot of secondary things that were ultimately unnecessary to the story.
It’s important to remember that the reader doesn’t need to be told every little thing that happens, things can be glossed over because it’s implied that it happens.
Like, readers know how to unlock a door. We don’t need to read a paragraph describing how the MC puts the key in and then turns the lock. The reader will understand what happens if the author just says that he unlocks the door. Or if someone is paying a cashier. We don’t need to know the cashier’s name or the exact total of the things they are paying for.
Specifically describing actions works in movie screenplays because the author is trying to convey everything a person watching a movie would see. But when reading a novel, we can leave it to the imagination how much two sodas and a pack of gum cost.
Enemies to Lovers
Because the characters in No Place Like Home were often very black/white when it comes to emotions, motivations, and actions, the shift from enemies to lovers was very abrupt. The build-up to feelings and attraction was exceedingly quick and not at all subtle. They went from complete enemies who couldn’t stand the sight of each other, to bam! They were in bed.
Spice
Once they got together, the spice was pretty good, better than the rest of the book. The author has a good way of writing intimate scenes. I just wish the book wasn’t bogged down with so much other stuff so we could read where the author is more comfortable. Also, a personal ick is when someone uses the word ‘member’ for dick. I hate that term. Anything else, please.
In Summary
This book was not very good.
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