Book Review: Winter (Signs of Love #0.5)

Winter by Anyta Sunday

rating: 2 stars ★★☆☆☆
format: ebook
genre: contemporary, new adult, romance (m/m)

summary:

Caspian is a college student who has dated men in with every star sign except Leo. As he hunts for love under this feline sign, his best friend Eli, who is a Virgo, falls for him.

pros:

✔ Anyta Sunday is a very skilled and talented writer when it comes to her style.

✔ The cover is beautiful.

✔ The fluff was cute when it was believable and the sex scene was well-written.

✔ I enjoyed the text messages from each failed relationship with a different sign. It added some creative fun to the chapter breaks and I liked the little graphics for the signs.

cons:

✘ Most of this story was so far-fetched that I debated whether or not to continue. We're supposed to believe that Eli and Caspian are "clueless" best friends, but they act like they are dating from the start. Look, I've never been a gay man, but I'm pretty sure if I were, I wouldn't call "platonic" male friends "babe", sneak across a ladder from my bedroom to his (yes, these are college students who are able to use each other's front doors) to sleep cuddled with him in his bed every night, share tender head kisses, or frequently wrap my legs around him. Eli and Caspian are both caught off guard when Eli's girlfriend leaves him because she feels like a third wheel.

✘ A continuation of the previous point that I thought deserved its own bullet: Caspian asks Eli to check him out before he goes on a date with "Leo", which entails... looking at his dick. Yes, he actually asks Eli to look at him naked to see if he's "ready" to go on his date.

✘ Caspian whittles everyone down to one trait, their sign, and ignores any other personality traits that fall outside of designated signs. He believes that since it didn't work out with one (insert any sign besides Leo), it is doomed to fail with another. He even referred to Flynn in his head as "The Leo" on their date, which ended early because Caspian was completely ignoring him to daydream about his gay-affirming kiss with Eli. But it's okay, because Flynn ships Caspian/Eli! Which leads me to...

✘ Everyone freaking ships Caspian and Eli. Except, apparently, Eli's now-ex-girlfriend. Their moms practically fangirl over the prospect of their son's hooking up.

✘ Dialogue between Caspian and his mom mostly consisted of Caspian relaying his woes to her, and her responding sadly with different pet names. I think all she said in the entire book was "Oh, honey/darling/dear/sweetheart/etc." I wanted her to say something else, literally anything else.

Caspian and Eli's mothers, circa 2021

overall thoughts:

I'm going to be honest, this book almost ended up on my DNF shelf several times, and once or twice I almost threw my phone. I pushed through because it was only 64 pages long. I would read more by this author as long as the other novels in this series make more sense, because her writing style really is good and I really was looking forward to reading the full Signs of Love series books.

review cross-posted: Skyler St. Clair on Goodreads & Skyler's Bookshelf Reading Blog

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