Fairuz ᥫ᭡.'s Reviews > Wild Card

𐙚⋆˚✿˖° I’m actually in pain right now because HOW did an Elsie Silver book do me this dirty 😭
⭐️ 2 stars …and honestly that’s me being generous because I didn’t actively throw the book across the room.

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Okay so first of all…this book SHOULD’VE been my Roman Empire. Ex-boyfriend’s dad?? Age gap?? Forced proximity?? Small town drama?? Like HELLO?? That’s basically a buffet of chaos and tension and forbidden “you shouldn’t be doing that sir”. But nope. Instead I got 400 pages of mid-life crisis tantrums and zero chemistry. I swear I could’ve gotten more tension from two trees staring at each other in silence.

Alse Bash made me hate the age gap romance trope. The 40-something-year-old rage, the jealous wall-punching, the constant saltiness at his SON…like, it’s giving “toddler stripped of his iPad”. That’s not hot. That’s therapy homework.

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👨‍🦳 Bash (aka middle-aged baby) → supposed to be this hot grumpy pilot… instead, he’s a literal manchild punching walls, whining about his son like a toddler who lost his favorite toy. “I saw her first”?? Dude, grow the hell up. Not attractive, just repulsive.

🙄 Gwen → the “sweet girl with a heart of gold” stereotype. Yoga teacher slash nurse slash random savior of old men, constantly annoying, boobs mentioned every 3 seconds like that’s supposed to be a personality trait.

🧢 Tripp → written like the author needed someone to hate. Whiny, annoying, zero purpose except to scream “look guys forbidden trope!!!”

🛌 Clyde → idk why he existed besides making Gwen play nurse like she’s doing community service hours.

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Also it all felt physical only. Like where was the longing?? The emotional pull?? The “I shouldn’t want you but I do” fire?? It was just lust + tantrums + small town side quests that made no sense.

By the halfway point I was begging for SOMETHING—yearning, tension, forbidden glances, ANY spark. Instead I got predictable plot beats, cringe smut, and side characters that irritated me into a reading slump.

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Closing thought:
I’m gonna go cleanse my brain with something messy, chaotic, and actually romantic because I deserve compensation 😭

Thanks for coming to my TED talk about why age-gap romance should NOT include middle-aged men with toddler rage ✌️