Wow – what an extremely toxic “ romance”. Which I think is the point? I did finish the whole thing. I’m giving it more than two stars probably because of my love of trashy reality shows, which Magnolia Parks reminds me of.

I thought the author did a good job of justifying BJ‘s actions. I think it’s hard to write from a toxic character’s point of view and justify all of the horrible things they’re doing. Not only justified but somehow pointed the finger back at another person. So in character, writing and building aspect, the author did a great job. (Not saying I like or agree with BJ at all… ha)

The author also did a good job of overall story presentation. There was a lot of inner thoughts from the characters which could get old quickly. Character’s inner thoughts can feel more like rambling or filler rather than storytelling. Again the author pulled it off very well.

All that being said, the story is extremely repetitive. In hindsight, maybe I should have counted how many times the author wrote a the story of BJ cheating. Magnolia crying. Getting back together. Then someone ‘cheats’ but then they get back together and on and on. Maybe a couple times would’ve been fine, but to have the entire story rotating in this endless cycle it just got boring.

The only reason I even finished the book is because I wanted something new. I wanted to know how it ended. And spoiler alert it’s not gonna give you much. You will 100% be disappointed and feel that you wasted your time reading this book. 

So no, I would not recommend this book to my book friends. I’m not even sure how it got on my TBR and why it stayed there for so long. I made it through and if you want a ‘trashy’-reality-show-romance novel with no spice, this book could be for you.

P.S. Kudos to the author… for those not interested in spice, this might be for you!

Amazon Link – Magnolia Parks By: Jessa Hastings

Stats: 442 pages – First published July 13, 2021