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Oleander

A Great Expectations Reimagining

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Oleander

By: Scarlett Drake
Narrated by: George Naylor
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Caspien Deveraux was poison.

It took me years to realise that he hadn't been born like that. He'd been cultivated and nurtured by a careful hand and a bitter heart. When I first met him, he was a bud. One primed to bloom beautifully and deadly. One I should have torn out at the root.

I loathed him. I loved him. And until him, I hadn't known just how completely those two things could exist at once.

©2024 Scarlett Drake (P)2024 Scarlett Drake Romance Heartfelt Tear-jerking
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The narration was excellent as I exlected from the teaser realeased earlier. I purchased it so fast!!!
The story was slow burn,coming of age,with MCs spending long time apart but it gave the best angst and feels, and I'm still relistening to my fave parts! Loved it!

Narration + story gave me all the feels

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Fantastic book, loved the ups and downs, the back stories! Worth a listen! Would love a follow up book!

Loved it, emotional rollercoaster

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Beautifully written and wonderfully read, sometimes so sad but the love is held on to regardless. Understanding of both mc doesn't come until nearly the end but then it all makes sense and you love them both.
Listen and wait for it to wrap you in all the feels 💞

slooooowburn

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I read this book before listening to the audio. Both equally amazing. So heartbreaking but it stitches you back together

Amazing

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This is a Great Expectations retelling and tells the story of Jude and Caspien, who meet at 15 and spend the next decade loving and hurting each other in equal measure. Check content and TWs before you go into this if necessary, as the content and feelings here are large and complex, with love, hate, longing, and loathing all tangled up throughout. Although I think the book didn’t quite commit to its themes of betrayal and emotional knife-twisting quite as much as it could have done. There were definitely parts where I felt like the author was pulling her punches a little, and I wish she hadn’t!

Having read the original Dickens story many years ago, I knew roughly what to expect from this one, and I'm trying to keep this review spoiler-free for those who haven't. What I will say is that I found Scarlett’s writing and characters to be infinitely more engaging than the original tale, and although there was still an element of meandering in the writing, that meandering was far more enjoyable to be taken on, in my opinion. Both Jude and Caspien are multilayered and complex characters, but something was missing from their connection for me to feel fully invested in the heartbreak and longing Jude goes through. Perhaps if we had had more than the epilogue in Caspien's POV, I would have felt differently.

Overall, this was a great coming-of-age story and introduction to this new-to-me author, and I will definitely pick up another of her books in the future.🌶🌶.5

3.5⭐️

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