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It has been a year or more since the last smashing, a very busy year for me, but that doesn't mean its been any less smashing!
In recent times in our discord book club I read a person's story from beginning to end and decided it had been a while since I did a review. She seemed okay with it.
This is when she knew, she'd fucked up.
Taboo: The story does go into the topic of abortion. Regardless of one's opinion of the topic this is from the perspective of the characters who are in the situation that they are and the beliefs that they hold driving them to the actions they choose to take accordingly. The way the topic of abortion is covered does not reflect the belief of the author in either direction.
Other: The story does have some smut, so if you are not into that be watch out. Its not much, just three chapters. One towards the beginning-middle and two towards the end.
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tldr; Cowboy, you are the father.
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Main Characters: - Smashing! - The main characters are Cowboy and Damaged.
Cowboy is a bit of a simp at times with a huge white knight complex. He is rather head over heels. Yet, despite how little self-respect he portrays, it is for the sake of children and not his own ego. So the very thing that can be seen as creepy or a red-flag by women in terms of relationship material is portrayed as willingly self-sacrificial. He knows he stands to lose everything being involved with Damaged, but is willing to take the risk because at best, he gains everything, and at worst, he hopes to save lives. It is not perfectly self-sacrificial, and has some character flaw, because he still thinks more with his tiny head than his big one. Dude be horny! This is a perfectly normal human flaw and is relatable. This difference and combination also leads to natural drama between him and other characters because he lacks the experience to know the difference. He has resources, he knows what he wants, and is willing to offer them for what he wants. Great as that is, he is still a flawed person. Just like cowboy's willingness to think with his tiny head is dangerous, so also is his drive to get what he wants through any means and the darker side of the 'simp' traits show. He uses people around him to manipulate the situation with Damaged. The difference between it being good or bad lies in how his immediate motivation to set up the scenes as he did was to his own benefit, rather than towards her healing. I will get more into it in the plot section, but the scene does not play out as he would like and temporarily causes damage to everyone and everything, but the fact that it does not come as a direct consequence of his tampering and more by random freak chance rids his choices of consequence. So I imagine that in the future sequels that his willingness to manipulate a situation around people to suit his desires, and his lack of foresight or self-control, will lead to drama. For this story at least, it did not. That was disappointing. He was still a good character, but the lack of consequence to strong negative traits tarnished what was other side a complex, human character.
