![Cover image for At First Spite by Olivia Dade. Over a background of terrace houses, including the very top of the eponymous 'Spite' house, a narrow white building between two other wise end-os-terrace properties, stand two people. They are close together, with their backs to each other. On the left hands side is a handsome man, with salt-and-pepper dark brown hair. His is smirking, cocking on eyebrow, and looking towards the woman on his right. He wears a smart black suit and tie. On his right is a plus sized blonde woman in green glasses and a strawberry patterned dress. She has a bob haircut, parted at the side, which sweeps away to frame her face. Her dress is a wrap dress, that shows a respectable amount of cleavage and clings to her ample curves. She is very pretty. Above their heads, the title of the book [At First Spite] is written in a bright pink script font. Above that, right at the top of the image, the author's name [Olivia Dade] is written in a simple sans serif font, in yellow.](https://eebonnerauthor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image.png?w=300)
A huge thank you, first and foremost, to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. I received a galley of this book in return for an honest review. This was something new for me! I have never read Olivia Dade, or plus-size romance before, and I think this is maybe only the second book I’ve read where the main couple were in their late 30s- early 40s.
I really loved the style of Dade’s writing, she obviously has a fantastic flair for language, and a real love for metaphor. Every description was lovingly rendered, and you could really understand what these two might see in each other. The wider cast, and both of our love interests, were really enjoyable to read about.
Dade flips POV between Matthew and Athena throughout, which I really enjoyed. I think it made it easier to sympathise with both of them, which given the premise here was really important. I have read nothing with such a raw and honest depiction of depression, and grief. Nor have a read something with such communicative leads. I really loved their chemistry, and the care that they had for each other.
I will say there were some strange monster-romance asides, and a few interactions that seemed a bit juvenile here. On more than one occasion I felt a bit confused about age versus action, Matthew in particular seemed to have an almost child-like social naïveté. Beyond that, he had an oddly infantile childishness when scared or upset that didn’t always chime with what Athena experienced of him in her POVs. I wonder if this wouldn’t have felt a less disjointed if they were a tad younger? For me this lost a few marks there, which is why this is a solid 4 stars, rather than 5.
I was drawn to this because it seemed very similar to the film Sabrina, which is one of my favourites, and I don’t think that’s too far off really. At first spite was definitely more peppy, and Matthew (as our Linus substitute) was softer, kinder, and more easily injured than his on-screen peers: but I do think there is a similar sense of a man coming to love an ‘unsuitable’ woman for all of the vim and personality that had initially made her seem ‘unsuitable.’ I also loved how much agency Athena had versus eponymous counterpart Sabrina.
Overall this was a delightful, mildly spicy, emotionally intelligent RomCom. I really enjoyed it, and I would thoroughly recommend it!
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