Well hi! This is my first post on my blog, thought it would be nice to write a review of my latest read.
I picked this up because I loved The Spanish Love Deception and was excited to read about Rosie’s story. So here are my thoughts on the book.
About the Book
Rosie Graham has recently quit her high-paying engineering job to pursue her passion as a romance writer. Having published her first book and earning a book deal due to its success, Rosie then comes across every writer’s kryptonite – writer’s block.
Then the ceiling of her apartment falls in which forces her to temporarily live in her best friend Lina’s apartment, but… she’s unaware that Lina has already lent it to her cousin Lucas. A cousin that Rosie is very much aware of since she’s already stalked him online and developed a very real crush on him.
Lucas finds out about Rosie’s writer’s block and suggests the idea that they go on “experimental dates” to help bring out inspiration for her book all the while reassuring each other that they are just friends. Being just friends though, might prove to be challenging given the circumstances.
The Review
The parts delving into how Rosie was feeling about her sudden change in career, doubting herself, and lacking the confidence to move forward was nice and made her feel more real. The part about how she didn’t want to make her dad upset with her choice is definitely relatable to many people.
However, I just couldn’t connect with Rosie and found her a bit bland and unmemorable. She kept repeating how much she had stalked Lucas on Instagram and gone through every nook and crevice of his profile and this to me was pretty creepy. Her character was a little childish in the way she perceives situations. It was pretty obvious that Lucas was into her, but she would keep doubting it when the man was literally flirting with her.
Lucas was average, and his only redeeming qualities are that he can cook a good meal and has cute Spanish nicknames for Rosie. I liked his POV too, to an extent. You get to see how he’s teasing Rosie and notices the effect he’s having on her which I thought was cute, sometimes.
The book was slow. I mean, really slow. Even at the halfway point, it felt like there was no development in their relationship and I was getting bored. There was too much repetition in the dialogue or just the way the scenes played out. For instance, Rosie would constantly blurt out something and tell the reader that she didn’t mean to say that, which became boring very fast and only added to her somewhat childish characteristics.
A lot of the book came off as unrealistic, too fictional in a way, and very cheesy. I couldn’t help but physically cringe at some of the dialogue. Running through the airport, dancing and kissing in the rain, cute cooking date, yes, it was all there and it just didn’t come together. The ending was really over the top and so it was unsatisfying.
Honestly… the best part of this book was Aaron.
Rating: ⭐⭐/ 5
I was really excited for this book after The Spanish Love Deception, but it just fell flat.