DNF at 57%
Ugh, I so wanted to love this book…I was so convinced I would love it I saved it for when I was in a book funk. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work for me..although I might get back to it, as the writing is good, it’s just the flow of it and the content that I’m not that big of a fan of.
For one, it’s boring for a long time, especially in the beginning. And I know it’s not just me, because even those who rated it 4-5* thought it was boring in the first part.
I didn’t read the book about her mother, but I could see very clearly that it was written in such a way so as to make sure the timeline respects her book and it wasn’t always natural, imo.
One of the things I really disliked about it is that the heroine and her mother are almost cardboard copies of the Gilmore Girls. There are so many similarities, it’s mind boggling. Apart from their hair colour and the fact the heroine is a musician, there’s little else to differentiate them from the Gilmore girls:
- Mom who gets pregnant as a teenager? Check
- “Witty” banter to signify the very close relationship between mom and daughter? Check
- Daughter who is book-smart (much more than her mother) and with very high aspirations? Check
- Shy daughter who loves rules/more free-spirited mother? Check
- Excessive love of coffee by both mom and daughter? Check
- Movie nights with constant running commentary from the mother and daughter? Check
- Calling themselves the “Spencer girls”? Now that’s just pushing it…and, yes, a big fat Check.
I honestly could go on and on about the similarities between the Spencer’s and Gilmore’s. I don’t know if the author did this knowingly or not, but the 2 sets of mother and daughter are way too similar, imo.
This book also suffers from a bad case of eye-reading, which I’m not a big fan of, but I can never escape it in romances; there was just too much of it in this one!! Eyes that turn lazy (huh?), eye that are hard and soft at the same time, eyes that are soft/warm without being hard as well, blank eyes, eyes with violence behind them, eyes with tragedy behind them (Zane’s eyes in particular and the pain behind them were mentioned SO many times, I felt like stabbing them), undetermined feelings running behind eyes amok, liquid eyes, eyes that harden “just a touch” and I could go on and on. And on. I don’t know how heroines in romance books have this amazing knack for reading eyes, but I really think authors should try to explore more ways of conveying their characters’ emotions - maybe take a look around the skin surrounding the eyes? It tends to move in different ways, conveying different emotions, imo, a bit more accurately than the actual eyes.
Finally, there’s the heroine..which I’m still not sure if I like or not. Honestly, she’s just too perfect, cute, understanding, smart, beautiful…she doesn’t care about fashion like other teenage girls, she’s always known what she wants to look like. She doesn’t curse (well, until she starts). She’s not into boys and sex like other girls her age (ugh, how this annoys me - I’m sorry, but fuck. that. Am I supposed to think that these types of heroines are somehow better because they don’t seem to be affected by the same hormones as other teenagers?) - except, of course, when she meets the hero. She never judges anyone on first impressions/cliches- except she does, but a second later. And then the way she talks about those who are not as perfect, she has this very condescending way of expressing herself, that really made me dislike her at times.
The hero is ok, but I didn’t care that much about him…I really could’ve used his POV because I kind of forgot about him at times. Plus he too suffered from being perfect - super smart, barely goes to school and yet he knows everything about everything and he acted like he had the experience and patience of a 40-year old. It was very difficult for me to believe he was a teenager.
There were good parts, too though. It's safe, it's sweet, the hero is super nice and the heroine is not that bad (she just rubbed me the wrong way). I can definitely see why others would love it, but it wasn't for me.