I could not feel the chemistry between Jazz and Damon, for two reasons. One, their conversations (both in person and over text) were so boring and basic? I did not feel the huge connection that the book kept telling us there was. To be honest, the writing was very straight forward, and did not keep me enthralled. The dialogue was so uncomfortable... the second reason was because there was no consistency with the characters’ motivations. She wants him, but then when he’s interested she doesn’t want him because he’s a play boy, so then she’s just going to sleep with him and then that’s never brought up again, so instead she’s in love, but unsure, he’s surprised that she became hot because she just used to be his sister’s friend, then suddenly he’s in love with her and oh, now all their history proves that actually both of them were pretty aware that there was massive amounts of sexual tension between them the whole time. For some reason it’s totally okay that he is her direct boss and they’re dating. There was a thing of enemies to lovers, but they seemed to give up on that trope almost immediately. For a hot second it was used as one of the reasons why she couldn’t trust him.
But get this, the whole time he’s also cat fishing her? I feel like that storyline was originally meant to go somewhere else, but instead it doesn’t really do anything except become a creepy way for him to manipulate her, and she’s weirdly completely fine about it. That really bamboozled me. Mostly because... what did it add to the story?
All the ‘problems’ were not issues. Every single one of them. One of my biggest pet peeves.
On top of it, at the end they get a free house. Cool. At the start, Jazz gets a job, but even though she has no experience, gets annoyed at Damon because it’s not the exact job she wanted, then proceeds to be annoyed that she has to do work (photocopying). The next day Jazz gets most of the day off (for a reason that does not make sense to me), so she goes out and gets drunk, and starts the following morning off by saying this when Damon asks how her day off was:
“It was good. A little too good, actually. I’m a bit hungover, so if you could take it easy on me today, that’d be great.”
This was all in the name of their back and forth bantering, but... no one can relate to the entitlement here...
I feel like my above description of the inconsistency of character motivation sounds plausible, because in most romances you can read between the lines. You know when he is denying his attraction, or she’s trying to not fall for him, etc. But this book literally seemed to have different characters - like the author hadn’t properly figured out which tropes she wanted to cover.
For example, this is Damon’s thoughts when he first sees Jazz at work:
“Seeing her at that elevator makes me do a double take. This isn’t the little Jazmine I grew up with. She isn’t the knobby-kneed kid that always ate the last slice of pizza. She isn’t the pesky teenage girl that spied on me with my dates. Hell, this isn’t even the girl I saw just two weeks ago that was lounging on my sister’s couch in cat-print pajamas and eating ice cream straight out of the carton while mocking me. This is a whole new Jazmine—a grown woman with breasts I want to see, curves I want to memorize, and mile-long legs that I want to run my hand up... What the fuck am I doing? This isn’t just some random woman that walked into the elevator. This is Jazzy.”
And this is after he has already decided he wants to pursue Jazz, and so he is cat-fishing her:
“That is pretty amazing. Who knew we’d be so perfect for each other? I know that she was an annoying kid that grew into a beautiful, sexy woman, but I didn’t realize we were into the same things.”
Then a chapter or so later this is in his chapter:
“Something overcomes me. Love. These feelings aren’t new. I’ve always had them. I’ve been in love with her from the moment my seven-year-old eyes met hers. I’ve just been too blind to see it.”
Along with this:
“You’re the only one I ever wanted and the only one I couldn’t have. I’m tired of not getting what I want, Jazmine.”
If you’re going to have that epic love story type of vibe where they have always had a connection, then you cannot have him being surprised that they have a connection. It was also annoying reading that he always wanted her, when we’re getting his perspective that he’s surprised by being sexually attracted to her at the start of the book. That is just one example of how the flow of their development didn’t work for me.
Or even just parts like this, from Jazz’s perspective:
“Maybe it’s because he’s been my protector my whole life. I know he would never do anything to hurt me. He’s fought too long and too hard to see me broken now.”
When an earlier conflict had been about if she could trust him or not because he bullied her all the time as a kid, hence their constant bickering while growing up. It just... ergh!