3 stars feels too generous but considering all the bad writing the Galatea app is filled with, I say maybe 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
The book could use editing - from typos to contradictions in small parts of the story - it was bothersome enough for me, but didn’t ruin the story completely like in some of the books on the app.
I like enemy to lover tropes but this one didn’t quite fill that. It was clear they weren’t supposed to like each other, but other than some silly word barbs it didn’t fill the genre. Then the MCs become “enemies with benefits”🙄 yeah eyerolls all around. They never seemed like enemies only that they wanted others to believe they were. So it wasn’t a genuine enemy to lover story, but close enough I guess.
Will is the small town sheriff’s son. Haley is the daughter of the leader of the small town gang that does bad stuff but minor enough that they don’t make money and live in a trailer park. Haley has super cliche horrible parents who are abusive to her (mom is physical & neglectful and dad is neglectful) and do drugs (mostly mom is mentioned snorting lines). Her dad has Haley in an arranged marriage situation to have Snake (same age as Haley but son of the second in command so to speak) so he can take over this teeny insignificant gang that makes no money🙄 again lots of eye-rolling because why!? This is not a mafia operation or even a slightly successful gang. Small fish that should be easily taken down but they aren’t even on the radar of the FBI because again they don’t do much except terrorize their own it seems. And piss off the sheriff since he can’t get charges to stick because of a supposed dirty judge who the gang is blackmailing. So why an arranged marriage? I guess to make the love stories between the MCs and the side characters more dramatic.
The way Will and Haley are eventually able to be together and take down the gang (including her father) is ridiculous and involved the illegal trade of exotic animals. How the hell this little trailer park gang got involved in that - no clue but sure whatever.
And Will’s super idiotic and super unnecessary “heroics” at the end was just the biggest eyeroll situation of all. He is an imbecile.
The independence given to these kids was ridiculous. They were unsupervised through 95% of this book (even in school during their “free period”). I get they’re supposed to be 18, but I mean even 15 yo Chloe is doing overnight babysitting for a teacher who also works at a bar…what teacher trusts their baby for long stretches of time like that to a 15yo? And not necessarily bad I guess but boy does this allow for tons of sexual activity. Great job on all of them being so mature and relatively safe about it. More mature than the average teenager when it comes to sex.
The epilogue end was as expected for the most part. But the “hate” sex in a janitor closet at the art show at the age of 23 just seemed icky, and not sexy.
What the book had going for it - well at least it seemed to have a more developed story (again compared to most Galatea books I’ve attempted to read and quit on). The pacing wasn’t too bad either. And it was a very easy, quick read.