This was very good. I was a little worried because I absolutely loved The Hating Game. I know there were a lot of negative thoughts about Sally Thorne’s sophomore novel. I haven’t read it, because I was scared, but I’ll definitely pick it up now.
I was almost instantly emotionally connected to these characters. Not even just Ruthie and Teddy-the main characters-the Parlonies and Melanie also got to me. Ruthie is kind of a “not like other girls” heroine, but it worked. Her personality and behavior was shown so well. It was an expert example of show not tell. I learned so much about Ruthie from little things she would do and say. Teddy was a sweetheart who just wants to be loved. I was actually surprised how much I understood and cared about him since he didn’t get a POV.
The romance was kind of a slow burn. Usually I think about slow burn being closely tied to angst, but this didn’t feel very angsty. It felt perfectly paced especially for Teddy and Ruthie’s characters. Their chemistry wasn’t particularly sexual, but it was so palpable. You could tell they were attracted to each other physically, but also intellectually and emotionally. I don’t think I realized I was missing this in a lot of my romances.
A lot of things were predictable about this especially with the secondary plots. But I don’t mind. They weren’t really predictable because it’s convenient or expected, but because Ms. Thorne left some really good breadcrumbs.
You know what I hated about this though? The cover. I know what they were going for, but it’s so boring. If I wasn’t interested because I previously read and enjoyed a Sally Thorne book I would’ve skipped right over it. And why does Teddy not have tattoos? Would that have been too hard? I’m not a huge fan of illustrated covers, so I come into this with some bias. I just want this really great book to have an equally beautiful cover.
Thanks for reading!
Holly