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kvreadsandrecs's review against another edition
2.0
Wowowowow. Felt like I was in a weird fever dream that wouldn’t end for days.
I’m disappointed. I liked this whole Romeo and Juliet thing but to have it spun and sold as a Cinderella retelling is odd. The characters weren’t interesting and there wasn’t a whole lot of growth or maturity. Plus instalove? No thanks.
I’m disappointed. I liked this whole Romeo and Juliet thing but to have it spun and sold as a Cinderella retelling is odd. The characters weren’t interesting and there wasn’t a whole lot of growth or maturity. Plus instalove? No thanks.
notblue's review
3.0
It was okay but it was more of a Romeo and Juliet story and i hate that play. I kinda vibed with the music edge of this story tho, even if it was pretentious at times. Not a bad read just kinda lame
3/5
3/5
millis's review
4.0
fun light read exactly what i wanted at the moment. Well written, and i enjoyed the characters very much also i wanted them to get together asap. this was so cute.
eleonora_fr's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
kovost's review
1.0
I do not ever want to look in the direction of this book ever again for the rest of my life and I don’t mean that in the funny dramatic “oh haha I loved this book so much that it hurts me to even think about” kind of way that I sometimes mean. I mean it like this book looked me deep in the eye as it reached out painstakingly slowly and said “sorry, no refunds” as it took ten years of my whole damn life.
Which is to say that I did not like this book at all and the only reason I didn’t fling it so hard that it ceased to even exist on my DNF shelf is because I was being immensely stubborn since it’s the end of the year and I have a 75 book challenge to finish before December 31st and also, mama really did raise a true dumbass.
The basic summary of this book is that Nate and Cameron meet at some small club in LA and dance to some no-name indie band and then bond over their superior taste in music and connect on some deep cosmic connection within five minutes of even being near each other. Then Nate finds out that Cameron is the last person he should ever develop feelings for because he’s the heir to the man that ruined his dad’s life so he bolts before Cameron even finds out his name. Cameron, coming from the money of a large music industry, wants to do more than just inherit the business and he also wants to find this boy that he swears he’s in love with after one single moment so he recruits his sister’s help to find Mystery Boy. Which backfires because his sister is a huge influence.
So, then Nate and Cameron go back and forth with many people telling them that they can’t have feelings for each other due to complicated pasts, Nate swinging harder than a pendulum between his feelings because he has no idea what he wants, and lots of theatrics.
Am I making an effort to summarize this book as professionally as I could? Not really. Was this the worst summary of a book I’ve ever written in my entire duration of reviewing? Absolutely.
Here’s the thing: this book reads like a bad fanfiction I stumbled upon on Wattpad that had this nice, custom cover and somewhat amusing summary that tricked me into thinking it might be a cute and quick read to pass some time while I’m waiting for the bus to come because I forgot my current read at home in my rush and my Kindle is dying.
It was not fun. It was not cute. The metaphorical bus driver fell asleep at the wheel, swerved, and just annihilated me on the sidewalk and I welcomed it.
The book relies too heavily on cliché tropes which would be fine if they hadn’t been poorly executed as well, shallow characterization that barely exceeds past Nate’s sexuality and Cameron’s dream of being an artist rather than a businessman, insta-love of the 2009 variety, lazy mental illness representation, pretentious and unbearable prose/dialogue about music, and underhanded jabs towards pop music nowadays and the people that like it with the unmistakable implications that the people that make it and the people that enjoy it are shallow and stupid people. As someone that firmly believes in music tastes being entirely subjective and no one should be shamed for theirs, and wholeheartedly believes that slapping a Diversity Card in any form on a book doesn’t mask the trash you created try as you might, this book was really and truly just doomed for me from the start. Like I said, pure stubbornness kept me from metaphorically ripping the pages out of this to make myself a nice little fire for the snow we got about 30% in.
If I hated myself a little more than I do naturally, I would continue ranting about the patronizing tone this whole book took on that crawled under my skin because both Nate and Cameron are pretentious dillweeds that think their taste in music is superior, especially because Nate is a supposed prodigy and Cameron grew up in the music industry. I would also revisit the fact that Nate and Cameron are cardboard cut-outs of really tired out clichés and while I do enjoy a good cliché trope here and there, the poor execution and characterization left a lot to be desired. Once again, might I remind people, that while I applaud diversity where it’s given, it doesn’t cover up lazy writing. Especially when your characters are extremely unlikable and insubstantial.
However, as surprising as this may be to some, I actually don’t hate myself that much yet so I’m not going to waste any more time or energy on this book. I don’t actually know if I just missed something or I’m just that much of a cynic because I’ve seen a lot of high ratings and good reviews for this book, but this book was just really not made for me. At all. I tried to think of even one redeeming quality and I didn’t make it very far.
So I guess basically, in tl;dr fashion, the moral of the story is that I will never get back the time I lost reading this and I have many regrets! Cheers!
Which is to say that I did not like this book at all and the only reason I didn’t fling it so hard that it ceased to even exist on my DNF shelf is because I was being immensely stubborn since it’s the end of the year and I have a 75 book challenge to finish before December 31st and also, mama really did raise a true dumbass.
The basic summary of this book is that Nate and Cameron meet at some small club in LA and dance to some no-name indie band and then bond over their superior taste in music and connect on some deep cosmic connection within five minutes of even being near each other. Then Nate finds out that Cameron is the last person he should ever develop feelings for because he’s the heir to the man that ruined his dad’s life so he bolts before Cameron even finds out his name. Cameron, coming from the money of a large music industry, wants to do more than just inherit the business and he also wants to find this boy that he swears he’s in love with after one single moment so he recruits his sister’s help to find Mystery Boy. Which backfires because his sister is a huge influence.
So, then Nate and Cameron go back and forth with many people telling them that they can’t have feelings for each other due to complicated pasts, Nate swinging harder than a pendulum between his feelings because he has no idea what he wants, and lots of theatrics.
Am I making an effort to summarize this book as professionally as I could? Not really. Was this the worst summary of a book I’ve ever written in my entire duration of reviewing? Absolutely.
Here’s the thing: this book reads like a bad fanfiction I stumbled upon on Wattpad that had this nice, custom cover and somewhat amusing summary that tricked me into thinking it might be a cute and quick read to pass some time while I’m waiting for the bus to come because I forgot my current read at home in my rush and my Kindle is dying.
It was not fun. It was not cute. The metaphorical bus driver fell asleep at the wheel, swerved, and just annihilated me on the sidewalk and I welcomed it.
The book relies too heavily on cliché tropes which would be fine if they hadn’t been poorly executed as well, shallow characterization that barely exceeds past Nate’s sexuality and Cameron’s dream of being an artist rather than a businessman, insta-love of the 2009 variety, lazy mental illness representation, pretentious and unbearable prose/dialogue about music, and underhanded jabs towards pop music nowadays and the people that like it with the unmistakable implications that the people that make it and the people that enjoy it are shallow and stupid people. As someone that firmly believes in music tastes being entirely subjective and no one should be shamed for theirs, and wholeheartedly believes that slapping a Diversity Card in any form on a book doesn’t mask the trash you created try as you might, this book was really and truly just doomed for me from the start. Like I said, pure stubbornness kept me from metaphorically ripping the pages out of this to make myself a nice little fire for the snow we got about 30% in.
If I hated myself a little more than I do naturally, I would continue ranting about the patronizing tone this whole book took on that crawled under my skin because both Nate and Cameron are pretentious dillweeds that think their taste in music is superior, especially because Nate is a supposed prodigy and Cameron grew up in the music industry. I would also revisit the fact that Nate and Cameron are cardboard cut-outs of really tired out clichés and while I do enjoy a good cliché trope here and there, the poor execution and characterization left a lot to be desired. Once again, might I remind people, that while I applaud diversity where it’s given, it doesn’t cover up lazy writing. Especially when your characters are extremely unlikable and insubstantial.
However, as surprising as this may be to some, I actually don’t hate myself that much yet so I’m not going to waste any more time or energy on this book. I don’t actually know if I just missed something or I’m just that much of a cynic because I’ve seen a lot of high ratings and good reviews for this book, but this book was just really not made for me. At all. I tried to think of even one redeeming quality and I didn’t make it very far.
So I guess basically, in tl;dr fashion, the moral of the story is that I will never get back the time I lost reading this and I have many regrets! Cheers!
jenlouisegallant's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved the characters story. The only reason I couldn't give it a higher rating is because I didn't understand any of the music references. You need to be really I to music to k ow exactly what they're talking about.
jokeduprez3's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0