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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
This was my Book of the Month subscription pick for May and it was probably one of my least favorite books I have read in a long time. It claims to subvert the cliched love triangle trope in a satirical and clever fashion, but I found that not to be true at all. Instead it is a book that drags on for way too long, making absolutely no sense even within its own fictionalized universe. The writing was mediocre at best and the characters were bland and uninteresting.
The Love Interest is a book that has been on my mind for months because its concept is completely original and it sounded so much fun, so I already knew which book I had to pick up in May.
And I read it as planned. However, my feedback isn't the one I thought I would have.
And before anything, let me tell you this: I liked The Love Interest. It was an overall good book that worked around this fantastic idea that there's an organization that locks people away - so they can work to be the best physical version of themselves - and then assigns them to become close with important people, or even their loved ones, and share the secrets that they gather. It's like they're spies. And at this point, everything's good, but the book complicates things.
So, first let's talk about what I liked more about The Love Interest.
The organization itself was an incredible and well-done concept. The author came up with an original and complex idea of an organization that profits from secrets that are shared though relationships that were manipulated from the very beginning.
The LGBT romance between the main characters - Caden and Dylan - was another amazing quality, not only because of the diversity aspect, but also because they're both spies who are trying to make a girl fall in love with one of them, so the perspective of them falling in love with each other instead sounds so much fun! Regarding Caden and Dylan's relationship, I really liked them together - until I stopped enjoying the story, because nothing made sense anymore.
So, what happen? There's a point in the book where the story changes its direction completely and goes off into something that - for me at least - doesn't make a lot of sense with what the author wrote in the first half of the book. And I don't think that that sudden shift worked well for the book itself.
There was something else that I also didn't liked: after the sudden shift, the story takes off at an incredible speed. Everything happens so fast, and what should have taken longer is actually what happens in a couple of chapters. That didn't work for me, since it made the climax seem unrealistic.
So, briefly The Love Interest could have been an easy 5 stars book, if it hadn't shift completely from the plot and if it hadn't finished the story prematurely.
READ THE REST OF MY THOUGHTS HERE: http://www.thebooktarian.com/2017/05/blog-tour-review-favorite-quotes_11.html (ENGLISH REVIEW)
And I read it as planned. However, my feedback isn't the one I thought I would have.
And before anything, let me tell you this: I liked The Love Interest. It was an overall good book that worked around this fantastic idea that there's an organization that locks people away - so they can work to be the best physical version of themselves - and then assigns them to become close with important people, or even their loved ones, and share the secrets that they gather. It's like they're spies. And at this point, everything's good, but the book complicates things.
So, first let's talk about what I liked more about The Love Interest.
The organization itself was an incredible and well-done concept. The author came up with an original and complex idea of an organization that profits from secrets that are shared though relationships that were manipulated from the very beginning.
The LGBT romance between the main characters - Caden and Dylan - was another amazing quality, not only because of the diversity aspect, but also because they're both spies who are trying to make a girl fall in love with one of them, so the perspective of them falling in love with each other instead sounds so much fun! Regarding Caden and Dylan's relationship, I really liked them together - until I stopped enjoying the story, because nothing made sense anymore.
So, what happen? There's a point in the book where the story changes its direction completely and goes off into something that - for me at least - doesn't make a lot of sense with what the author wrote in the first half of the book. And I don't think that that sudden shift worked well for the book itself.
There was something else that I also didn't liked: after the sudden shift, the story takes off at an incredible speed. Everything happens so fast, and what should have taken longer is actually what happens in a couple of chapters. That didn't work for me, since it made the climax seem unrealistic.
So, briefly The Love Interest could have been an easy 5 stars book, if it hadn't shift completely from the plot and if it hadn't finished the story prematurely.
READ THE REST OF MY THOUGHTS HERE: http://www.thebooktarian.com/2017/05/blog-tour-review-favorite-quotes_11.html (ENGLISH REVIEW)
Okay, so I finally got my hands on this! And you know what? It was amazing, fight me if you wish.
I was kind of worried after the first reviews came in after the release. Such a disappointment, bla bla bla, so I was ready for this to go to hell but still had hope god dammit.
And yes!! YESSSSSS this worked for me. Let me quote Emi Miranda's review for a bit here:
This was never going to be a serious book! Why are y'all geting your panties in the twist over the not realistic things and messy plot? Seriously, the whole point of this book was to parody the genre, it's so meta I can't even.
And you expected dark backstory and even darker current events? Oh yes, nothing more sets up a joke about YA tropes than basically brainwashed and enslaved characters. That would be sooo fun.
I think you can tell, I'm enjoying my salty gay tea here. So get over it. Either you are ready to embrace silliness on all acounts from this book or just don't read it at all. I'm quite sad that this is geting so many bad ratings, because it's good on it's own way!
So let's get to the point: IT WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED.
* I don't think Caden was boring
* I totally went down with that ship and his chemistry with Dyl was amazing
* Juliet was amazing!! She has a mad scientist lab! AND IS WORKING ON A BLACK WIDOW SUIT??! I'm sorry, I need a second to breathe.
*Couldn't stop reading, finished the book in 7 hours
* Don't even start me on part II ending, that sucker punch right in the guts got me doubling over with feels. I think I walked it off for at least 10 minutes
*The perfect writing on Caden realising he has more than platonic feelings and suddenly understanding some encounters from the past. Hell to the yeah, #ownvoices!
Yes, yes, this didn't get 5 stars, because there were some messy things.
*some dialogues were very awkward [but after a while I just written that off to meta. That indeed sounded like pretentious paranormal YA novel from the year 2010.]
*partIII sudenly kicked in all the action and "bigger things" so it felt like I was reading an ending for a different book.
*for a while I was annoyed by the unlogical procedure to kill the unsuccessful Love Interests, but they kind of referred to it in the end.
So yeah, it was a wild ride, and maybe not in the way I was expecting but I certainly enjoyed it and regret nothing.
I was kind of worried after the first reviews came in after the release. Such a disappointment, bla bla bla, so I was ready for this to go to hell but still had hope god dammit.
And yes!! YESSSSSS this worked for me. Let me quote Emi Miranda's review for a bit here:
This book was the YA equivalent to a low budget movie. Within the first few pages, I realized this and changed all my expectations. This wasn't going to be a James Bond film. Instead, it was gonna be that one spy movie starring Hailee Steinfeld and the girl from Game of Thrones .
This was never going to be a serious book! Why are y'all geting your panties in the twist over the not realistic things and messy plot? Seriously, the whole point of this book was to parody the genre, it's so meta I can't even.
And you expected dark backstory and even darker current events? Oh yes, nothing more sets up a joke about YA tropes than basically brainwashed and enslaved characters. That would be sooo fun.
I think you can tell, I'm enjoying my salty gay tea here. So get over it. Either you are ready to embrace silliness on all acounts from this book or just don't read it at all. I'm quite sad that this is geting so many bad ratings, because it's good on it's own way!
So let's get to the point: IT WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED.
* I don't think Caden was boring
* I totally went down with that ship and his chemistry with Dyl was amazing
* Juliet was amazing!! She has a mad scientist lab! AND IS WORKING ON A BLACK WIDOW SUIT??! I'm sorry, I need a second to breathe.
*Couldn't stop reading, finished the book in 7 hours
* Don't even start me on part II ending, that sucker punch right in the guts got me doubling over with feels. I think I walked it off for at least 10 minutes
*The perfect writing on Caden realising he has more than platonic feelings and suddenly understanding some encounters from the past. Hell to the yeah, #ownvoices!
Yes, yes, this didn't get 5 stars, because there were some messy things.
*some dialogues were very awkward [but after a while I just written that off to meta. That indeed sounded like pretentious paranormal YA novel from the year 2010.]
*partIII sudenly kicked in all the action and "bigger things" so it felt like I was reading an ending for a different book.
*for a while I was annoyed by the unlogical procedure to kill the unsuccessful Love Interests, but they kind of referred to it in the end.
So yeah, it was a wild ride, and maybe not in the way I was expecting but I certainly enjoyed it and regret nothing.
This book was a little different from what I was expecting. I knew that both of our main characters were spies, but I still kind of expected this book to be a cute contemporary-ish romance where (basically) everyone finds love in the end. That is not this book. There’s a much bigger conspiracy/fighting the bad corporation aspect that was surprising to me. The plot was pretty slow at the beginning, but then moved a lot quicker after about two-thirds of the way through. However, I felt that there were some plot holes/really unrealistic things (even given the world that they were in). Like, a bunch of celebrities are supposedly in relationships with Love Interests, but celebrities always date other celebrities? And their relationships don’t usually last forever so…what gives? I just don’t understand how Love Interests could realistically be infiltrating our world, that’s all.
I thought the characters were just alright. Caden wasn’t super likable and I didn’t find Dylan super likable either. It was honestly just hard to really get to know the two main characters as they were basically putting on an act the whole time. I thought the fact that they had trainers in their heads the whole time was pretty weird as well. And Caden’s trainer was always like, “Sorry I’m late/missed that, I was on a date”. Cut to me scratching my head and wondering why the heck that detail was necessary. Caden’s relationship with his “parents” also seemed unnecessary. I didn’t see how that added anything to the story or to Caden’s development. I don’t even think they really helped us to learn more about the big bad company. They were just kind of…there.
I will say, that I thought this book did a great job poking some fun at the “bad boy vs guy next door competing for a below-the-radar girl’s heart” trope. There were some classic scenes especially when it came to Dylan: broody bad boy reads poetry, sexy bad boy at the school dance, hardcore bad boy rides a motorcycle, etc. It really reminded me of certain other books and made those things kind of laughable–in a good way. It’s so hard for me to say anything else without spoilers, but without giving anything away, I thought that the way sexuality was represented in this book was a little…manipulative? It seemed like it came into play when it was convenient. Perhaps I just didn’t get it, though?
Overall, I thought this book was pretty good. It was a refreshing take on some common tropes and I really enjoyed that part of it. Other aspects of the book fell flat, but they weren’t necessarily deal-breakers. I think this author has a bright future in YA ahead of him.
Overall Rating: 3
Language: Moderate
Violence: Heavy
Smoking/Drinking: Mild
Sexual Content: Moderate
Note: I received this book free from the author/blog tour in exchange for an honest review.
I thought the characters were just alright. Caden wasn’t super likable and I didn’t find Dylan super likable either. It was honestly just hard to really get to know the two main characters as they were basically putting on an act the whole time. I thought the fact that they had trainers in their heads the whole time was pretty weird as well. And Caden’s trainer was always like, “Sorry I’m late/missed that, I was on a date”. Cut to me scratching my head and wondering why the heck that detail was necessary. Caden’s relationship with his “parents” also seemed unnecessary. I didn’t see how that added anything to the story or to Caden’s development. I don’t even think they really helped us to learn more about the big bad company. They were just kind of…there.
I will say, that I thought this book did a great job poking some fun at the “bad boy vs guy next door competing for a below-the-radar girl’s heart” trope. There were some classic scenes especially when it came to Dylan: broody bad boy reads poetry, sexy bad boy at the school dance, hardcore bad boy rides a motorcycle, etc. It really reminded me of certain other books and made those things kind of laughable–in a good way. It’s so hard for me to say anything else without spoilers, but without giving anything away, I thought that the way sexuality was represented in this book was a little…manipulative? It seemed like it came into play when it was convenient. Perhaps I just didn’t get it, though?
Overall, I thought this book was pretty good. It was a refreshing take on some common tropes and I really enjoyed that part of it. Other aspects of the book fell flat, but they weren’t necessarily deal-breakers. I think this author has a bright future in YA ahead of him.
Overall Rating: 3
Language: Moderate
Violence: Heavy
Smoking/Drinking: Mild
Sexual Content: Moderate
Note: I received this book free from the author/blog tour in exchange for an honest review.
Finally! A book that has the love triangle that I've always wanted, the two guys going off together while the girl is left confused about what just happened. The Love Interest plays with the YA tropes we know so well and turns it into a fun sci-fi (ish) romance. (It's a weird sci-fi though as it's almost contemporary but then nah we have killer robots.)
The Love Interest is about a secret organization that trains teenage spies to become Love Interests to important people, or people who will become important. Their goal is to get close and learn their secrets, then sell the secrets to the highest bidder. Caden is a Nice, destined to be the sweet boy next door type while Dylan is the leather jacket wearing Bad, set up to be the bad boy. They have to compete against each other for the girl the organization has chosen for them. Whoever doesn't win, ends up dead or mind-wiped. Everything is going good for Caden in the competition, until he ends up falling for his rival, which obviously will not end well.
For the most part of this book, I really liked it! It had some cute romance and I loved Caden and Dyl together. I liked the antics of their competition for the same girl. I liked how this book was making jokes at the whole YA love triangle tropes. And I liked how it didn't seem to take itself seriously. Until suddenly it did? And things just went south for me.
It seemed at a certain point later in the book, all the fun just stopped and suddenly I wasn't into what was happening, because it just didn't seem realistic or probable.
As for the characters, this is a book that would have been 100% better with duel POVs instead of just Caden. I get that the part he was playing was nice guy doormat but damn. Dylan's POV might have been nice to add in.
But also, one thing Caden did that made everything worth it:
The Love Interest is about a secret organization that trains teenage spies to become Love Interests to important people, or people who will become important. Their goal is to get close and learn their secrets, then sell the secrets to the highest bidder. Caden is a Nice, destined to be the sweet boy next door type while Dylan is the leather jacket wearing Bad, set up to be the bad boy. They have to compete against each other for the girl the organization has chosen for them. Whoever doesn't win, ends up dead or mind-wiped. Everything is going good for Caden in the competition, until he ends up falling for his rival, which obviously will not end well.
For the most part of this book, I really liked it! It had some cute romance and I loved Caden and Dyl together. I liked the antics of their competition for the same girl. I liked how this book was making jokes at the whole YA love triangle tropes. And I liked how it didn't seem to take itself seriously. Until suddenly it did? And things just went south for me.
"There is one thing that's always bugged me," I say. "I'd like to know why the LIC is so focused on pairing us in high school. Like, wouldn't it be better to send us in when we're a bit older? No one finds the love of their life while they're a teenager."
"You haven't read any YA novels recently, have you?"
It seemed at a certain point later in the book, all the fun just stopped and suddenly I wasn't into what was happening, because it just didn't seem realistic or probable.
Spoiler
You're telling me a bunch of clueless teens were able to take down this super secret organization SO easily? Really? There were trackers but they weren't even tracking their wayward Love Interests besides one little robot that was easily taken out? And what happened to both the coaches? Kaylee who was barely ever seen besides a voice in Caden's head just up and left without any fanfare? This organization is so bad at their jobs. And what was the point of them ALL going besides some canon-fodder? Such a waste.As for the characters, this is a book that would have been 100% better with duel POVs instead of just Caden. I get that the part he was playing was nice guy doormat but damn. Dylan's POV might have been nice to add in.
Spoiler
But what? In the end Dyl said everything between them was fake and then suddenly he's turning around and saying "do it for us" and then they end up together? That's not satisfying at all.But also, one thing Caden did that made everything worth it:
“You aren't going to shoot me. You're just a Love Interest."I'm trying to stick with the enjoyment I first had and how quickly I read the majority of the book but it's so hard not to rate this book lower and I don't like that. A bit let down I guess.
"No, I'm not." I lower the gun and aim it at his right kneecap.
Even though I've been through hell, even though I've been told I'm worthless my whole life, even though I'm gay, even though the world wants me to bow down and accept that who I am makes me insignificant, the following is true:
"I'm the protagonist, fucker!"
I pull the trigger.
Maybe 3.5
This was a cute book, I couldn't stop smiling as I was reading it. It’s an enjoyable light reading that doesn't have any pretension.
I understand that people could not like it because have some plot issues but I feel like the book doesn’t take itself seriously.
This was a cute book, I couldn't stop smiling as I was reading it. It’s an enjoyable light reading that doesn't have any pretension.
I understand that people could not like it because have some plot issues but I feel like the book doesn’t take itself seriously.
I was hesitant to read this at first because of some of the... not so positive reviews I read here. I wasn't going to bother to be honest, but I had ordered it at my library and it came in. I expected it to be bland and have horrible dialogue, and I guess lowering my expectations considerably actually helped me enjoy this book. Although it definitely did not live up to the hype the description gives it, it's interesting and a new take on the classic YA novel. Caden wasn't the best narrator to have for an almost 400 page book, and his obsession with Nicki Minaj was a tad strange. Like other people, I wish Dylan or even Juliet could have had a chapter or two in their perspective. It would have been nice to see things from their point of view. But I got through it, and I don't regret reading it so I guess this is a win for the book. One quick question though: how in the world did two, eighteen year old boys with no family or income manage to buy a house on nice land within a year?? I could handle this whole book, but my disbelief could not be suspended for that. Impossible.