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paulabrandon's review against another edition
1.0
Nearly two years after her dumping her cheating fiance, Rose Beharie discovers she's going to be on a panel with him at her law school reunion. When she discovers he'll be attending with his new wife - who's pregnant, she's mortified at the idea of attending alone. After all, that's the life the SHE should have had, which her ex took away from her.
She ends up convincing Donovan Carroll to pretend to be her boyfriend at the reunion, in exchange for using her lawyer skills (!) to stop a pawn shop from setting up in the same neighbourhood as the homeless shelter that he's on the board for. Yes, it's as interesting as it sounds. Rose and Donovan spend time getting to know each other so that their act can be convincing. For some reason, Donovan starts falling for Rose, despite the fact she's a shallow moron completely and utterly still hung up on her ex.
I feel bad for disliking this one so much, because I understood what the author was trying to do with her main character. But it was fudged so badly! All of Rose's actions are driven by appearances' sake. She wants to prove that she's over her ex. She wants to save face in front her friends (and I had a hard time understanding why they were all even friends). She was SO shallow. Easily worse than this is the fact that she is VERY CLEARLY not over her ex. She knows, DOWN TO THE EXACT DAY, when they broke up. She harps on and on and on - and on some more - about the life she doesn't have because Ben took it away from her. She spends most of the book saying that Donovan is a "player", when she absolutely zero evidence of this. In fact, she has piles and piles of evidence to the contrary. And she's supposed to be a LAWYER!
I think the aim was for the reader to believe Rose had to let go of the past and trust her own heart in order to find happiness. But her turnaround is too quick to be credible. Well up to 80% into the book she's still whinging that Ben took the life she wanted away from her, or calling Donovan a player. I understand a character being hesitant to trust, but Rose is just simply willfully obstinate! It was infuriating! It didn't take long before I was actively hating her! Donovan was way too good for her. By the end, I was not convinced for a nanosecond that this relationship would last beyond the last page of the book!
I was feeling both bored and infuriated while reading this book. It was a strange combination.
She ends up convincing Donovan Carroll to pretend to be her boyfriend at the reunion, in exchange for using her lawyer skills (!) to stop a pawn shop from setting up in the same neighbourhood as the homeless shelter that he's on the board for. Yes, it's as interesting as it sounds. Rose and Donovan spend time getting to know each other so that their act can be convincing. For some reason, Donovan starts falling for Rose, despite the fact she's a shallow moron completely and utterly still hung up on her ex.
I feel bad for disliking this one so much, because I understood what the author was trying to do with her main character. But it was fudged so badly! All of Rose's actions are driven by appearances' sake. She wants to prove that she's over her ex. She wants to save face in front her friends (and I had a hard time understanding why they were all even friends). She was SO shallow. Easily worse than this is the fact that she is VERY CLEARLY not over her ex. She knows, DOWN TO THE EXACT DAY, when they broke up. She harps on and on and on - and on some more - about the life she doesn't have because Ben took it away from her. She spends most of the book saying that Donovan is a "player", when she absolutely zero evidence of this. In fact, she has piles and piles of evidence to the contrary. And she's supposed to be a LAWYER!
I think the aim was for the reader to believe Rose had to let go of the past and trust her own heart in order to find happiness. But her turnaround is too quick to be credible. Well up to 80% into the book she's still whinging that Ben took the life she wanted away from her, or calling Donovan a player. I understand a character being hesitant to trust, but Rose is just simply willfully obstinate! It was infuriating! It didn't take long before I was actively hating her! Donovan was way too good for her. By the end, I was not convinced for a nanosecond that this relationship would last beyond the last page of the book!
I was feeling both bored and infuriated while reading this book. It was a strange combination.
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