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A review by aesopsrachaels
Hooking Him by Aurora Rose Reynolds
1.0
First of all, I want to thank Netgalley for the copy of this book, provided for an honest and unbiased review.
Unfortunately I not only disliked this book very, very deeply, I was extremely uncomfortable reading it. This book is about a woman who moves from a wealthy lifestyle in Chicago to a coastal tourist town in South Carolina and working at a bakery (sidenote: this entire setup of her suddenly being great at a bakery despite admitting having never cooked for herself in her life and having an apartment ON the beach with the money she makes from working at the bakery is incredibly unrealistic) and meets a cop and does some weird enemies-to-attracted situation.
I'll start with the parts that I just disliked. Aside from the unrealistic set-up to the story, the characters were just plain unlikable to me. Anna is *too beautiful*, *too sweet*, *too kind*, etc. etc. and her only "flaws" are her "deep dark" secret that she broke off an engagement with a man she didn't really love and that her family doesn't love her enough because they were just so rich and only cared about money. She simultaneously claims to be "more mature" than the elderly women she hangs out with but acts like and is fine with being treated like a child (pouting because she couldn't open a jar of spaghetti sauce and being perfectly fine with him saying that he should have opened it for her before he left for work??? what???) I'll discuss Calvin (her love interest) later because it was more than dislike, it made me deeply uncomfortable. Even the side characters were one-dimensional. The dialogue was dry and unrealistic, with too obvious exposition to treat the reader like someone who cannot grasp context clues. The sex scenes weren't engaging in the slightest (and DANGEROUS to boot, more on that later). And to top it all off, the plot was a disaster. It felt like it was going nowhere, then suddenly a serial killer/mystery is introduced halfway (i.e. far too late) through the novel, then only mentioned in incoherent spurts, then wrapped up in a convoluted way that made absolutely no sense and only furthered Anna's "woe is me, I am a victim of circumstance and too good for this world" status.
As for the downright uncomfortable? Calvin is disturbing as a love interest. On his second meeting with Anna (at a barbecue) his own Father just casually mentions to Anna that she's been "claimed" by him, he's unsettlingly possessive, talks about what he wants rather than asks her, brings up kids suddenly on their first date, and when worried about her safety, risks the safety of a CHILD to have that child go check on her. If I ever met a man like Calvin, I would get a restraining order and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. He was as toxic as her family, but the book tried to romanticize it. It's not healthy. It's not cute. It's disturbing.
Lastly, I do not know WHY some authors think blowing into a vagina is sexy. It's not. And in rare cases, it can cause an air embolism which can kill someone. It's dangerous.
All in all, if it weren't for the fact that I committed to review this book, I would have DNFed it less than two chapters in.
Unfortunately I not only disliked this book very, very deeply, I was extremely uncomfortable reading it. This book is about a woman who moves from a wealthy lifestyle in Chicago to a coastal tourist town in South Carolina and working at a bakery (sidenote: this entire setup of her suddenly being great at a bakery despite admitting having never cooked for herself in her life and having an apartment ON the beach with the money she makes from working at the bakery is incredibly unrealistic) and meets a cop and does some weird enemies-to-attracted situation.
Spoiler
I'll start with the parts that I just disliked. Aside from the unrealistic set-up to the story, the characters were just plain unlikable to me. Anna is *too beautiful*, *too sweet*, *too kind*, etc. etc. and her only "flaws" are her "deep dark" secret that she broke off an engagement with a man she didn't really love and that her family doesn't love her enough because they were just so rich and only cared about money. She simultaneously claims to be "more mature" than the elderly women she hangs out with but acts like and is fine with being treated like a child (pouting because she couldn't open a jar of spaghetti sauce and being perfectly fine with him saying that he should have opened it for her before he left for work??? what???) I'll discuss Calvin (her love interest) later because it was more than dislike, it made me deeply uncomfortable. Even the side characters were one-dimensional. The dialogue was dry and unrealistic, with too obvious exposition to treat the reader like someone who cannot grasp context clues. The sex scenes weren't engaging in the slightest (and DANGEROUS to boot, more on that later). And to top it all off, the plot was a disaster. It felt like it was going nowhere, then suddenly a serial killer/mystery is introduced halfway (i.e. far too late) through the novel, then only mentioned in incoherent spurts, then wrapped up in a convoluted way that made absolutely no sense and only furthered Anna's "woe is me, I am a victim of circumstance and too good for this world" status.
As for the downright uncomfortable? Calvin is disturbing as a love interest. On his second meeting with Anna (at a barbecue) his own Father just casually mentions to Anna that she's been "claimed" by him, he's unsettlingly possessive, talks about what he wants rather than asks her, brings up kids suddenly on their first date, and when worried about her safety, risks the safety of a CHILD to have that child go check on her. If I ever met a man like Calvin, I would get a restraining order and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. He was as toxic as her family, but the book tried to romanticize it. It's not healthy. It's not cute. It's disturbing.
Lastly, I do not know WHY some authors think blowing into a vagina is sexy. It's not. And in rare cases, it can cause an air embolism which can kill someone. It's dangerous.
All in all, if it weren't for the fact that I committed to review this book, I would have DNFed it less than two chapters in.