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A review by booksfortheliving
Links by Lisa Becker
2.0
The romance genre tends to be known for their love of tropes. While I tend to shy away from blatantly tropey romances, there are some I’m willing to read; unrequited love being one of them. (Friends-to-lovers is also a favorite. And I’ve recently joined the bandwagon of marriages of convenience, too.) But back to unrequited love…
That is one of the things that got me interested in Links when I was approached about reviewing it. While there were some things I did enjoy, I found it to be repetitive at times and not a book I read with any urgency.
This is a very typical story of a dorky, (seemingly) unattractive high school girl who has a crush on the gorgeous popular high school athlete. You get a glimpse of their interaction in high school in the prologue, and then the timeline jumps ahead to their post-college life.
Charlotte is now an accomplished author having her debut novel be a runaway best seller. Garrett is a successful professional golfer, currently recovering from a potentially career-ending injury. They have an unexpected run-in one day, which sets off Garrett pursuing Charlotte. (He admits in his chapters that he basically just wants to sleep with her… honestly not the greatest way to get me rooting for the hero).
I do like how they started out as friends. They hang out a lot and build a firm foundation of friendship before ever moving into relationship territory. Charlotte is trying to protect herself from getting hurt because she still has this idea of what Garrett is like from his 14-year-old self. Now, usually I'd say that's unfair of her, but I didn't feel that way in this book. However, the reader has an advantage; we get the POV of Garrett. And he makes it fairly clear that he’s only after getting Charlotte in his bed, at least to begin with.
Now for the not so fun part of the review, there were some things with which I had issue. I mentioned Garrett pursuing Charlotte only because he wanted to sleep with her. I think it’s self-explanatory as to why that would make me not root for the hero.
There’s also a lot of talk about Charlotte’s weight. It was said so many times how she was curvy, or not thin, or how she indulged in sweets and it showed. I love seeing all types and shapes of people represented in the books I read, but I felt it was unnecessary to mention it so many times. Garrett even makes a joke about it at one point. I get that it was meant to be a lighthearted joke and that he was supposed to be complimenting her, but it still didn’t sit right with me.
Charlotte giggles… a lot. And it gets old and honestly kind of annoying. There are other ways to express oneself than giggling, and it made Charlotte seem immature.
Look, in the end, this book just wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. That’s the great thing about books; I firmly believe there’s one out there for every reader. If you’re a voracious reader of romance, who gobbles up everything with a love story in it, give this one a try. It’s a quick read, which makes it perfect for helping you reach that Goodreads reading goal too.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
That is one of the things that got me interested in Links when I was approached about reviewing it. While there were some things I did enjoy, I found it to be repetitive at times and not a book I read with any urgency.
This is a very typical story of a dorky, (seemingly) unattractive high school girl who has a crush on the gorgeous popular high school athlete. You get a glimpse of their interaction in high school in the prologue, and then the timeline jumps ahead to their post-college life.
Charlotte is now an accomplished author having her debut novel be a runaway best seller. Garrett is a successful professional golfer, currently recovering from a potentially career-ending injury. They have an unexpected run-in one day, which sets off Garrett pursuing Charlotte. (He admits in his chapters that he basically just wants to sleep with her… honestly not the greatest way to get me rooting for the hero).
I do like how they started out as friends. They hang out a lot and build a firm foundation of friendship before ever moving into relationship territory. Charlotte is trying to protect herself from getting hurt because she still has this idea of what Garrett is like from his 14-year-old self. Now, usually I'd say that's unfair of her, but I didn't feel that way in this book. However, the reader has an advantage; we get the POV of Garrett. And he makes it fairly clear that he’s only after getting Charlotte in his bed, at least to begin with.
Now for the not so fun part of the review, there were some things with which I had issue. I mentioned Garrett pursuing Charlotte only because he wanted to sleep with her. I think it’s self-explanatory as to why that would make me not root for the hero.
There’s also a lot of talk about Charlotte’s weight. It was said so many times how she was curvy, or not thin, or how she indulged in sweets and it showed. I love seeing all types and shapes of people represented in the books I read, but I felt it was unnecessary to mention it so many times. Garrett even makes a joke about it at one point. I get that it was meant to be a lighthearted joke and that he was supposed to be complimenting her, but it still didn’t sit right with me.
Charlotte giggles… a lot. And it gets old and honestly kind of annoying. There are other ways to express oneself than giggling, and it made Charlotte seem immature.
Look, in the end, this book just wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. That’s the great thing about books; I firmly believe there’s one out there for every reader. If you’re a voracious reader of romance, who gobbles up everything with a love story in it, give this one a try. It’s a quick read, which makes it perfect for helping you reach that Goodreads reading goal too.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.