A review by kj468
Net Bet by Ryan Taylor, Joshua Harwood

Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.

I tried hard to get into this one, especially since it was an arc, but it really wasn’t clicking for me. I think most of my issues were probably really personal and specific to me — other reviewers don’t seem to have the same struggles and I wouldn’t warn people off this book! It’s just not for me. 

A few reasons why:

• They’ve met several times now and the only real emotion they feel about each other is lust/horniness/sexual attraction. I’m aroace and romance is my favorite genre, but I always have trouble connecting with characters when the primary/only reason they gravitate towards the love interest initially is lust, especially in a book like this where the lusting after each other happens over several scenes (I can get through it better when it’s just a quick hookup).  I’m sure these characters will develop real emotions for each other eventually, but I’m personally just squirmed out by all the lusting when they know nothing about each other. To be clear, there’s nothing objectively wrong with it, I get that it’s a real thing that happens, it’s just not a plot line I enjoy reading personally. 
• There’s a lot of dialogue that has double meaning. A lot of it is sexual, but I think some of it is not. I struggle catching onto double meanings enough irl, and I realllly struggle with it in text form. I found myself spending more time and energy unpacking the dialogue, esp between the two main characters, than actually enjoying the scene when they were talking. This could also contribute to why I had a hard time picking up on their chemistry. 

Overall, I don’t think this is a bad book. I’ve read and enjoyed other books by these authors and will read books by them again. I just think the particular dynamics of these characters in the first 100 pages, where I am supposed to be connecting with them, didn’t land for me personally.