A review by lololovesthings
With a Cherry On Top by Letizia Lorini

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

"With a Cherry on Top" by Letizia Lorini starts well enough. I was digging all of the storylines and wondering how they would all converge with one another. I didn't read the other books in this series, but I quickly picked up on the other couples and their relationships to/with one another. There are *a lot* of them, so you really need to pay attention to who dates/is married to whom, who is related to whom, who has betrayed whom, who is best friends with whom, etc. There are A LOT of moving parts to this story (more on this later). I liked Aaron as the main male character at first. I loved his dynamic with his young daughter, Sadie. Sadie is the best thing about this book. Anything involving her was a hit for me. I absolutely adored her, and it's typically hard for me to love the way kids are written in fiction. I found myself intrigued by the drama involving Aaron's ex-wife/Sadie's mom, Josie. Their toxic relationship/divorce, her excessive drinking and her frequent visits to rehab, the cheating scandal and its fallout, all of this told me we were going to be in for some major drama at some point. I also loved the best friend dynamic between Aaron and Amelie. Their shared passion for food and cooking could be felt from the very first few pages! The longer the book went on, though, the more disenchanted I became with it all. Aaron and Charlotte, AKA Cherry, the main female character of the story, are some of the most immature characters I have read recently. As soon as Aaron links up with Cherry via an online cam service called TOP, it's like all of his maturity is zapped out of his body and flies out the window. Aaron is supposed to be a 37-year-old man, and he acts like a teenager for the rest of the book. Cherry is supposed to be a 23-year-old woman, and she acts like a 14-year-old, huffing and puffing and being overly dramatic and generally annoying. The part where Aaron had a guest in his house, someone who worked at his daughter's school, and Cherry shows up because she's jealous that this woman wants to go on a date with Aaron? What a child! I should have DNF'ed there because it made me so annoyed. What Cherry has to deal with regarding her horrible, no good, abusive mother is terrible, but she is borderline insufferable. In no way, shape, or form did I ever believe for one second that she should be with/could emotionally be with/was even slightly ready for a relationship, let alone a relationship with a nearly 40-year-old man with a child. In fact, I didn't really ever buy into their relationship at all. It's almost all insta-lust that quickly (much too quickly, IMO!) turns into love. That said, the spicy scenes are well-written, but I didn't feel any spark or pining while reading them. I feel like a lot of the important conversations about alcoholism, coparenting with an alcoholic, parental abuse, parental abandonment, disordered eating, and even Parkinson's disease, aren't handled with the care they deserve or are quickly wrapped up in the last 10% of the book after being drawn out for chapters and chapters. On this note, the book also feels way too long and includes too much plot just to up the page count. Like I said, there are too many moving parts. I am bummed about this one.

Thanks to Letizia Lorini for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.
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