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A review by opalmars
Love, Off the Record by Samantha Markum
fast-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was a fun and quick read. This book had A LOT of things going on, which on one hand is great, because it means the story is fast-paced, and the MC feels realistic and well-rounded. On the other hand, I don’t think all of the different plot-lines were fully actualized, since there were SO MANY of them… This book has waaaay too many things going on, and some of those were very well developed! Others, however, left me feeling like something was missing…
This book has: rivals to lovers; competing for the same job; MC juggling a job + school + an internship; MC’s personal struggles (friends, parents, body issues); teaming up with your enemy for an investigation/mystery; online secret identities…… 😵💫😵💫😵💫 This abundance of tropes and plot points makes it hard to have them all be fully realized.
What I liked the most were Wyn’s personal struggles. The way she dealt with fatphobia was very interesting to read about, and I’m glad to see this type of rep from a fat author. I also deeply related to her loneliness and lack of friendships.
I do think the friendships she made in the book could’ve been better developed, but overall I enjoyed that plot point, and I especially appreciated Wyn’s apology at the end, and how she acknowledged her faults. I like how that conflict was wrapped up.
The romance was… alright. Wyn was instantly attracted to Three, and kept thinking about him even when they hated each other, which was annoying to me. She was way too into him, way too quickly. I wish this attraction had been built up a bit more, and I wish Wyn didn’t spend half the time thinking about how attracted she is to him, and how she wants to touch him, and kiss him, etc. She was soooo hot and bothered. Like, girl, c’mon. Aren’t you supposed to hate him? Be serious for a sec. 🙄 I just don’t think their initial attraction was very well developed, and I wish it’d been a slower burn. At the end of the book Wyn admits that she actually got a crush on Three *the moment* they met!!!!!!!!! 🫥🫥🫥 So… yeah… I wouldn’t call this book insta-love, and they definitely take a long time to get together, but it’s not surprising at all that Wyn liked Three from the very start, because even when they were enemies, she kept thinking about him in a romantic/sensual way.
With that said, I do think their dynamic was entertaining (though not my personal favourite). Their bickering was definitely amusing. What I liked the most, however, was their banter ONLINE. Their online secret identity thing was SO FUN!! Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t fully actualized, in my opinion. Their online romance wasn’t developed enough, which made Wyn’s struggle picking between Hayes and Three fall completely flat. The author should’ve developed their online romance more, so we could’ve had more of a love triangle (between Hayes, Three and Wyn, of course). Missed potential. 🙁
And because Wyn and Hayes’s romance wasn’t very well developed, it made Wyn’s relationship with Lincoln fall flat, as well. I wish the author had made Hayes’s identity more of a mystery (even if us, as readers, can definitely guess Hayes is gonna be Three lol). But Lincoln was barely in the story, so Hayes’s identity wasn’t really a big deal. Again: missed potential.
I did end up enjoying Three and Wyn’s romance, once they admitted their feelings. I appreciated that they openly talked about things, and that Three had been helping Wyn since he found out she was the girl he’d been talking to online.
Another thing I don’t think was fully actualized in this story was the drug ring mystery. Three and Wyn team up to find out who’s dealing hard drugs at their college, but there isn’t much investigating there. We see them snoop around like, twice, and then just talk about things, and that’s it. I think the author missed an opportunity to have them really solve a mystery, and bond throughout it. Oh well. That whole plot point just felt a little underwhelming, to me. 😕
Some other small things I don’t think were fully realized in this story: her relationship with her parents (what we got was good, but it was just so little, in a sea of 1000 other things, that, in the end, they feel irrelevant); her love for webcomics (it’s mentioned a couple of times that she LOVES webcomics, yet we never see any of this in the story lol).
Overall: a nice book, but with way too much going on, to the story’s detriment.
This book has: rivals to lovers; competing for the same job; MC juggling a job + school + an internship; MC’s personal struggles (friends, parents, body issues); teaming up with your enemy for an investigation/mystery; online secret identities…… 😵💫😵💫😵💫 This abundance of tropes and plot points makes it hard to have them all be fully realized.
What I liked the most were Wyn’s personal struggles. The way she dealt with fatphobia was very interesting to read about, and I’m glad to see this type of rep from a fat author. I also deeply related to her loneliness and lack of friendships.
I do think the friendships she made in the book could’ve been better developed, but overall I enjoyed that plot point, and I especially appreciated Wyn’s apology at the end, and how she acknowledged her faults. I like how that conflict was wrapped up.
The romance was… alright. Wyn was instantly attracted to Three, and kept thinking about him even when they hated each other, which was annoying to me. She was way too into him, way too quickly. I wish this attraction had been built up a bit more, and I wish Wyn didn’t spend half the time thinking about how attracted she is to him, and how she wants to touch him, and kiss him, etc. She was soooo hot and bothered. Like, girl, c’mon. Aren’t you supposed to hate him? Be serious for a sec. 🙄 I just don’t think their initial attraction was very well developed, and I wish it’d been a slower burn. At the end of the book Wyn admits that she actually got a crush on Three *the moment* they met!!!!!!!!! 🫥🫥🫥 So… yeah… I wouldn’t call this book insta-love, and they definitely take a long time to get together, but it’s not surprising at all that Wyn liked Three from the very start, because even when they were enemies, she kept thinking about him in a romantic/sensual way.
With that said, I do think their dynamic was entertaining (though not my personal favourite). Their bickering was definitely amusing. What I liked the most, however, was their banter ONLINE. Their online secret identity thing was SO FUN!! Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t fully actualized, in my opinion. Their online romance wasn’t developed enough, which made Wyn’s struggle picking between Hayes and Three fall completely flat. The author should’ve developed their online romance more, so we could’ve had more of a love triangle (between Hayes, Three and Wyn, of course). Missed potential. 🙁
And because Wyn and Hayes’s romance wasn’t very well developed, it made Wyn’s relationship with Lincoln fall flat, as well. I wish the author had made Hayes’s identity more of a mystery (even if us, as readers, can definitely guess Hayes is gonna be Three lol). But Lincoln was barely in the story, so Hayes’s identity wasn’t really a big deal. Again: missed potential.
I did end up enjoying Three and Wyn’s romance, once they admitted their feelings. I appreciated that they openly talked about things, and that Three had been helping Wyn since he found out she was the girl he’d been talking to online.
Another thing I don’t think was fully actualized in this story was the drug ring mystery. Three and Wyn team up to find out who’s dealing hard drugs at their college, but there isn’t much investigating there. We see them snoop around like, twice, and then just talk about things, and that’s it. I think the author missed an opportunity to have them really solve a mystery, and bond throughout it. Oh well. That whole plot point just felt a little underwhelming, to me. 😕
Some other small things I don’t think were fully realized in this story: her relationship with her parents (what we got was good, but it was just so little, in a sea of 1000 other things, that, in the end, they feel irrelevant); her love for webcomics (it’s mentioned a couple of times that she LOVES webcomics, yet we never see any of this in the story lol).
Overall: a nice book, but with way too much going on, to the story’s detriment.