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A review by opalmars
Build a Girlfriend by Elba Luz
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book is kind of a mess, and not in a fun way, more like a “we lost the plot” way. 😕😕😕
At first this book was supposed to be about Amelia dating her exes to find out what she lacked as a girlfriend. However, we never actually get to see this happen. Other than 2 dates, all of the dates happened OFF-PAGE, and we’d only get to hear about them in 1 paragraph at the beginning of some chapters. Literally just *1 paragraph* where they’d quickly mention the dates and that’s it. Just *telling* instead of *showing* the literal premise of the book! What the hell?! 😐😐😐
This whole thing became so confusing that I didn’t even fully understand if those were dates she was CURRENTLY going on, or if she was looking back and analyzing old dates from past years (which would make sense since the dates were never even *mentioned* outside of those paragraphs at the start of chapters). It was just a mess!
Later, one of her exes (Leon) shows back up, and Amelia IMMEDIATELY makes it clear that she still likes him, even though they haven’t seen each other in 2 years + he literally broke up with her and ghosted her. She supposedly “hates” him, yet she still has feelings for him, which like, I get it, because she did like him at one point. However, it’s kind of pathetic to see her clearly still in love with the dude who broke her heart several years ago. 🥴 Additionally, her girlfriend Perri breaks up with her at the start of the book, yet Amelia never even thinks about her! Yet she’s obsessed with Leon…… 😑 Okay.
Leon literally dumped and ghosted her YEARS ago, and when he shows up again he keeps messing with her, + he never apologizes for hurting her. And then he asks to be her friend again?????? The audacity of men…… 🤡 She accepts it with the intention of making him fall for her so she can break his heart, just like he’d done to her. This became the whole plot of the book, since the dating-the-exes thing was discarded by the author after a grand total of 2 dates. However, this was also not very well done…… 🫥
Amelia quickly falls in love with Leon again (they almost kiss at 44% 🙄), even though he never even apologized for hurting her 2 years prior. I never understood why they liked each other. Second-chance relationships are hard to sell, and this author didn’t manage to make this romance believable. Their relationship in the present is solely based on their past relationship, but we didn’t see enough of them in the past for me to care about their romance… 😕 At some point Leon mentions that his favourite memories are the ones with her, and I was sitting there thinking “Damn. Wouldn’t it’ve been nice to see more of those, so I could at least TRY to understand why y’all got together in the first place, let alone why you fell for each other AGAIN?!” 🫤
Leon pissed me off throughout the whole book, because he simply refused to apologize for hurting Amelia, or to, at the very least, explain himself. It was infuriating, especially since Amelia constantly acknowledged that she deserved an apology, yet she was still in love with him????? 🤡 Maybe I’m just built different, but if a man treats me poorly and then refuses to apologize I am NOT going to be swooning over him! 🤷🏻
At the end of the book, a bunch of characters turn out to be evil lmao.Arno, the nice boy Amelia had a thing with, literally becomes a caricature of a bad guy. 🙄 It’s revealed that Amelia’s aunts lowkey manipulated Leon into breaking up with Amelia; MULTIPLE GROWN ASS ADULTS doing everything they can to break up these teenagers’ relationship because they genuinely believe they are “cursed” is fucking idiotic. 🤡
Leon then finds out about Amelia’s plan to hurt him back and asks why she didn’t just tell him she was still angry about him breaking her heart……… Bro. Because you literally treated her like garbage and she wanted to do the same to you, especially since you never apologized! Like…??? 🤡🤡🤡
Sure, it turns out her aunts manipulated him into going away and breaking up so I guess he’s forgiven. HOWEVER, I hate that he kept grilling her! Her actions were all because of what he’d done, so the way he was expecting apologies as if she’s evil, when in actuality she was having a VERY NORMAL reaction to being hurt, is totally absurd! And HE only apologizes AFTER she does? Ughhhhhhh.
Everyone lowkey sucks in this book. I just wish Amelia would cut them all off and find happiness on the other side of the world. 😭💀
Speaking of Amelia: I didn’t really like to be in her head 🥴. The fact that she was so obsessed with her ex who hurt her without apologizing already makes her annoying. She was also clumsy to the point where it became fucking absurd; she was always tripping, falling, dropping things, getting dirty or soaked. It became a caricature! At some point she doesn’t want Leon to get on a train so she EATS his ticket????? What the actual fuck?? The physical comedy simply never landed. It was just unfunny. Leon was also constantly rescuing her, + helping her as if she is a child (putting on her shoes, buckling her in…). Amelia is PATHETIC and INCOMPETENT!!!
There were also some typos and continuity mistakes, but I guess that’s the least egregious thing in this book lmao. It is proof that it wasn’t properly edited, though. Perhaps if someone had paid more attention to this book during editing they would’ve noticed that the author literally lost the plot, lmaoooo. 💀💀💀
At first this book was supposed to be about Amelia dating her exes to find out what she lacked as a girlfriend. However, we never actually get to see this happen. Other than 2 dates, all of the dates happened OFF-PAGE, and we’d only get to hear about them in 1 paragraph at the beginning of some chapters. Literally just *1 paragraph* where they’d quickly mention the dates and that’s it. Just *telling* instead of *showing* the literal premise of the book! What the hell?! 😐😐😐
This whole thing became so confusing that I didn’t even fully understand if those were dates she was CURRENTLY going on, or if she was looking back and analyzing old dates from past years (which would make sense since the dates were never even *mentioned* outside of those paragraphs at the start of chapters). It was just a mess!
Later, one of her exes (Leon) shows back up, and Amelia IMMEDIATELY makes it clear that she still likes him, even though they haven’t seen each other in 2 years + he literally broke up with her and ghosted her. She supposedly “hates” him, yet she still has feelings for him, which like, I get it, because she did like him at one point. However, it’s kind of pathetic to see her clearly still in love with the dude who broke her heart several years ago. 🥴 Additionally, her girlfriend Perri breaks up with her at the start of the book, yet Amelia never even thinks about her! Yet she’s obsessed with Leon…… 😑 Okay.
Leon literally dumped and ghosted her YEARS ago, and when he shows up again he keeps messing with her, + he never apologizes for hurting her. And then he asks to be her friend again?????? The audacity of men…… 🤡 She accepts it with the intention of making him fall for her so she can break his heart, just like he’d done to her. This became the whole plot of the book, since the dating-the-exes thing was discarded by the author after a grand total of 2 dates. However, this was also not very well done…… 🫥
Amelia quickly falls in love with Leon again (they almost kiss at 44% 🙄), even though he never even apologized for hurting her 2 years prior. I never understood why they liked each other. Second-chance relationships are hard to sell, and this author didn’t manage to make this romance believable. Their relationship in the present is solely based on their past relationship, but we didn’t see enough of them in the past for me to care about their romance… 😕 At some point Leon mentions that his favourite memories are the ones with her, and I was sitting there thinking “Damn. Wouldn’t it’ve been nice to see more of those, so I could at least TRY to understand why y’all got together in the first place, let alone why you fell for each other AGAIN?!” 🫤
Leon pissed me off throughout the whole book, because he simply refused to apologize for hurting Amelia, or to, at the very least, explain himself. It was infuriating, especially since Amelia constantly acknowledged that she deserved an apology, yet she was still in love with him????? 🤡 Maybe I’m just built different, but if a man treats me poorly and then refuses to apologize I am NOT going to be swooning over him! 🤷🏻
At the end of the book, a bunch of characters turn out to be evil lmao.
Leon then finds out about Amelia’s plan to hurt him back and asks why she didn’t just tell him she was still angry about him breaking her heart……… Bro. Because you literally treated her like garbage and she wanted to do the same to you, especially since you never apologized! Like…??? 🤡🤡🤡
Sure, it turns out her aunts manipulated him into going away and breaking up so I guess he’s forgiven. HOWEVER, I hate that he kept grilling her! Her actions were all because of what he’d done, so the way he was expecting apologies as if she’s evil, when in actuality she was having a VERY NORMAL reaction to being hurt, is totally absurd! And HE only apologizes AFTER she does? Ughhhhhhh.
Everyone lowkey sucks in this book. I just wish Amelia would cut them all off and find happiness on the other side of the world. 😭💀
Speaking of Amelia: I didn’t really like to be in her head 🥴. The fact that she was so obsessed with her ex who hurt her without apologizing already makes her annoying. She was also clumsy to the point where it became fucking absurd; she was always tripping, falling, dropping things, getting dirty or soaked. It became a caricature! At some point she doesn’t want Leon to get on a train so she EATS his ticket????? What the actual fuck?? The physical comedy simply never landed. It was just unfunny. Leon was also constantly rescuing her, + helping her as if she is a child (putting on her shoes, buckling her in…). Amelia is PATHETIC and INCOMPETENT!!!
There were also some typos and continuity mistakes, but I guess that’s the least egregious thing in this book lmao. It is proof that it wasn’t properly edited, though. Perhaps if someone had paid more attention to this book during editing they would’ve noticed that the author literally lost the plot, lmaoooo. 💀💀💀