A review by daniellestarredpages
The Build Up by Tati Richardson

Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.


Unfortunately, this book was really disappointing. I had issues with the writing, the characters and the romance.

My first issue was the writing style. I couldn't connect with it; it felt flat and awkward. There was also quite a bit of telling without it being backed by any showing through the characters' behaviour. I also had issues with some small scattered things throughout the portion of the book that I read, but when you add that up with everything else it impacted my enjoyment. There were multiple times when a character would describe something as funny or laugh at a "joke" that wasn't funny at all. Also, in the first chapter, a character said they expected the FMC to be a man because of her name, but her name is Ari. Which to me is a feminine name. 

Next the characters. I'm always up for reading romances that have plus-sized MCs but in this book, the author would frequently bring up Ari's size and I believe the intention was to show how comfortable Ari was with her body while other people had issues or how smaller people could take accommodations for granted but after a while, it just started to feel there was too much focus on her body and the other was showing a neon saying saying "remember Ari is fat". Also one of the partners at the firm came off as a cartoonish antagonist to contrast the other nicer partner and it just felt ridiculous. 

Finally the relationship. It was very Insta- lusty and to me, the connections that the characters kept referring to was just not shown.
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