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A review by iam
Emerett Has Never Been in Love by Anyta Sunday
4.0
3.5 stars
Quite lovely best-friend's-dad romance that's also a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.
Read this review and more on the blog!
Content warnings include: age gap (44/26), incest (cousins, not main couple), injury; mentions of death of parent, teenage pregnancy.
I feel like I need to put a disclaimer first: I know absolutely nothing about any of Jane Austen's books, so for me this read like any other romance rather than an Emma retelling, and I cannot judge it that way.
Let's get my biggest complaint and first impression out of the way: the book lacked exposition. I'm all for throwing the reader right in, and showing-not-telling, bit here I struggled for quite a while before I found my footing. Part of this might be due to me preferring we see how the characters, especially main couple, get to know each other and grow closer on-page. But even if I didn't, I just found it really hard to parse all the different relationships within the close knit community the plot is set in.
On top of that, there were a lot of characters introduced in a short amount of time. But I didn't even mind that so much compared to how long I spent wondering what Lake and Knight's, the protagonist and love interest respectively, relationship really looked like prior to the start of the book. There were also a couple things going on in the background that referred back to the characters' pasts, but that wasn't ever elaborated, so I still have some question marks left over after finishing.
Adding to that the disjointed feeling the first few chapters had for me, I didn't have the easiest time getting into the book. But once I did find my footing, things picked up quickly!
I adored the previously mentioned close-knit community. The characters were all interesting, and I cannot wait to see them in upcoming books of the series!
The group dynamics were made even more interesting as they were presented through Lake's point of view - and Lake, despite his passion for matchmaking, really isn't that good at parsing other peoples' intentions.
Lake was an interesting protagonist that way. He wasn't the most reliable narrator and pretty clueless, but not so oblivious as to get frustrating. He's got quite the ego, and doesn't always think before he speaks, but his heart is in the right place.
In that context, I loved how when he did make mistakes, he always made a point of standing up for them, acknowledging he's wrong, and going out of his way to apologize. He didn't brush his mistakes off, and he truly felt bad for them.
Knight was the perfect love interest for Lake, being calm, level-headed, and more of an overthinker. I did think there were some aspects of him added solely for the drama of the romance, but that was okay. It worked out for the plot.
Speaking of plot: this is a best-friend's dad romance, which on-paper/out-of-context I always kind of side-eye, but it was done very well here. Knight and Lake met seven years prior, when Lake was 19, and they are already friends at the beginning of the book, bonding over Taylor (Knight's son and Lake's best friend) getting married and leaving for his honeymoon, leaving both of them feeling lonely and missing him.
Another facet I liked was that it was set in New Zealand. There's a couple of Māori side characters, though while one of them plays a bigger role, they remained side characters.
In another note on diversity, while a lot of characters were queer, pretty much everyone was a cis man. I don't think there was a single woman who spoke a word on-page, and while the language wasn't trans-excluding, it also wasn't particularly inclusive.
Lastly, I'm not sure how I felt about the cousins-in-love background plot. I guess it was okay in context? But also, why make them cousins..?
Overall a quicky and easy-to-read best-friend's-dad romance that had a bit of an exposition problem, but ended up quite lovely!
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Quite lovely best-friend's-dad romance that's also a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.
Read this review and more on the blog!
Content warnings include: age gap (44/26), incest (cousins, not main couple), injury; mentions of death of parent, teenage pregnancy.
I feel like I need to put a disclaimer first: I know absolutely nothing about any of Jane Austen's books, so for me this read like any other romance rather than an Emma retelling, and I cannot judge it that way.
Let's get my biggest complaint and first impression out of the way: the book lacked exposition. I'm all for throwing the reader right in, and showing-not-telling, bit here I struggled for quite a while before I found my footing. Part of this might be due to me preferring we see how the characters, especially main couple, get to know each other and grow closer on-page. But even if I didn't, I just found it really hard to parse all the different relationships within the close knit community the plot is set in.
On top of that, there were a lot of characters introduced in a short amount of time. But I didn't even mind that so much compared to how long I spent wondering what Lake and Knight's, the protagonist and love interest respectively, relationship really looked like prior to the start of the book. There were also a couple things going on in the background that referred back to the characters' pasts, but that wasn't ever elaborated, so I still have some question marks left over after finishing.
Adding to that the disjointed feeling the first few chapters had for me, I didn't have the easiest time getting into the book. But once I did find my footing, things picked up quickly!
I adored the previously mentioned close-knit community. The characters were all interesting, and I cannot wait to see them in upcoming books of the series!
The group dynamics were made even more interesting as they were presented through Lake's point of view - and Lake, despite his passion for matchmaking, really isn't that good at parsing other peoples' intentions.
Lake was an interesting protagonist that way. He wasn't the most reliable narrator and pretty clueless, but not so oblivious as to get frustrating. He's got quite the ego, and doesn't always think before he speaks, but his heart is in the right place.
In that context, I loved how when he did make mistakes, he always made a point of standing up for them, acknowledging he's wrong, and going out of his way to apologize. He didn't brush his mistakes off, and he truly felt bad for them.
Knight was the perfect love interest for Lake, being calm, level-headed, and more of an overthinker. I did think there were some aspects of him added solely for the drama of the romance, but that was okay. It worked out for the plot.
Speaking of plot: this is a best-friend's dad romance, which on-paper/out-of-context I always kind of side-eye, but it was done very well here. Knight and Lake met seven years prior, when Lake was 19, and they are already friends at the beginning of the book, bonding over Taylor (Knight's son and Lake's best friend) getting married and leaving for his honeymoon, leaving both of them feeling lonely and missing him.
Another facet I liked was that it was set in New Zealand. There's a couple of Māori side characters, though while one of them plays a bigger role, they remained side characters.
In another note on diversity, while a lot of characters were queer, pretty much everyone was a cis man. I don't think there was a single woman who spoke a word on-page, and while the language wasn't trans-excluding, it also wasn't particularly inclusive.
Lastly, I'm not sure how I felt about the cousins-in-love background plot. I guess it was okay in context? But also, why make them cousins..?
Overall a quicky and easy-to-read best-friend's-dad romance that had a bit of an exposition problem, but ended up quite lovely!
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.