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elenajohansen 's review for:
Love On My Mind
by Tracey Livesay
Part of me wants to say this is well-constructed, because its theme is crystal clear--communication is essential to successful relationships--and all the conflicts support that. You'd be surprised how often I see romances pile on dozens of unrelated conflicts onto their characters without even a hint of a central organizing theme.
But, on the other hand, the conflicts themselves are paper-thin, both ignored and then solved with no real effort. Adam got his pride and reputation ruined by the last women he was serious about, and he has Asperger's, which in his case makes social interaction difficult for him. Chelsea values her career more than anything, to the point where she uncomfortably accepts the order to lie to a client (Adam) about her presence in his life, engaging in a business relationship with him under false pretenses.
Both of them start by telling themselves they shouldn't make it a personal relationship despite their obvious chemistry, though Adam folds on that far faster than Chelsea, who has far more reason to stand her ground. But she doesn't (of course) and after an incredibly brief span of happiness together, everything blows up in their faces (also of course.)
But they both make huge changes/concessions in their lives almost instantly--Adam having an epiphany about trust, and Chelsea resigning from her job to prove love is worth more than her career--and while those about-faces make logical sense from a thematic standpoint, they come with basically no soul-searching, both of them in less than a day of story time. Then they apologize and get back together and she gets her job back and everything is totally fine now happy ending whee!!!
Also, there's a stiff quality to nearly everything. Chelsea has no apparent personality or interests to speak of beyond her job, and Adam's video game habit is poorly executed. Nobody calls video game characters "avatars." Source: I'm a lifelong gamer. They're playing a thinly-veiled version of one of the Uncharted games, apparently, based on the name and what little description is given. You'd just call the thing you control on screen a "character" like everyone else does. It makes no sense to use "avatar" in this context, because Uncharted specifically is a story-based game following a main character on his adventures, he's how the player interacts with the video game, sure, but he's not a meaningless shell encasing the player with no traits of his own.
Judging from other reviews, the techie-corporate aspect is just as poorly executed. I wasn't knowledgeable enough during my reading to know the specifics of the industry, but the whole setup felt off. Adam's best friend and COO hiring a PR firm but insisting they work undercover, essentially? How was anyone supposed to be successful in doing their job while having to disguise who they were or why they were there? If Adam hadn't been attracted to Chelsea, how on earth would she have accomplished what was basically an impossible task, on her own, with no support or direction from her firm?
I have the second book in the series--they were both freebies or maybe 99 cents back when I picked them up--so I'll read that too before I decide if this author is a no-go in the future for me, but I have to say, I was hoping for better.
But, on the other hand, the conflicts themselves are paper-thin, both ignored and then solved with no real effort. Adam got his pride and reputation ruined by the last women he was serious about, and he has Asperger's, which in his case makes social interaction difficult for him. Chelsea values her career more than anything, to the point where she uncomfortably accepts the order to lie to a client (Adam) about her presence in his life, engaging in a business relationship with him under false pretenses.
Both of them start by telling themselves they shouldn't make it a personal relationship despite their obvious chemistry, though Adam folds on that far faster than Chelsea, who has far more reason to stand her ground. But she doesn't (of course) and after an incredibly brief span of happiness together, everything blows up in their faces (also of course.)
But they both make huge changes/concessions in their lives almost instantly--Adam having an epiphany about trust, and Chelsea resigning from her job to prove love is worth more than her career--and while those about-faces make logical sense from a thematic standpoint, they come with basically no soul-searching, both of them in less than a day of story time. Then they apologize and get back together and she gets her job back and everything is totally fine now happy ending whee!!!
Also, there's a stiff quality to nearly everything. Chelsea has no apparent personality or interests to speak of beyond her job, and Adam's video game habit is poorly executed. Nobody calls video game characters "avatars." Source: I'm a lifelong gamer. They're playing a thinly-veiled version of one of the Uncharted games, apparently, based on the name and what little description is given. You'd just call the thing you control on screen a "character" like everyone else does. It makes no sense to use "avatar" in this context, because Uncharted specifically is a story-based game following a main character on his adventures, he's how the player interacts with the video game, sure, but he's not a meaningless shell encasing the player with no traits of his own.
Judging from other reviews, the techie-corporate aspect is just as poorly executed. I wasn't knowledgeable enough during my reading to know the specifics of the industry, but the whole setup felt off. Adam's best friend and COO hiring a PR firm but insisting they work undercover, essentially? How was anyone supposed to be successful in doing their job while having to disguise who they were or why they were there? If Adam hadn't been attracted to Chelsea, how on earth would she have accomplished what was basically an impossible task, on her own, with no support or direction from her firm?
I have the second book in the series--they were both freebies or maybe 99 cents back when I picked them up--so I'll read that too before I decide if this author is a no-go in the future for me, but I have to say, I was hoping for better.