A review by pages_with_panda
A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy

lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Love story between an aspiring country singer named Emmett, and Luke, a country music hating cook. The two end up working at country music superstar’s amusement park and begin their relationship.

The story is told from alternating POVs and we get to see that they have their own aspirations to become more; Emmett wants to make it big as a gay country singer and Luke wants to be chef. 

 The pacing threw me off between the start and finish. It seemed like we spent a lot of time setting up the conflicts at the beginning and ended the book with an afterwards solving them.
Not enough time was actually spent fleshing out the resolutions between the characters and I would’ve liked to see more time spent on redeeming Luke. 
I really didn’t like him, and couldn’t figure out why Emmett did. He had no likable qualities and very little personality. 

 We also don’t see Luke come to terms with
his internal homophobia
, which was a bit depressing.
The side-plots seemed to take up more space from the main characters, especially with some cheating plot that felt random. 
We also didn’t get to see what becomes of our main couple; the ending is completely unresolved.
Do they stay together and work it out to be long-distance? Who knows!?


Overall this was an easy but unsatisfying read within a country music setting. 
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