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A review by venpyre
The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich
3.0
Honestly I wanted to love this book. From the minute I read the description I knew it was the perfect prompt for me as I also knew the premise wasn't going to be played straight. (lol)
The first half was extremely promising. The idea of love interests, while not complex, was intriguing and a good setup for the whole bad boy/good boy dynamic. (which im especially privy to anyway....) I really liked Caden as he was first introduced, a sort of not-so-nice nice boy and Dylan was extremely cute (bad boy who's actually not bad is my weakness)
Most of the book was plain fun like the subversion and parody of YA tropes. It was so meta that I had to laugh! I loved the slow burn between the two boys when they first met and tbh I really thought I was gonna completely love this book.
Unfortunately there are some things that hold it back.
The writing is pretty amateurish (even though it had a significant amount of modern flair) and I just didn't feel like the characters were developed as much as they could have been. Some of the interactions fell flat at times and the internal and external dialogue could get a bit unbelievable. The second half of the book reached high levels of unreality and the romance kind of petered off and went everywhere at the same time.
I really want to give the author the benefit of the doubt though, because this is his debut novel and he started with a topic I find innovative and fun! I hope as he improves he continues with topics like this. There needs to be more fun LGBT+ books that aren't completely about romance and "the gay struggle".
BIG EDIT: lmk y tf i thought the author of this was a woman.....smh sorry for that fuck up
The first half was extremely promising. The idea of love interests, while not complex, was intriguing and a good setup for the whole bad boy/good boy dynamic. (which im especially privy to anyway....) I really liked Caden as he was first introduced, a sort of not-so-nice nice boy and Dylan was extremely cute (bad boy who's actually not bad is my weakness)
Most of the book was plain fun like the subversion and parody of YA tropes. It was so meta that I had to laugh! I loved the slow burn between the two boys when they first met and tbh I really thought I was gonna completely love this book.
Unfortunately there are some things that hold it back.
The writing is pretty amateurish (even though it had a significant amount of modern flair) and I just didn't feel like the characters were developed as much as they could have been. Some of the interactions fell flat at times and the internal and external dialogue could get a bit unbelievable. The second half of the book reached high levels of unreality and the romance kind of petered off and went everywhere at the same time.
Spoiler
what the heck was with Dylan's random NO HOMO moment?? it wasn't explored enough to be legit internalized homophobia and just felt out of place/shock valueI really want to give the author the benefit of the doubt though, because this is his debut novel and he started with a topic I find innovative and fun! I hope as he improves he continues with topics like this. There needs to be more fun LGBT+ books that aren't completely about romance and "the gay struggle".
BIG EDIT: lmk y tf i thought the author of this was a woman.....smh sorry for that fuck up