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alymont 's review for:
Better Than Fiction
by Alexa Martin
I give this a solid 3.5. I had read an Alexa Martin novel (Intercepted) before & really enjoyed this one so I was really excited for this one. It had a cute premise, I always thinks it’s funny when the main character of a book is a book hater. As someone who relatively recently lost a grandparent, I liked that she struggled dealing with the loss of her grandma & inheriting her book store/responsibility for her legacy. Initially I liked the old lady book club meddling in main character Drew’s life, but I don’t think it added much in the end. I really enjoyed the epilogue, happy everything worked out.
A lot of the complaints I have are nitpicks, for example she is always talking about hidden gems in Colorado but some of specific real locations she references are basic af, huge iconic tourist attractions (I was really annoyed by it in the beginning but I feel like she redeemed herself a little there- The Gothic Theater is a cool intimate venue, etc.). I never really felt won over by the love interest Jasper. Aside from being the name of the confederate vampire fork twilight which is to say not sexy at all, I just found him so boring. Yes, he was a nice guy & described as hot CONSTANTLY, he didn’t have much personality. I wish he was funny or clever just once, like come on dude, you’re a professional writer!! I also got the ick for him when he was puking on their first hike together, personally I wouldn’t have given in a second date; not to mention the previous relationship to her grandma before she died, so weird and not delved into enough for me to feel it was resolved. Another thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was her dad, there was no arc for him at all, he was a one dimensional capitalist ass hole who would pop in to add conflict because there really wasn’t much conflict at all in this book. I know it’s a romance novel, but give me a little something to stress/worry about to keep me engaged.
Overall it was a fun read but I’m going to stick to Alexa Martin’s football themed romance books since I think that’s what she does best!
A lot of the complaints I have are nitpicks, for example she is always talking about hidden gems in Colorado but some of specific real locations she references are basic af, huge iconic tourist attractions (I was really annoyed by it in the beginning but I feel like she redeemed herself a little there- The Gothic Theater is a cool intimate venue, etc.). I never really felt won over by the love interest Jasper. Aside from being the name of the confederate vampire fork twilight which is to say not sexy at all, I just found him so boring. Yes, he was a nice guy & described as hot CONSTANTLY, he didn’t have much personality. I wish he was funny or clever just once, like come on dude, you’re a professional writer!! I also got the ick for him when he was puking on their first hike together, personally I wouldn’t have given in a second date; not to mention the previous relationship to her grandma before she died, so weird and not delved into enough for me to feel it was resolved. Another thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was her dad, there was no arc for him at all, he was a one dimensional capitalist ass hole who would pop in to add conflict because there really wasn’t much conflict at all in this book. I know it’s a romance novel, but give me a little something to stress/worry about to keep me engaged.
Overall it was a fun read but I’m going to stick to Alexa Martin’s football themed romance books since I think that’s what she does best!