A review by gabrielle_ibarra
Why I Held Your Hand by Augusta Reilly

2.0

Spoiler

2.5 Stars

I think this book cemented the fact that I just do not like love triangles. I also learned from reading this book that I really do not like cheating, especially when it's unnecessary to the plot and is tried to be justified.

I was really hoping that the author would be able to write a more balanced love triangle and that she would not fall into the trap of preferring one guy (or girl) over the other. While she constantly told us that the main character, Laura, was equally infatuated with both men, through Laura constantly thinking/telling us so, there is a clear bias for Spence. Laura basically has sex with David for like a few chapters and we spend most of the book seeing Spence and Laura together. This is despite the fact that Spence and Laura only technically see each other every Mondays and that, purportedly, David and Laura spend more time with each other. The author also falls into the trap of telling and not showing when it comes to David and Laura's relationship. We basically skip over the development of their relationship with almost no scenes with them actually being together and building a relationship.

As for the cheating, it could have been avoided. And I genuinely did not know how it affects the plot other than the fact that it reflects poorly on Laura's AND Spence's character. I find myself not trusting the characters to keep their promises to each other because I know they are capable of poor judgement, to put it lightly. Also when Laura attempted to justify being duplicitous, meaning having an emotional affair with Spence, even before they had sex, by saying that she did not want to hurt David by breaking up with him because he, like her, has very few people he loves. Does she not realise that by breaking her promise to be faithful to him she is doing exactly that. It was just such a piss poor excuse. And she was basically blatantly flirting with Spence and put herself in the position for feeling between them to develop to more than just friendship.

Nonetheless, I think the author is actually a really good romance author in the sense that I really enjoyed her writing style. I find that with most romance authors, I tend to get second hand embarrassment because of really cringy dialogue. There was some of that here, not to mention that some of the jokes were just not that funny, but the cringy dialogue was at the minimum.

Also Reilly can write a really good sex scene. I would put her almost on par with Talia Hibbert and Helen Hoang. And there were a lot of sweet moments between Spence and Laura that I also really enjoyed, besides the part when they finally boned.