A review by whenimreading
Just Some Stupid Love Story by Katelyn Doyle

2.0

At their fifteen year high school reunion, old high school sweethearts Molly and Sean make a bet. Out of their friends, which couple will stay together or break up in the next five years? The catch is, they are one of the couples. Seth is looking for his soulmate, and Molly is a reluctant romance screenwriter, child of divorce and definitely doesn’t believe in soulmates. We follow them for the next five years through chance encounters and long distance meetings, all in the search for true love. 

The premise of this book really seemed like a fun summer romcom but it fell short for me. I did not connect with the characters and I did not believe they had any chemistry. The book was easy enough to follow, there is a lot (A LOT) of dialogue, emails, text messages, but besides a few explicit sexual encounters, not a lot of romance substance.

Important to mention, this is happening over the course of five years and falling right in the middle of the Covid pandemic. There are a lot of references to this time period and a third act breakup. I was disappointed in the lack of character development, Molly didn’t show any growth especially with the passage of time, there needed to be a therapy plot in this so badly, for the daddy issues to start. She admits to Seth that she’s an emotionally stunted person but does absolutely nothing to get help. 

The audiobook was performed by Christine Lakin and Tim Paige, jumping between the two POVs. I thought Christine’s delivery was better than Tim’s, unfortunately I just didn’t care for the story and ended up listening on the fastest speed just to finish quicker. The excessive emails and text messages were getting tedious to listen to, but I did like the characters’ banter for the most part. 

While this didn’t resonate with me, it may with others as a lighthearted spicy read at the beach or pool. 

Thank you to Flatiron Books and Macmillan Audio for the advance copies to review.