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A review by trinityb2021
Not in My Book by Katie Holt
2.0
2 ⭐️
So much in this book is poorly developed. I don’t even know where to begin.
The premise is essentially Beach Read if it was set in a grimy NYC apartment instead of a beach front vacation home. Two authors who write different genre’s are “forced” to work together on a book that combines both of their genres.
The series of events that cause Rosie and Aiden to work together are super dumb. The teacher wants them to work together to write one book. Alternating chapters? Already an incredibly hard task for any author. Also no other students in the class have to do this. In college isn’t that kind of frowned upon? Also the teacher essentially forces them to go on a date together “for research”. What the actual fuck? If a teacher forced me to go on a date with a man I hated for a class I would report them to the Dean. That has to be illegal. Yes I know that romance novels usually have a silly and unbelievable set up to get the ball rolling but this required suspending my disbelief more than I could. Maybe it’s because I just got out of college.
Moving on to their actual personalities. Rosie comes off as spunky and confident. We never hear about her insecurity in her internal monologue or in discussions with her friends. We know she is distrustful of men because of her history with her ex but that is not the same as insecure. All of a sudden in the first sex scene she is super insecure about her body, her looks, her stretch marks, her weight, everything. I don’t understand? It felt like it was included because women would find it relatable and not because it fits with the character. I think that it’s fine to include but why did Rosie not even think about it once until that moment. I hated that. One ounce of foreshadowing please.
Aiden is pretty boring. He what, has divorced parents? That’s his tragic backstory. His dad is comically evil. I hate when people are caricatures of evil instead of actual people. Think of all the best villains in stories. They are almost always relatable or at least you can understand their actions. Aiden’s dad is an asshole because?? We don’t know. And none of that story is ever resolved.
I liked Rosie’s family but everyone just kind of annoyed me. Rosie in particular was very annoying. It is quite literally the novelization of the two most annoying people you know fall in love. And by the 10 hour mark I was DONE. (I think if I read this book on my kindle I maybe would've liked it more since I would've only been subjected to 3-4 hours of it instead of 6+ on the audiobook)
Also the narrator, she cannot do a decent male voice to save her life. It was bad.
Aiden is an objectively better writer than Rosie sorry. We get excerpts from their book as epigraphs and all of Aiden’s chapters are better lol.
I hate pea coats.
Aiden is ugly on the cover.
They somehow fucked up making chocolate chip cookies, twice? I’m a horrible baker and can manage to do cookies. And they’re both like 6 years older than me.
Don’t get me started on all the dumb miscommunication. It is the only plot this book has. I’m pretty sure at no point Aiden says he doesn’t like relationships or isn’t the type to fall in love but Rosie has convinced herself that this is the case. He basically only said he doesn't like romance novels because he finds them unrealistic. Which is 100% valid. From about the 20% mark to the 85% mark the main conflict is Rosie not thinking Aiden is serious until that is resolved and ANOTHER miscommunication shows up. Cannot stand when miscommunication is this blatant and dumb.
I did like the early chemistry the characters had. The banter was pretty good.
The sex scene written through the book 🤤😮💨. That was probably the best part of this book. But that’s kinda sad because I want to enjoy the romance and not just the physical elements.
So much in this book is poorly developed. I don’t even know where to begin.
The premise is essentially Beach Read if it was set in a grimy NYC apartment instead of a beach front vacation home. Two authors who write different genre’s are “forced” to work together on a book that combines both of their genres.
The series of events that cause Rosie and Aiden to work together are super dumb. The teacher wants them to work together to write one book. Alternating chapters? Already an incredibly hard task for any author. Also no other students in the class have to do this. In college isn’t that kind of frowned upon? Also the teacher essentially forces them to go on a date together “for research”. What the actual fuck? If a teacher forced me to go on a date with a man I hated for a class I would report them to the Dean. That has to be illegal. Yes I know that romance novels usually have a silly and unbelievable set up to get the ball rolling but this required suspending my disbelief more than I could. Maybe it’s because I just got out of college.
Moving on to their actual personalities. Rosie comes off as spunky and confident. We never hear about her insecurity in her internal monologue or in discussions with her friends. We know she is distrustful of men because of her history with her ex but that is not the same as insecure. All of a sudden in the first sex scene she is super insecure about her body, her looks, her stretch marks, her weight, everything. I don’t understand? It felt like it was included because women would find it relatable and not because it fits with the character. I think that it’s fine to include but why did Rosie not even think about it once until that moment. I hated that. One ounce of foreshadowing please.
Aiden is pretty boring. He what, has divorced parents? That’s his tragic backstory. His dad is comically evil. I hate when people are caricatures of evil instead of actual people. Think of all the best villains in stories. They are almost always relatable or at least you can understand their actions. Aiden’s dad is an asshole because?? We don’t know. And none of that story is ever resolved.
I liked Rosie’s family but everyone just kind of annoyed me. Rosie in particular was very annoying. It is quite literally the novelization of the two most annoying people you know fall in love. And by the 10 hour mark I was DONE. (I think if I read this book on my kindle I maybe would've liked it more since I would've only been subjected to 3-4 hours of it instead of 6+ on the audiobook)
Also the narrator, she cannot do a decent male voice to save her life. It was bad.
Aiden is an objectively better writer than Rosie sorry. We get excerpts from their book as epigraphs and all of Aiden’s chapters are better lol.
I hate pea coats.
Aiden is ugly on the cover.
They somehow fucked up making chocolate chip cookies, twice? I’m a horrible baker and can manage to do cookies. And they’re both like 6 years older than me.
Don’t get me started on all the dumb miscommunication. It is the only plot this book has. I’m pretty sure at no point Aiden says he doesn’t like relationships or isn’t the type to fall in love but Rosie has convinced herself that this is the case. He basically only said he doesn't like romance novels because he finds them unrealistic. Which is 100% valid. From about the 20% mark to the 85% mark the main conflict is Rosie not thinking Aiden is serious until that is resolved and ANOTHER miscommunication shows up. Cannot stand when miscommunication is this blatant and dumb.
I did like the early chemistry the characters had. The banter was pretty good.
The sex scene written through the book 🤤😮💨. That was probably the best part of this book. But that’s kinda sad because I want to enjoy the romance and not just the physical elements.