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A review by kimberlyyyreads
The Design of Us by Sajni Patel
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Thank you to Sajni, Netgalley and Berkley for an arc of The Design of Us in exchange for an honest review!
Special thanks to Sajni for personally getting me the ARC!
The Design of Us is a fake dating romance sparked between two co-workers who dislike each other but must put their differences aside to commit to the scheme initated by a white little lie.
As many of the romance genre loving girlies, I was super thrilled to hear that Sajni was writing another contemporary romance given how much I LOVED "Trouble with Hating you" and when I saw that this book would have the "dislike to like" trope I was more than thrilled to go into it.
But The Design of Us is much different than the Trouble with Hating you," The nemesis aspect falls short in this novel along with a couple of other things which I will go into further detail about.
The dislike to like trope is one that I personally enjoy if written correctly, in most cases, I am guaranteed enjoyment of the trope if there is a valid reason. In this case... There wasn't one.
We have one entire interaction that fueled this "dislikeness" over these characters but it isn't even a proper one. It's based off a couple of exchanged words that led towards these MC's disliking each other. So basically, they disliked each other for a misunderstanding over a tone of voice... which just seems so unnecessary.
I want to start off with the overall feeling of the book, unfortunately the whole book felt childish (for lack of a better word).
The interactions between both MC's felt forced nor did I feel or see any chemistry between them. Despite their lack of chemistry, their personalities are very similar. Which normally would be a good thing but in this case, it made their relationship to what I consider "unfitting."
We barely had any relationship building and once the conflict hit, I just couldn't bring myself to care for their relationship.
Apart from the relationship and the characters, the writing felt very YA. It was also simply very descriptive; I was consistently being told what the main characters were doing rather than shown.
Overall, The Design of Us had its cute moments but it wasn't a book in which I can see myself rereading or remembering much about.
Special thanks to Sajni for personally getting me the ARC!
The Design of Us is a fake dating romance sparked between two co-workers who dislike each other but must put their differences aside to commit to the scheme initated by a white little lie.
As many of the romance genre loving girlies, I was super thrilled to hear that Sajni was writing another contemporary romance given how much I LOVED "Trouble with Hating you" and when I saw that this book would have the "dislike to like" trope I was more than thrilled to go into it.
But The Design of Us is much different than the Trouble with Hating you," The nemesis aspect falls short in this novel along with a couple of other things which I will go into further detail about.
The dislike to like trope is one that I personally enjoy if written correctly, in most cases, I am guaranteed enjoyment of the trope if there is a valid reason. In this case... There wasn't one.
We have one entire interaction that fueled this "dislikeness" over these characters but it isn't even a proper one. It's based off a couple of exchanged words that led towards these MC's disliking each other. So basically, they disliked each other for a misunderstanding over a tone of voice... which just seems so unnecessary.
I want to start off with the overall feeling of the book, unfortunately the whole book felt childish (for lack of a better word).
The interactions between both MC's felt forced nor did I feel or see any chemistry between them. Despite their lack of chemistry, their personalities are very similar. Which normally would be a good thing but in this case, it made their relationship to what I consider "unfitting."
We barely had any relationship building and once the conflict hit, I just couldn't bring myself to care for their relationship.
Apart from the relationship and the characters, the writing felt very YA. It was also simply very descriptive; I was consistently being told what the main characters were doing rather than shown.
Overall, The Design of Us had its cute moments but it wasn't a book in which I can see myself rereading or remembering much about.