A review by syazahaniss
Love at First Fight by Mary Jayne Baker

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Frankly, I had quite low expectations of this book, but it ended up being the first book I’ve liked (not loved though) this year so far.

I really appreciated how funny and ridiculous the story is, but especially the banter between the characters. Not too sure if it’s just British humour or the way the author portrays the characters, but I laughed so many times while reading.

Ben was the kind of male protagonist who gave me chest pains i.e the indicator of whether i like them or not, and considering i haven’t felt this for any other MMC this year so far, was a plus point in my book. Bridie was also very relatable to me in terms of personality and being all anti-love/romance, so I liked her as well despite not knowing how the hell to pronounce her name. Their pining was really cute too.

That said, I would appreciate it if the focus of the book was more on Ben and Bridie’s relationship. I loved how fast the pacing of the book was because it made it less draggy, but it was lacking when it came to proper development of the main relationship. I knew something was up when they officially got together about halfway through the book. What I didn’t expect was the story changing tack and talking about Cal and Hattie as the main couple instead. Like, I liked them enough as the side couple but i really couldn’t care less about them except for their role to get Ben and Bridie together.

On that same note, I expected the plot to mainly revolve around the wedding and how Ben and Bridie had to spend time together leading to their budding romance and eventual relationship (ye old forced proximity trope if you will) but I didn’t think the wedding would happen in the mere 10-20% near the end. I quite like wedding stories so that kind of disappointed me.

The very heavy English way of storytelling also put quite a bit of a damper into the experience since I wasn’t familiar with most of the phrases and terms. Even some of the words flew over my head.

Overall, quite a pleasant read but I might not reread it.
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