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A review by dylanhenning
Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I don’t typically read books that have romance as the main plot. I’m not sure why. I love rom-coms and the holiday tv movies that come out every winter (as cheesy as they are) but for some reason romance books haven’t been my cup of tea.
However with it being February and the month of love I decided to step outside of my usual comfort zone and read something I normally wouldn’t read.
I was pleasantly surprised to say I enjoyed this book. It didn’t captivate me and had me obsessively turning the pages until I devoured it but this was a cozy and sweet story about a book shop owner dealing with the recent loss of her grandmother and a budding friendship turned romance with an author who writes romance novels.
It was a cute story that felt true to life. Like Alexa Martin writes characters and dialogue that feels the way actual humans talk and behave which is rare in my limited exposure to the romance genre.
I enjoyed the various pop culture references that helped ground these characters in their relatability.
My biggest gripe with this book is the plot twist towards the end that creates conflict between the lovebird characters felt forced for the sake of shock to the reader and didn't feel like enough of a reason to split them up.
The main character also has an adversarial relationship with her father that I thought was going to play more into the end of the story but that plot point was conveniently solved and thrown away by a random third party character and didn’t give any satisfying conclusion to that plot thread.
However with it being February and the month of love I decided to step outside of my usual comfort zone and read something I normally wouldn’t read.
I was pleasantly surprised to say I enjoyed this book. It didn’t captivate me and had me obsessively turning the pages until I devoured it but this was a cozy and sweet story about a book shop owner dealing with the recent loss of her grandmother and a budding friendship turned romance with an author who writes romance novels.
It was a cute story that felt true to life. Like Alexa Martin writes characters and dialogue that feels the way actual humans talk and behave which is rare in my limited exposure to the romance genre.
I enjoyed the various pop culture references that helped ground these characters in their relatability.
My biggest gripe with this book is the plot twist towards the end that creates conflict between the lovebird characters felt forced for the sake of shock to the reader and didn't feel like enough of a reason to split them up.
The main character also has an adversarial relationship with her father that I thought was going to play more into the end of the story but that plot point was conveniently solved and thrown away by a random third party character and didn’t give any satisfying conclusion to that plot thread.