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A review by evarano
Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella
2.0
1.5 ⭐️
I want to start this off by saying I am a huge Sophie Kinsella fan. I own and love all of her books, that's why I was beyond excited when I received this ARC! So it greatly disappoints me to say I could barely make it through this book, I strongly disliked every single character. Everything about this book felt amateurish and if Kinsella hadn't written it, I would've dropped out very early on.
Ava, a writer who strongly believes in true love and romance whisks off to a writing retreat in Italy after many failed attempts at dating. While in Italy, meant to be working on her novel, circumstances lead her to meeting Dutch, a mysterious and handsome man who joins the retreat as a late entry. The two have an instant attraction and begin a relationship-maintaining the rules about not sharing any personal information. The whirlwind love affair continues back to London, where Ava and Dutch (Matt) begin to discover each other for their true selves. Quickly, they realize that they aren't who the other thought they were, can they make it through?
First, the characters. Ava, while good intentioned and loyal, is a mess. I think she was meant to come off as quirky and different, and she does, but she's also annoying, frustrating and delusional. She seems to lack understanding of the world as it happens around her, is attached to her dog in a way that made me cringe and lives this all over the place, super disorganized life. She constantly makes excuses for those around her, claims she's a feminist but allows herself to be treated horribly by her friends and Matt, and continuously stops herself from expressing her true thoughts and feelings. The fact that she "fell in love" so quickly with someone she had zero chemistry with, and claimed to stay in love with that person was so unbelievable. Matt is a liar, he's inconsiderate and secretive. He came off as so bland and boring past the beginning of the book it was hard to read about the relationship with Ava. Again, absolutely zero chemistry between the two. I found the countless friends, I believe who were also written to be different and quirky, annoying, weird and rude in their own way. While I found them realistic, which I appreciated because Ava certainly wasn't, Ava brushed them off and they were present but just odd. Next, the plot. Basically if you want to read a book about two characters who have absolutely nothing in common besides a love of ice cream, with zero chemistry, who in no world should be together, this is the book for you. The entire book is just them realizing they're not meant for each other but staying together anyways. I thought the side plot with Harold just made Ava weirder. Ava is just so naive and all she wanted was to make something work that so clearly wasn't, although it tried, this book was about little else. I do not recommend this read at all. I would rate it 1 star but since I finished I'll rate it a 1.5 rounded up.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.
I want to start this off by saying I am a huge Sophie Kinsella fan. I own and love all of her books, that's why I was beyond excited when I received this ARC! So it greatly disappoints me to say I could barely make it through this book, I strongly disliked every single character. Everything about this book felt amateurish and if Kinsella hadn't written it, I would've dropped out very early on.
Ava, a writer who strongly believes in true love and romance whisks off to a writing retreat in Italy after many failed attempts at dating. While in Italy, meant to be working on her novel, circumstances lead her to meeting Dutch, a mysterious and handsome man who joins the retreat as a late entry. The two have an instant attraction and begin a relationship-maintaining the rules about not sharing any personal information. The whirlwind love affair continues back to London, where Ava and Dutch (Matt) begin to discover each other for their true selves. Quickly, they realize that they aren't who the other thought they were, can they make it through?
First, the characters. Ava, while good intentioned and loyal, is a mess. I think she was meant to come off as quirky and different, and she does, but she's also annoying, frustrating and delusional. She seems to lack understanding of the world as it happens around her, is attached to her dog in a way that made me cringe and lives this all over the place, super disorganized life. She constantly makes excuses for those around her, claims she's a feminist but allows herself to be treated horribly by her friends and Matt, and continuously stops herself from expressing her true thoughts and feelings. The fact that she "fell in love" so quickly with someone she had zero chemistry with, and claimed to stay in love with that person was so unbelievable. Matt is a liar, he's inconsiderate and secretive. He came off as so bland and boring past the beginning of the book it was hard to read about the relationship with Ava. Again, absolutely zero chemistry between the two. I found the countless friends, I believe who were also written to be different and quirky, annoying, weird and rude in their own way. While I found them realistic, which I appreciated because Ava certainly wasn't, Ava brushed them off and they were present but just odd. Next, the plot. Basically if you want to read a book about two characters who have absolutely nothing in common besides a love of ice cream, with zero chemistry, who in no world should be together, this is the book for you. The entire book is just them realizing they're not meant for each other but staying together anyways. I thought the side plot with Harold just made Ava weirder. Ava is just so naive and all she wanted was to make something work that so clearly wasn't, although it tried, this book was about little else. I do not recommend this read at all. I would rate it 1 star but since I finished I'll rate it a 1.5 rounded up.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.