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jeet_the_maiden 's review for:
This Is Not A F*cking Romance
by Evie Snow
Sigh.
Wishful thinking from the authors creates this hybrid emo-punk-"cool girl" Candy Blume, of Chinese and American descent who runs a steampunk bar in Texas. She was bullied in high school by popular but suddenly orphaned Italian descent (translates into being a great cook+pastry chef) Trent; and she's never forgiven or forgotten him for this treatment.
They encounter each other when she is threatened at her own bar by her belligerent alcoholic ex-husband (whose mother blames Candy for his slide into ruin), after which she slowly starts to unbend towards him, but very wary of his intentions. Trent, on the other hand, has a lot on his plate, after the death of his parents when he was barely past high school turns him into the caretaker of his younger and obstreperous siblings, especially Matty who has angst issues with capital I's and S's.
They continue to have a full blown affair, but face a (not so huge) communication bump when Matty does something very drastic. He's a very single note unlikeable character but his plot arc is bumpy, the authors clearly wanted him to be awful but not terrible, which would probably describe quite a few teenagers with angst. Oh why won't somebody think of the angst!
My problem with the characters is that written with monotony in creation, while trying to stuff them with many "qualities". Trent is a recovering bully, he cooks, he takes care of his siblings, but he's still very boring; you can't really create a whole mental picture of him.
Candy is very badass, quirky, always suspicious, can't cook, has a very opinionated, cranky dog and sleeps in a small apartment over her bar. She has no money.
And then there's a very socially in-adept, nerdy wannabe author regular at her bar who is always there to help Candy in her times of need, except when the plot needed Trent to be there.
It's giving Smallville rom-com style but without any social commentary, smart or otherwise.
All the characters feel like caricatures - smart badass punk heroine, kind handsome reformed "punk" hero, weird vulva-circle mother, absent fathers, piti-hateful exes, too cool for you music mentions - all in all it wasn't a pleasant read. At times I wanted to throw something at the protagonists, for various reasons.
Wishful thinking from the authors creates this hybrid emo-punk-"cool girl" Candy Blume, of Chinese and American descent who runs a steampunk bar in Texas. She was bullied in high school by popular but suddenly orphaned Italian descent (translates into being a great cook+pastry chef) Trent; and she's never forgiven or forgotten him for this treatment.
They encounter each other when she is threatened at her own bar by her belligerent alcoholic ex-husband (whose mother blames Candy for his slide into ruin), after which she slowly starts to unbend towards him, but very wary of his intentions. Trent, on the other hand, has a lot on his plate, after the death of his parents when he was barely past high school turns him into the caretaker of his younger and obstreperous siblings, especially Matty who has angst issues with capital I's and S's.
They continue to have a full blown affair, but face a (not so huge) communication bump when Matty does something very drastic. He's a very single note unlikeable character but his plot arc is bumpy, the authors clearly wanted him to be awful but not terrible, which would probably describe quite a few teenagers with angst. Oh why won't somebody think of the angst!
My problem with the characters is that written with monotony in creation, while trying to stuff them with many "qualities". Trent is a recovering bully, he cooks, he takes care of his siblings, but he's still very boring; you can't really create a whole mental picture of him.
Candy is very badass, quirky, always suspicious, can't cook, has a very opinionated, cranky dog and sleeps in a small apartment over her bar. She has no money.
And then there's a very socially in-adept, nerdy wannabe author regular at her bar who is always there to help Candy in her times of need, except when the plot needed Trent to be there.
It's giving Smallville rom-com style but without any social commentary, smart or otherwise.
All the characters feel like caricatures - smart badass punk heroine, kind handsome reformed "punk" hero, weird vulva-circle mother, absent fathers, piti-hateful exes, too cool for you music mentions - all in all it wasn't a pleasant read. At times I wanted to throw something at the protagonists, for various reasons.