kbranfield's profile picture

kbranfield 's review for:

My Very '90s Romance by Jenny Colgan
2.0

My Very '90's Romance by Jenny Colgan is a quirky yet somewhat lackluster novel.

Twenty-eight year old Holly Livingstone has terrible luck with roommates. She finally ends up living with college mates Josh and Kate and computer geek and recluse Addison Farthing. Holly is a barely employed florist whereas Kate is a hard-working, successful businesswoman and Josh has a cushy job in the family business.  Holly is fascinated by Addison who rarely leaves his room (or the house for that matter) and she basically forces herself on him by intruding on him without invitation. After meeting some of Kate's workmates, Holly hits it off Finn but she cannot give up on trying to coax Addison into a relationship. Kate is dating disaster who always winds up dating married men and Josh is trying to figure out his sexuality.

What seems like a recipe for madcap fun quickly descends into ridiculous, over-the-top unrealistic situations and offensive humor. Outside of Finn and Addison, none of the characters are particularly likable. Holly is incredibly immature and her snarky sense of humor becomes tedious. Josh and Kate are mostly innocuous but they lack dimension. Certain scenes are downright ludicrous and would never happen in real life. My Very '90's Romance is absolutely nothing like Jenny Colgan's more serious novels and it was a struggle to finish this latest release (which seems to be a re-named re-release of Talking to Addison).