Skip to main content

Book 72 - The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

Rosie Graham quit her stable job to become a romance writer, but now she’s on deadline with massive writer’s block. She’s also homeless because the ceiling of her apartment fell down. Luckily her best friend, Lina, is away on her honeymoon, so Rosie uses the spare key and stays in Lina’s apartment. Lina’s cousin, Lucas, arrives to stay there too, which is tricky because it’s a studio apartment. They opt to not tell Lina for some stupid reason, and decide to cohabitate. Sure, there are other options, but they are pricey. Of course, Lina’s husband has an apartment too, but for some reason that’s never considered an option. 

To help with Rosie’s writer’s block, Lucas takes Rosie out on experimental dates, which helps give her inspiration, but also deepens her crush in him. But Lucas is only staying for a few weeks and then he has to go back to Spain. And he’s dealing with the physical and emotional fallout of a surfing injury. Rosie’s brother is being cagey and there’s extra conflicts there, which felt to like a choppy subplot, where he’s an exotic dancer with an overbearing boss. 

The book was very puttdownable, but I didn’t dislike it. The romance was ok. The characters were likeable and somewhat interesting. (7)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book 40 - The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

Classic fake-dating trope mixed with The Hating Game. Catalina Martin needs a boyfriend for her sister’s wedding, so the whole family doesn’t look at her with pity. The groom’s brother is her ex, and he’s recently engaged. The only one willing to help is her enemy colleague, Aaron Blackford. Nothing new of overly inventive, although the Spanish flavor was nice. Slow burn and then a fair amount of spice. Aaron seemed to have pretty good people and communication skills once he was fake dating Catalina, so I’m not sure why he didn’t use those skills before to apologize and express his feeling for her. There’s nothing overly memorable about the book, but I enjoyed it. I’ll happily read the next one about Catalina’s best friend. (8)
Post a Comment
Read more

Book 41 - What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon

There was a lot I really liked about this book. My favorite character, hands down, was the setting of Amsterdam. It certainly made me want to go visit, wander the streets, and eat all the foods. Dani Dorfman and Wouter van Leeuwen fell in love in high school, when he was a foreign exchange student from Amsterdam, staying with Dani’s family in LA. After he returned home, the break up was curt and painful for Dani. For some reason she still decides to move to Amsterdam when a work opportunity arises, and then is determined to figure out a way to stay when the work opportunity falls apart. Dani and Wouter run into each other (literally, which seems to happen a lot in romance novels), and forge a hesitant partnership as Dani needs to find a new apartment after the one she initially had floods, and Wouter has a place for rent. Dani will be booted out of the country if she can’t find a job in 90 days, and Wouter needs to be married to inherit his family’s home. The needs-to-be-married-for-in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book 63 - Book Boyfriend by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

Jennifer and Scott are work rivals at a publishing company. He scoffs at her favorite fantasy series, so she’s shocked to see him at a week-long fantasy immersion vacation. Enemies to lovers, always fun.  I love this duo’s writing style, like the line about Princess Bride-ing it down a hill and other clever turns of phrases. I’ll read whatever they write just for that. I liked how they incorporated the fantasy world, Elytheum, into the story, even if it was a bit over-the-top and unrealistic. I’m not a big fantasy reader, and I wasn’t sure what a fae is (Google confirms my thought that it’s like a fairy), but I could appreciate how ingrained the series is into Jennifer’s life.  I liked Jennifer and Scott’s interactions, for the most part. I think the biggest flaw is that the only thing really keeping the characters apart is their suspicion and fear. Which got a little repetitive. And Jennifer’s self reflections got a bit tedious for me. All in all it was a cute read. I liked t...
Post a Comment
Read more