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A review by indiekay
In the Case of Heartbreak by Courtney Kae
Did not finish book.
Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC
I am unfortunetly going to DNF is 25% in. The beginning has a LOT of info dumping that had me struggling through the first 5% and wondering if I actually wanted to read this or not, and my eyes kept getting stuck on names of things. Peak Perk Café and Delish Dollars Studios -- is there a term for the opposite of "rolls off the tongue" because these are that. Every time I read them I thought "why would you use alliteration for the first two words but not the third?" and it put my brain into editing mode instead of reading for enjoyment mode.
And look, sometimes a character has anxiety in a completely different way than I have anxiety, and it rubs me up the wrong way and makes me really irritated, and I think Ben is one of those characters. He internalises every obstacle that comes his way as being HIS fault, and he's some huge failure with a failing business -- even though the book so far has gone out of its way to say his business is doing so well and he's got all these people travelling to his town just to get his cinnamon buns to post about on Instagram, and he has online orders, and he has a lot of regulars that support him, and he's on this baking competition show*, AND he's got a filthy rich grandmother that can bail him out even IF his business was failing! Like my guy, you've been going to weekly therapy sessions since you were a kid and you're still dealing with this much self-sabotaging and impostor syndrome???
(*Also this baking competition makes no sense to me. One of my pet peeves is reality TV books that obviously have no idea how the behind-the-scenes of a reality TV show works. You're telling me they're doing a live broadcast of visiting his home town - why would THAT be live streamed?? And with only 1 camera, 1 sound person, and 1 producer? That is SO unlikely! I've worked on student films with more crew members than that! And doing a livestream while moving around a small town - they have NO control over the sound (just a boom? They didn't even put a microphone on Ben?) - but also have no idea if the livestream is going to cut out because of lost signal or something)
Anyway. I think what pushed me over the edge in deciding to DNF this is the actual romance. I can just TELL this is going to be 99% miscommunication and I just can't deal with that when the miscommunication in the first 25% of the book is already SO blown out of proportion.
I am unfortunetly going to DNF is 25% in. The beginning has a LOT of info dumping that had me struggling through the first 5% and wondering if I actually wanted to read this or not, and my eyes kept getting stuck on names of things. Peak Perk Café and Delish Dollars Studios -- is there a term for the opposite of "rolls off the tongue" because these are that. Every time I read them I thought "why would you use alliteration for the first two words but not the third?" and it put my brain into editing mode instead of reading for enjoyment mode.
And look, sometimes a character has anxiety in a completely different way than I have anxiety, and it rubs me up the wrong way and makes me really irritated, and I think Ben is one of those characters. He internalises every obstacle that comes his way as being HIS fault, and he's some huge failure with a failing business -- even though the book so far has gone out of its way to say his business is doing so well and he's got all these people travelling to his town just to get his cinnamon buns to post about on Instagram, and he has online orders, and he has a lot of regulars that support him, and he's on this baking competition show*, AND he's got a filthy rich grandmother that can bail him out even IF his business was failing! Like my guy, you've been going to weekly therapy sessions since you were a kid and you're still dealing with this much self-sabotaging and impostor syndrome???
(*Also this baking competition makes no sense to me. One of my pet peeves is reality TV books that obviously have no idea how the behind-the-scenes of a reality TV show works. You're telling me they're doing a live broadcast of visiting his home town - why would THAT be live streamed?? And with only 1 camera, 1 sound person, and 1 producer? That is SO unlikely! I've worked on student films with more crew members than that! And doing a livestream while moving around a small town - they have NO control over the sound (just a boom? They didn't even put a microphone on Ben?) - but also have no idea if the livestream is going to cut out because of lost signal or something)
Anyway. I think what pushed me over the edge in deciding to DNF this is the actual romance. I can just TELL this is going to be 99% miscommunication and I just can't deal with that when the miscommunication in the first 25% of the book is already SO blown out of proportion.