A review by beate251
Book Boyfriend by Lucy Vine

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for this ARC.

Jemma and Clara, 28 are fraternal twin sisters who couldn't be more different in character. Jemma is a very reliable ghost writer and takes the same book out over and over again from the library, when one time she finds a note in it directed to her. She starts corresponding thinking the other person is a woman as it's a romance book. Her flatmates Harry and Selma convince her it is a man, so she asks for his name.

Meanwhile, chaotic Clara has returned from the US where she has lived for the last five years, just in time for their mother's wedding to a woman. Due to lingering resentment, Jemma is not happy to see her, especially as she moves in with her, Salma and Harry and is a very inconsiderate flatmate. In fact, she is selfish, useless and obnoxious, and when we are later given some background on her time in the US, it is a 180 degrees turn around on her character that I personally didn't swallow.

Clara falls in lust with an actor called Milo who has the main role in a series based on Jemma's favourite book, renamed Book Boyfriend. She tries to get near him in a series of events that are meant to be funny but are just plain embarrassing and display obsessive behaviour unworthy of a 28 year old.

We get some potential love interests for Jemma in the form of mountaineer Aarav and grumpy librarian Mack, probably trying go get the grumpy/sunshine trope going, but failing spectacularly. I didn't find the book funny, just silly, and why do we need a narrator? We could have done without him and lost nothing. I tried to like the romance but it was barely there and I got no sense of some of the guys at all.

A lot of words to say this book wasn't for me as I neither liked the plot, the characters or the writing style. 

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