Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.  Bad Publicity follows newly hired book publicist Andie who discovers on her first day that she’ll be representing Jack, an author with whom she has a fraught past.  While the premise sounded intriguing, the execution was unfortunately severely lacking.  

While the majority of the novel takes place over a month, the pacing was irregular.  Andie and Jack’s relationship moved too quickly, which was highlighted by their complete lack of chemistry, but the plot was way too slow and was weighed down by Andie’s grief and indecision.  

Any personality Andie may have had was overshadowed by her all encompassing grief for her deceased father, which she hasn’t addressed in therapy or with her mother, and her absolute lack of care for anyone else.  Andie’s interactions with her mother and her best friend are overshadowed by her extreme selfishness.  Andie doesn’t routinely call or text her very loving mom back and hates her best friend’s boyfriend for “stealing” her best friend from her. She’s also incredibly unprofessional, both in her treatment of Jack and her attention to her job.

Jack, on the other hand, has no personality.  Despite reading the entire book twice, I know nothing about him other than: he has daddy issues, he loves Andie despite her mistreatment of him, and he’s generically hot.  

We also don’t find out about Andie and Jack’s history until 70% of the way through the book, and though the reveal didn’t make me agree with either of the characters’ actions; I could’ve understood their motivations better if I’d known what occurred during their time in university.  I also felt that the events that transpired at their university were a bit far-fetched and the villain might as well have been twirling a mustache on page.  Additionally, I can’t in good faith believe that university students would allow themselves to be blackmailed into illegal acts just because they thought they’d lose their scholarships, instead of consulting faculty or the police. 

Unfortunately, despite my initial excitement, this really missed the mark.  Structurally the writing was fine, but the characters, plot, and execution left a lot to be desired.