Cal’s ever-practical girlfriend Iris is looking ahead to her first year of college, and her plans do not include a long-distance boyfriend. When Lu learns that Cal and Iris have planned to end their relationship at the end of the summer, she becomes fascinated and decides to chronicle the last months the couple will spend together. Though Iris refuses to grant permission for Lu to write about them, Lu becomes obsessed with the couple, and how they survived the same issues that doomed her relationship. Her best friend Pete warns her that she should focus on finding a topic to write about, but Lu can't seem to think about anything else.
The closer she gets to the couple, the more she likes them, and the more she wants to write about them. It's helped her not think about Leo, and though her deadline approaches, along with the consequences of losing her job and her scholarship, Lu cannot shake the desire to focus her column around them. The summer unfurls, and Lu discovers what it really means to be in love. On the page, or off it. (Pub Date: Apr 30, 2019)
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Started well, continued well for a while, but I wasn't so sure by the ending.
3+ stars.
Lu is about to lose her scholarship and thus her chances of going to college because her heart is broken and she can't write a word for her internship at the Misnomer. That's when she sees a couple almost break up for the same reasons her boyfriend left her and then stay together. She needs to write about them and maybe find how she can make things right again.
Even my summary may be slightly spoiler-ish but the official one is definitely more. I'm not sure if I should blame the person who wrote it or just how long the story takes to get to the more-than-predictable love triangle. No, don't call that a spoiler if you know if from the first scene.
You know, I did enjoy reading it. Lu made me feel anxious like hell for erratic ways—that would definitely not happen to me, even though I'm queen of self-sabotage. But if you count it all, I think I really liked more than half of the story and didn't hate the rest. That's why I say 3+. My frustration is that it could have been a 4, even a 4+ with very little, but the writer may have lost herself somewhere there.
And yet, it's very well written, the characters are diverse without it being on your face. Kudos for that! I do think Leo's reasons needed to be more explained, that Pete deserved to be more round and not be just the friend giving the right advice and never heard. But the writing was great! Taking about characters, I enjoyed a lot Lu's boss, a pity there wasn't even room for developing her more.
There were some weird stuff going on. Lu's girl-crush on Iris was funny but her obsession with the couple was freaky. I think this may upset a few readers, since I kept frowning as the story progressed. And I wish that romance simply didn't exist. Me, who loves romances, who picked the book for the prospect of that very romance. But again, it was weird.
Now, my biggest issue. I think this missed the chance of discussing more the psychological that's causing all of Lu's problems. She definitely needed more help if she got to the point she couldn't be functional. I kept thinking the book would finally go there, but it never did. We just watch Lu crash and burn, and that was mean.
I'll be reading more from Adi Alsaid, that's one writer to follow, but this wasn't -the- book from her.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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