Review: 2.5 stars, at best
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2013
It's hard for me to narrow down exactly what it was that made this book not work for me. There were grammatical errors, like the use of too instead of to, or a large amount of missing commas. But that's definitely not enough for me to not like a book. The characters, supposedly in their twenties, also repeatedly said "my dear". I found that odd and it threw me out of the story each time it happened, but again, that's not enough for me to dislike a book. I also felt like I was being told, not shown. Every interaction, every description, and especially every emotion, seemed distant and removed from the reader. I was never able to fully immerse myself in the story.***SPOILERS***Stella and Alex are neighbors and best friends for the last three years. They both secretly lust after the other. Stella has low self-esteem and Alex is the sculpted God who dates supermodel-esque type women. Everyone knows they are hot for each other, but they don't seem to realize it. This has been done many times before, and I'm fine with that. I love romance, and I'm all for following the formula. It's been done so many times for a reason - it can be really sweet, really sexy, and really fun. With a hero using "my dear", and not ironically, it just wasn't happening for me. There's the obligatory makeover scene, which I think went over the top and grossed me out. Stella walked around in front of her sister and another person with her freshly waxed lady parts in see-through underwear and a corset - but maybe I'm just more reserved and others wouldn't find that gross or distracting.By 60% of the story, the main characters have had two steamy love scenes, they've confessed their love for each other, and things are hunky dory. By this point, I'd almost forgotten that the whole synopsis of the book was about Stella's cheating ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend's upcoming wedding, and Stella being chosen to be their photographer. This is wounded Stella and forced her to pretend to be happily involved with her own boyfriend, aka her best friend and neighbor, Alex.If the book had ended there, with a brief explanation that Stella made it through photographing the wedding with the strength of Alex's love and support (or some other such scenario), I would have been fine. In fact, it may have truly earned three stars for me. But the story just kept going on and on and on and on and... Well, you get the drift. I ended up skimming to get to the end, just because I hate to leave a story unfinished, even when it's bad. But my dear I'm sad to say, there were just too many downfalls and distractions for me to like or recommend this book.It's difficult for me to write a negative review, because I know how hard authors work to make their stories come to life, but this effort fell flat for me. It's a free download, so if you've made it this far in my review and decide to give it a try, hopefully you'll enjoy it more than I did and leave a review of your own.