#i feel dumb complaining because i'm Not the target audience but this book has such glowing reviews that i expected to feel Something

[kikuism]

finished it

ok i'm starting cemetery boys

[denkigal]

Betting on You by Lynn Painter My rating: 2 of 5 stars where do I begin? I'm not giving this 1 star because like I actually finished it and it wasn't entirely awful but maybe my good faith from "Better Than The Movies" was doing some heavy lifting coz this was not good. Now before we dive in I must admit that I am not this books target audience and if you're in the right demographic you might enjoy this. I really enjoyed the last Lynn Painter book I read and so I went into this book with high hopes, not only that but I love When Harry Met Sally which is this books clear inspiration, and I like the two movies they used to blurb this book (She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You) so I really thought I'd struck gold over here…sadly that was not the case :( First of all this book has no plot, the title would have you think the bet plays a significant role in this story but it takes a back seat, in fact its in another car entirely. This is a very badly plotted When Harry Met Sally reimagining. Also there are TWO bets in this book both equally redundant, the first one about whether or not Bailey's best friend is going to cheat on her boyfriend with this asshole dude they work with could possibly be the dumbest bet ever if it was the only bet in this book alas, and the second more infuriating bet (if that's even possible) between Charlie and the asshole colleague about whether or not Charlie could get Bailey to hook up with him is so dumb because this bet is shoehorned in the middle of the book with no build up AND the narrative takes great pains to let the reader know that Charlie, despite agreeing to this bet, thinks this bet is dumb and is high key judging Theo (asshole colleague) for even suggesting it….he still agrees though, but he is shaking his head so we know he disagrees EYE FUCKING ROLL Everyone in this book is insufferable in some way, like what kind of dad just doesn't get in touch with their kid who lives in another state when they stop texting? What kind of daughter tries their utmost to sabotage their mother's relationship with a decent and kind guy who for all intents and purposes seems to be trying his best to make said daughter feel good about all these changes??? What kind of boy ghosts a girl he really likes in an effort to not hurt her and is then shocked when said ghosting does in fact hurt her??? I could go on. Also the big reveal at the end when all the shitty bets came to light was so incredibly dumb because neither of these bets even had to exist for this story to happen and in fact was just there so that we had to sit through the most annoying third act breakup in existence TT__TT. What really gets me about Bailey is that she also made a shitty bet about her best friend but was given the opportunity to apologize and explain herself but when Charlie asks for the same she freezes him out? and for what? Everyone in this book is so dumb except maybe Bailey's mother and Scott (her perfectly decent boyfriend who Bailey and Charlie decide to fck with) A lot of people complain about the egregious use of Taylor Swift references and honestly that didn't bother me much until the 90% mark and then it just became outrageous like every other paragraph was a Taylor Swift reference, and I like Taylor Swift but it was too damn much, at this point Taylor should be compensated for how much she appears in this book. Anyway I am massively disappointed in this book because I really liked Better Than The Movies when I read it last year, and I'll probably read the sequel (even though its a freaking second chance romance sigh) but I am never reading anything in the Betting on You universe again urgh! View all my reviews

[skeleton-richard]

Time for an update on Great Protector by Kathryn LeVeque.

I fully acknowledge that I am not the target audience for it. That being said I'm halfway through and hoo boy.

Stuff FINALLY happened. The MMC was accused of trying to kill a guy who was hitting on the FMC, so the guy's dad attacks the castle. Meanwhile two agents of Owen Glendower are sneaking in trying to kidnap Princess Mary Sue and now she has to escape because her adoptive father blames her for all the shit that's going down.

As is probably to be expected everyone's so one-dimensional. I'm so bored with them.

Arissa is something of a brat, complaining about how the inn they're staying at smells bad. But it's not treated as a flaw really, just something for Richmond to tease her with.

Despite my love for knights I don't care about Richmond, he's too much of a Gary Stu.

The author tends to over-write things. Like this passage:

Daniel felt the sticky terror and it frightened him; swallowing hard, he glanced from William to Mossy and back again. He had no idea what to think, for the words he had heard coming forth between the earl and Richmond were staggering. A fairly simple man with simple thoughts, he could barely comprehend what he had heard.

All to say Daniel is dumb. In the words of David Byrne, "Say something once, why say it again?"

This book is 532 pages and so much could be cut out.

It remains a mystery why I like shipping some characters and will read romantic fics with them but hate romance novels. I feel like a hypocrit but honestly.

As I posted about below, I will pay romance authors to stop using "male" and "female" as nouns. It sounds gross.