Stella has had a crush on Will, her big brother's best friend for years. However, because of the two of them, she's been unable to date anyone since they chase off any guys who might try. The two of them have just graduated, leaving Stella finally free to date. With the help of her best friend, Franklin, the two concoct a plan to get a Stella a boyfriend - the Boyfriend Bracket. But when Will ends up being around a lot more often than expected, Stella finds herself focusing on him more than any of the guys in the bracket.

 

I picked this book up for the "boyfriend bracket" concept, so it was disappointing to see just how early on it was dropped. The little the book did have of it was rushed through or told in summary after the fact. The majority of the guys were never even on page. I knew what direction the book was ultimately going to take based on the synopsis, but I thought the eponymous bracket would at least play a bigger role in the book.

 

The romance didn't particularly do it for me. Will had spent years chasing other guys away from Stella because he didn't want anyone else to have her, even though he had no intention of asking her out at that point. He goes along with overprotective and possessive behavior on Stella's brother's part to keep other guys away from her. I'm just not a fan of that type of behavior.

 

I was disappointed the book quickly discarded a unique premise for a romance with the big brother's best friend who participated in overprotective and possessive behaviors. The tossing of the unique premise wouldn't have necessarily ruined the book for me since I love a good romantic comedy regardless of how cliched it is. But throw in an overprotective/possessive love interest and there has to be some incredibly strong writing with some killer chemistry to sell the story to me. And this just didn't deliver.

I had high hopes for this one, the blurb sounds awesome and one of my reading buddies really liked it.
Alas it didn't quite work for me.

And honestly I felt terrible about that. Because this is by no means badly written. Evangelsita's writing style is ok. Same goes for the story line.

But I found it impossible to connect to the MCs. I am not quite sure if this is because it is written in third person. A choice that always makes it harder for the reader to connect.
I just simply felt like I was reading something made-up. I know, I know, this is fictional. But when I read I want to be able to forget that it's someone's idea, I want to be able to connect and I want to believe the story. Sadly I really couldn't do either of these things.
This feel like a TV-series to me. I felt totally detached from everything.
Even when the big dramas happened, all I could think of was, only 10% left to get through...
I found it all too cliche. We have to emotionally unavailable Caleb, who isn't just super hot but also beyond rich, his asshat dad, the super-close little circle of friends... oh and then there is Nathan the token gay.
Didi came across as extremely childish on many occasions.
Her mother seemed flippant. She changed her mind about things like a leave in the wind...
Let me not get started on Amber or JJ.
Simply put I didn't like the character building. There was no depth to start with but also no growth over the story.

While I found the events and the sweet moments quite endearing, it also felt orchestrated. Like someone lined up key moments.
I was not a fan of the dialogues- most of it has been used in way too many romantic movies, the same goes for a lot of the sweet moments.


I wish I would have liked it better. Really I do. I think it has some potential, I am not sure what would safe this however. Then again, thankfully I am just a reader, who can't write to safe her life.

I guess a less picky reader, someone who loves a bit of movie romance will really enjoy this one!

Relish - Kate Evangelista

2 stars..but keep  in mind 3 things:

 

One, I didn't read the synopsis...well okay I probably skimmed it, but forgot all about it when I actually started this one...I had no idea what I was getting in to. 

Two, I didn't read the first book in this series. Not sure if this would've effected anything because of Three, the whole  book ( well 99% of it) is from the heroine's pov...this is a personal gripe of mine....reading is  my escape of choice....I've said this before and I'll say it again...I spend far too much time IRL trying to figure out what's going inside guys' heads, to want to do it in my escape as well...occasionally only one pov works...here, IMO, it didn't. Not knowing what was going on in the Hero's head, made it hard to believe anything he said. 

 

 

 

Having said all that,I feel like I should mention the ending of this book was very weird...it started as some NA rock star story, and turned into some Para/fantasy  read....it felt like two different books for a while there...like I'd started reading one and it morphed into another....very, very strange.

 

 

However, despite thinking this book only rated an ' okay', I do think Ms Evangelista has talent, so I will (maybe) more than likely give her another try.

 

I jumped right into reading this book after Kate told me about it. I had to drop my current-read for this and it's all worth it.

I absolutely loved the story! Although the concept isn't new for me, Kate managed to turn it into a great story. From the start, Caleb and Didi had a strong chemistry. I loved the personality of both characters. Didi was a strong female lead. I was curious as to what her conditions were because of the pills. Although there was a mention of it towards the end, I felt like the importance of it was reduced during the middle. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

Caleb was a bit indifferent when it comes to love but he has his reasons. I found him difficult at first but then he came into his senses and there comes the true Caleb whom I adored. I also think there's more to exhaust when it comes to Caleb's dad as an antagonist.

Nathan was a pretty cool character. I loved him and I'm very happy based on the bonus content after the book.

I also loved the ending. It was really touching and sweet!

I hope to see this book someday being sold in my local bookstore.