Love Me Like You Do (NYC Singles #3) - S...

Jamie had to be at the studio as all hell was breaking loose.Jamie tried to reign in his panic. Martina had to quit and she played one of the most vital secondary characters in the show- Troubled Domesticity-the main couple's daughter had fifteen lines and a ton of screen time. They could not replace her. Scarlet- the assistant producer said she had no choice she had fell and injured her spine she would never walk again. They were only two weeks into filming the first season of the show. His thoughts said You’re a failure, You’re nobody without your famous father, your lucks over. He tried to quit his thoughts , he had to keep it together. Daniel and Scarlet had already tried looking for another actress but noone showed up that even remotely resembled Martina.  In two months the show is scheduled to air nationwide. This was the first time Jamie was doing something independent of his father and Star Studios. Everything hinged on Troubled Domesticity success and his future as a tv writer. His self worth , his bank balance- everything. Scarlet said all they could do is for Jamie to rewrite the whole script and explain the mysterious disappearance of her character from the second episode on. Having a show picked up by the cable network was a one in twenty thousand chance. No way was Jamie blowing his chance because of a missing actress. Than Scarlet said she’d leave it to Jamie but the shoot is on friday and it was already Wednesday. As producer and writer of the show it was Jamie’s job to keep everyone happy. Bella was at Trader Joe’s and bumped into Jamie. Than Jamie said she was the one, the one he was looking for. Bella was an assistant professor at NYU.  Her ex Bryan had smashed Bella’s self confidence by cheating on her. Every rejection felt like his. Every guy seemed to carry some part of Bryan. This morning in the tabloids Bryan was splashed across the tabloids making out with a model saying she was his girlfriend. Jamie than explained he wanted Bella to play a character in the sitcom. Than Bella said she couldn’t act. Jamie asked how he could convince Bella to take the part since the actress got hurt. Somehow bella ended up at cafe Grumpy with jamie. He told bella she’d make seventy five grand in two months and he’d get her an acting coach. Than Jamie told Bella to google him and she found out he wrote her all time favorite movie- Love Me Like You Do. jamie’s father had been a great dad for awhile and than just stopped. Jamie inherited his father’s -Grant star- but not Grant’s penchant for women who had more plastic in their body than a Barbie doll. Grant had helped Jamie get in touch with a number of studios to pitch his t v show and cheered him on every step of his career. Which was why Jamie could never hate Grant. Bella thought everyone deserved a best friend like Kat. Jamie and bella become friends than ended up lovers. But there is a time limit as jamie is to leave for L A in a couple of months. But Jamie does make Bella feel good about herself. Than there is Grant- Jamie’s father - and Eve. Grant has always went for much younger women but he somehow developed feelings for Eve who was his age.  She will not just go to bed with him. She is old fashioned in that respect. She also works for Grant.

I enjoyed this book. This was a fun romantic read. I chucked at times while reading this and at other times i choked up. I did enjoy the author's style of writing. I was glad Bella didn’t fall back in with Bryan after he had cheated on her and how he dumped her. I liked the plot and pace. I did think the subject of weight was brought up to often. Bella irritated me at times. I didn’t really care for the ending. I didn’t like how Grant at all in the beginning but he did improve . You had to pay attention or you could get confused while reading this as there is two seperate love stories in this book. I love the characters  and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend.

Love Me Like You Do (NYC Singles #3) - S...

DNF @ 50%



Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. None of the characters were remotely likable to me. Bella came across as desperate and pathetic. Jamie was just uninteresting. Grant was a disgusting asshole. Eve was pathetic for even breathing the same air as Grant.

There was WAY too much emphasis on looks, and weight from EVERY character. In almost every scene someone was commenting on someone being "old" or "wrinkled" or "fat" or "lazy" The final straw was finding out the heroine is 6 years older than the hero. Had I known that before, I wouldn't have accepted the ARC because it is just SO not my thing.

You win some, you lose some. Moving on...

The beginning felt a little awkward with a more abrupt start and stop and go flashbacks to Alex's childhood. It was hard to really connect and sympathize with him, when his background felt more like a stark rendition rather than an emotional immersion. The interactions between Alex and Kat were stiff and the transitions were a bit jarring, which hurt the flow of the story for me. I've never read this author before, so maybe her writing style isn't for me but the tone and flow didn't really work for me. Overall, Alex and Kat had some spark but I needed more depth.

Read full review at: Reading Between the Wines book club

Link to full review below! Good overall but I struggled with Kat as a character. Frankly, I found her self serving and conceited a few times. Alex is too good for her! This review was originally posted on The Book Disciple

When I read the blurb of this, I loved the sound of it. It's set in NYC - one of my favorite cities in the world.It sounds like there won't be any instas going on... I knew that this could go one of two ways- I love it or loath it.

 

Well, I was wrong. On many accounts. First I neither love it nor loath it. I am not wowed for sure, but I also didn't hate it. It was just.. kinda awkward actually.

Look it's not terrible or infuriating, but it just never gelled with me.

 

First of all, the romance? INSTA all over. I could have lived with that. But I didn't buy it. They had no chemistry. Even if Clinton kept stressing that they did- well I didn't feel it.

Then the smut- was beyond awkward. It was odd and felt super wooden. Not enticing or sexy or hot. It felt rehearsed and planned. As in Clinton added some odd bits to make the couple more real or unique... BUT it felt like it was planned and more importantly it just felt off and weird.

They supposedly so in love. But I really didn't get any of that. I mean they professed to strong feelings, I just never I felt nor did I actually believe it.

Their infatuation felt superficial. Their big fight and the break up? It felt staged. And the supposed hurt of Ashley? What hurt? I felt it more in the blurb than reading the entire novel.

 

The character building felt labored. I mean, Clinton gave both MCs quirks and bad sides... but that's how it felt. Like their weaknesses were planned. Like Andrew's problem at the end? I felt like smacking him. Seriously, get real! It felt totally put on- so that we can have a last big drama...you know the perfunctory one before the end.

My biggest issue with the character building was, that Ashley and Andrew behaved rather juvenile most of the time. Their actions and reactions seemed to be rather arbitrary at times. Just like teens. But see we talking adults, first they in their early twenties then in their early thirties.. and frankly I just kept thinking grow the heck up people!

 

 

The plot was okay. I guess. A tad cliche. But actually not bad. This could have been a good cute & fluffy.

 

But I think my absolutely biggest issue with You're Still The One was the writing style. While Clinton does very flowery descriptions- they quite nice actually- the dialogues were totally wooden. Somehow they felt staged rather than a conversation. Then going back to the whole flowery descriptions- they didn't work in the context most of the time. I am not sure why. As I said, Clinton writes quite nicely. But somehow it just didn't work for me. I missed depth and soul- and saying that I have to stress, that I feel like Clinton did try and portray that. BUT I could simply not connect to it. It surprises me, because I usually love beautiful descriptions- but here it felt put on. The New York Clinton described, was not my experience of New York- Just some details felt off. In fact I was wondering if she actually has been there.

It seems my recurring problem with this novel. I simply didn't feel it, I just couldn't connect. At all.

 

So while I wish it would have worked better for me. I think the concept was interesting, sadly not for me though.