**I received an ARC from Netgalley. These are my honest opinions, and in no way was I compensated for this review.**
The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich
My Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A thrilling YA debut about teen spies disguised as "love interests"--whoever gets the girl lives; but the one she rejects, dies.
This will be a short review because it's been a couple of weeks since I read it.
When I first heard about The Love Interest, I was so excited because it completely subverts the love triangle trope by having the two love interests fall in love instead. However, I could not get into the writing and frankly I don't have any attachments to the characters.
It took me a month to read this because the writing made the whole thing sooo slow. Also, a lot of the things they describe in the book seemed a bit contrived, mostly I think because of the way it's written about. And the characters! I am completely serious when I say that I did not particularly care for any of them. Not the main character, not Dyl, not Juliet, not the friends. None of them were very fleshed out, and it felt like they were all pretty much flat characters. They all had a couple of characteristics, and that's it. I don't want to post any quotes or go further because I don't want to spoil anything, and it's probably just me who didn't care for this book.
Spoilers for this paragraph though, because this one thing made me really mad. Read if you want, although I wouldn't exactly say it spoils the entire plot because you pretty much know what happens based on the description. There's not "bury your gays" trope, but there was this one moment where Dyl tells Caden that he pretended to be gay and like him so that he would "win" (aka get Juliet to fall in love with him). I guess this trope happens a lot in hetero plots, but it felt ten times worse when someone pretends to be a completely different sexuality just to fool you. However, it does turn out that he's lying and does love Caden. There's this one scene where Juliet tells Caden, "Of course he loves you! Just look at the way he looks at you!" which was another cliche in my opinion, especially because I could not tell Dyl had intense feelings for Caden because the writing never suggested it. I felt almost no spark between them for the entire book. It works out in the end, but that scene bothered me so much I almost stopped reading.
So yeah, this book was a bit of a letdown for me. Again, it was mostly the writing that bothered me, but the thing I really only liked about this book was the twist with the love triangle. We do need more books like this though, so I'm looking forward to the author's next book.
There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.
Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection.
Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome.
The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?
Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be - whoever the girl doesn't choose will die.
What the boys don't expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.
From debut author Cale Dietrich comes a fast-paced adventure that is full of both action and romance and subverts common tropes.
This will be a short review because it's been a couple of weeks since I read it.
When I first heard about The Love Interest, I was so excited because it completely subverts the love triangle trope by having the two love interests fall in love instead. However, I could not get into the writing and frankly I don't have any attachments to the characters.
It took me a month to read this because the writing made the whole thing sooo slow. Also, a lot of the things they describe in the book seemed a bit contrived, mostly I think because of the way it's written about. And the characters! I am completely serious when I say that I did not particularly care for any of them. Not the main character, not Dyl, not Juliet, not the friends. None of them were very fleshed out, and it felt like they were all pretty much flat characters. They all had a couple of characteristics, and that's it. I don't want to post any quotes or go further because I don't want to spoil anything, and it's probably just me who didn't care for this book.
Spoilers for this paragraph though, because this one thing made me really mad. Read if you want, although I wouldn't exactly say it spoils the entire plot because you pretty much know what happens based on the description. There's not "bury your gays" trope, but there was this one moment where Dyl tells Caden that he pretended to be gay and like him so that he would "win" (aka get Juliet to fall in love with him). I guess this trope happens a lot in hetero plots, but it felt ten times worse when someone pretends to be a completely different sexuality just to fool you. However, it does turn out that he's lying and does love Caden. There's this one scene where Juliet tells Caden, "Of course he loves you! Just look at the way he looks at you!" which was another cliche in my opinion, especially because I could not tell Dyl had intense feelings for Caden because the writing never suggested it. I felt almost no spark between them for the entire book. It works out in the end, but that scene bothered me so much I almost stopped reading.
So yeah, this book was a bit of a letdown for me. Again, it was mostly the writing that bothered me, but the thing I really only liked about this book was the twist with the love triangle. We do need more books like this though, so I'm looking forward to the author's next book.
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