Unromance by Erin Connor

Two people have a meet cute in an elevator. One a romance novelist who is struggling to write her next book and the other a hopeless-romantic actor.

Unromance follows the story of two people making a pact, trying out love tropes in the hopes of helping with writers block and to help destroy the idea of what romance is. But as you can imagine had dire consequences for both parties.

When first ordering this book I was taken mostly by the cover. It is reminiscent of the days of the 2000s romcoms such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 days. And this somewhat comes up in conversation during the book itself. I just wish I cared for the writing more.

I think this is the problem with contemporary romance books these days, it is more about what has been than what is fresh and different. The idea behind the book as well as the book cover itself felt like a marketing ploy which sadly I did fall for.

The chemistry of both characters feel very flat and I didn’t particularly like the ending. It felt very out of character of what happened at the end and rushed to a conclusion which for one didn’t feel realistic. Even the relationships of the main characters and other friends seemed contrived and artificial. Like you could see the cogs behind the clock when they should be hidden from sight.

Also, there could have been so much more about Mason’s family. The groundwork was there to make an interesting side story about his mother and their relationship but this was forgotten very soon on. It made the plot itself feel two dimensional. But that is not surprising, as the whole book felt the same old boring plot points I’ve read thousands of times before. If there was anything called how to write romance books for dummies this would be it.

Just disappointed sadly.

Rating: 2 Stars

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