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Text Appeal by Kylie Scott
Nov. 8th, 2024 08:50 amI’ve been over at SBTB downloading samples and trying new authors. I was unconvinced about this one, but it had a really great main character voice so I kept going after the sample. I have all the same issues after reading the whole thing that I went into it with, but no major new ones.
What are the issues. Well, it’s a white het couple in a small town in the PacNW, so there’s that energy. He’s lived there his entire life, which is part of the point of the book, and one of its redeeming characteristics. This is a book that tackles head on the insularity of small towns and how that can be deeply painful for people. It’s super tropey: meet cute, fake romance, there’s only one bed. He technically sticks to The Deal, but in a way that is so obviously avoidant attachment-y, and which connects so completely to what he was doing for years with his long-time on-again off-again now-ex that the only thing that saves that problem is the background comment about how the couple will be needing a ton of couples therapy right away.
OK SPOILERS NOW!
The fact that the ex- winds up with another woman (and the ex- is engaging in exactly the same avoidant attachment crap that Hero is engaging in), and that the initial text connection is between the ex- and New Girl, and that we get some amazing conversations between groups of women (alas, many centered on The Man, but not all of them; a ton of them are about other relationships and how they continue to echo through this small town) — those things do a lot of heavy lifting. Do they save this book? Maybe? I’m not really sure. Another trope is He Defends Her, which I have extremely mixed feelings about, and this book absolutely takes the predatory aspects of that seriously. The “Speed Dating” disrupted by him Dog in the Mangering her and her confronting him about it doesn’t fix the fact that it’s here but oh boy.
As much as I love the the voice of Riley Cooper, the whole book feels weirdly detached, as if Riley was traumatized and had gotten treatment and was taking some kind of amazing medication that helped her feel just enough detached from the world to enjoy life a little. Also, the book is super meta, in that Riley Cooper is a very successful but hoping to be much more successful romance writer.
I’m probably going to try another book by this author (there’s a snippet of Fake at the end). The writing is really, really good, and there is some representation in her work. But if all the Heroes are mopey, I may nope on our after a second. We’ll see.
If you love mopey heroes and mildly snarky but not cruel heroines, this might be your jam. It’s good stuff, and it’s well written. Badly behaved men are punished, in this case, with an ice filled dunk tank and a woman with a really good arm.
What are the issues. Well, it’s a white het couple in a small town in the PacNW, so there’s that energy. He’s lived there his entire life, which is part of the point of the book, and one of its redeeming characteristics. This is a book that tackles head on the insularity of small towns and how that can be deeply painful for people. It’s super tropey: meet cute, fake romance, there’s only one bed. He technically sticks to The Deal, but in a way that is so obviously avoidant attachment-y, and which connects so completely to what he was doing for years with his long-time on-again off-again now-ex that the only thing that saves that problem is the background comment about how the couple will be needing a ton of couples therapy right away.
OK SPOILERS NOW!
The fact that the ex- winds up with another woman (and the ex- is engaging in exactly the same avoidant attachment crap that Hero is engaging in), and that the initial text connection is between the ex- and New Girl, and that we get some amazing conversations between groups of women (alas, many centered on The Man, but not all of them; a ton of them are about other relationships and how they continue to echo through this small town) — those things do a lot of heavy lifting. Do they save this book? Maybe? I’m not really sure. Another trope is He Defends Her, which I have extremely mixed feelings about, and this book absolutely takes the predatory aspects of that seriously. The “Speed Dating” disrupted by him Dog in the Mangering her and her confronting him about it doesn’t fix the fact that it’s here but oh boy.
As much as I love the the voice of Riley Cooper, the whole book feels weirdly detached, as if Riley was traumatized and had gotten treatment and was taking some kind of amazing medication that helped her feel just enough detached from the world to enjoy life a little. Also, the book is super meta, in that Riley Cooper is a very successful but hoping to be much more successful romance writer.
I’m probably going to try another book by this author (there’s a snippet of Fake at the end). The writing is really, really good, and there is some representation in her work. But if all the Heroes are mopey, I may nope on our after a second. We’ll see.
If you love mopey heroes and mildly snarky but not cruel heroines, this might be your jam. It’s good stuff, and it’s well written. Badly behaved men are punished, in this case, with an ice filled dunk tank and a woman with a really good arm.