ARC Review: Boomerang Boyfriend

I received a free eCopy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It did not in any way affect my opinion. 

Publish Date: September 11, 2017

Rating: Rain 

Agh so story of my life: I suck with ARCs. I read the books and I write a review in my head, but then completely forget to actually post the review before the release date. i finished this book in August, for crying out loud! I had three whole weeks to write my review and I didn’t. But, better late than never, I guess? 

I knew what I was getting into when I requested this book. I had read Blackmail Boyfriend by Chris Cannon, which was a delightfully cheesy romance. I was prepared for the cheese. But maybe my tastes have changed, or I just wasn’t in the mood, but I felt like I was being smothered by cheese. Don’t get me wrong, dying by cheddar is not a bad way to go, but not exactly what I was looking for when I started reading.

Working with her best friend’s brother at Betty’s Burgers, free-spirited Delia starts to see Jack in a new light. Not only has Jack-the-Jerk turned into a hottie, he’s even acting like a nice guy, who rescues dogs and knows how she likes her coffee. But if Jack is into her, then why is he keeping her a secret? Of course, if her best friend doesn’t approve, Delia could lose the only family she’s ever known.
Seeing Delia in her retro waitress uniform throws Jack’s world out of whack. She’s always been just another pain in the butt little sister…not a datable female. But she’s rockin’ the Pie Princess tiara, and even her hot-pink striped hair is sexy. What’s that about? He needs to get his head on straight, because artsy, funky Delia and her nonconformist ways don’t fit in his safe and ordered world.

I mean, rebellious, free spirited girl gets forced to work with hot annoying jerk, and they end up falling in love. Throw in the whole best friend’s brother, and you’ve got a pretty classic plot line for a romance book. If I had been in the mood for classic and cliche, I think I would’ve liked this book a lot more. There was nothing super original about it, but there wasn’t anything super bad either. But I like original in my books. There has to be something that stands out to me, that elevates this romance from just being there to being shippable, and unfortunately this book didn’t have that. 

It’s also a weird case of instalove*. Jack and Delia go from hating each other to suddenly falling in love. I just can never get behind instalove (ONE OF MY BIGGEST PET PEEVES). Speaking of pet peeves, another one is telling your story, not showing your story.  We are told Jack and Delia fell in love, we are told Jack is annoying (but now he’s ~changed~), we are told Zoe and Delia are best friends. We aren’t shown any of this! It’s such a small thing, but it makes a huge difference in the story. Showing instead of telling can elevate a predictable story like this one into a fun and lovable story, despite it’s cliche ness.

*Can you call it instalove if they’ve known each other their whole life? 

First we have Delia. I’m still unsure as if I should spell her name “Delia” or “Deliah” because the author changed it up pretty often (this might just be an ARC thing that isn’t in the final copy). She wasn’t super exciting. We were told she was super free spirited but all I got is that she dyed her hair pink? Pink hair does not free spirit make*. One thing about her (and Zoe) that SUPER bugged me was that someone wanted to tell her a pretty important secret, but then said that she couldn’t tell Zoe. And Delia went OFF on him. Excuse me, if it’s a super important secret, respect their privacy. I get that you and Zoe are all attached at the hip or whatever but it isn’t your secret to share, so don’t share it. Also, she is kinda an awful friend to Zoe like she loves how much Zoe’s family is her family but she keeps her own life pretty private from Zoe and doesn’t share much with her.

*Channeling my inner Yoda. 

Next is Jack. I’m still a little confuzzled as to whether he is Zoe’s older brother or twin brother or? Like he goes to school with Zoe and Delia so he can’t be more than one year older than them, but I feel like if they were twins it would be mentioned? It’s just a small thing but it confused me as I read it. Also, he doesn’t seem like a jerk at all? Delia keeps saying “agh Jack is such a jerk I can’t deal with him” but he doesn’t seem any more jerk like than your average teenage boy (as in, can occasionally be a little mean but usually is pretty nice).

That’s basically it for the characters. Zoe existed, but she was really just the Best Friend Who Has Their Own Problems and Occasionally Adds Quirky One Liners™. And then there was another guy, but honestly I completely forgot his name, and he wasn’t really super important.

So overall this book was a pretty big miss. Maybe I’m growing out of my pure romance love*, but everything felt too forced and unrealistic. Jack and Delia spoke like no teenagers I know speak? And there didn’t seem to be a ton of chemistry between them. And the characters themselves were just meh.

*DOUBTFUL because I’ll never change hahahahaha #hopelessromanticlife