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Love Match
Serena McAllister is devastated to find her fiancé has cheated on her—again. When she learns her newspaper is outsourcing jobs to freelance writers, she’s desperate to land the last remaining staff position. Unfortunately, her rival Jane Childers wants the coveted spot as well, and she’s just as determined.
Vowing to do whatever it takes to get her life in order, Serena decides to join a modern-day harem and write a provocative article about the objectification of women across the world to land her dream job at the newspaper.
When Serena arrives at the tiny tropical paradise known as Birin Island, she meets Prince Shailemon Sharma, who is dealing with his own issues of archaic customs in his homeland.
As sparks begin to fly, they discover that attraction can lead to so much more—and that there are no barriers of culture or country when love is on the line.
Vowing to do whatever it takes to get her life in order, Serena decides to join a modern-day harem and write a provocative article about the objectification of women across the world to land her dream job at the newspaper.
When Serena arrives at the tiny tropical paradise known as Birin Island, she meets Prince Shailemon Sharma, who is dealing with his own issues of archaic customs in his homeland.
As sparks begin to fly, they discover that attraction can lead to so much more—and that there are no barriers of culture or country when love is on the line.
278 pages, Hardcover
Published June 3, 2021
1 person is currently reading
58 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
April 2, 2021
DNF at 82%
oh, i had high hopes for this. mainly because of the cover - it immediately drew me in and looks like it would fit in easily with all of the other bestselling contemporary romance books these days. but i guess its true what they say - dont judge a book by its cover. because the story inside is not what the cute cover promises it to be.
it started off rough. none of the information in the synopsis is actually in the book. serena joins the ‘harem’ on the first page. sure, there are some mentions of a cheating boyfriend and work, but its only in passing. theres no build up, no lead in, and no backstory as to the reasons behind serenas actions.
also, serena is supposed to be a professional adult, yet she acts like an immature teenager. she childish, disrespectful, says the most bizarre things, is not as funny as the author thinks she is, and is just not a MC who is enjoyable to read about. shes also a terrible journalist. she goes into this with so many preconceived notions and glaring biases that she cant even do her job properly.
next is the problematic situation of a white person writing about harems. i was willing to give the story the benefit of the doubt, maybe the author did extensive research, but it doesnt feel that way at all. it feels as if the she is using other countries traditions as a gimmick for a romance plot. and creating a fake country that has these customs doesnt excuse that (especially when indian influences are used on the cover and with character names). it just rubs me the wrong way and i would be really interested in hearing a non-white persons thoughts on this.
so all in all, this was not a difficult book to set aside.
thanks for the ARC, BHC press, but this was a miss for me.
↠ 1 star
oh, i had high hopes for this. mainly because of the cover - it immediately drew me in and looks like it would fit in easily with all of the other bestselling contemporary romance books these days. but i guess its true what they say - dont judge a book by its cover. because the story inside is not what the cute cover promises it to be.
it started off rough. none of the information in the synopsis is actually in the book. serena joins the ‘harem’ on the first page. sure, there are some mentions of a cheating boyfriend and work, but its only in passing. theres no build up, no lead in, and no backstory as to the reasons behind serenas actions.
also, serena is supposed to be a professional adult, yet she acts like an immature teenager. she childish, disrespectful, says the most bizarre things, is not as funny as the author thinks she is, and is just not a MC who is enjoyable to read about. shes also a terrible journalist. she goes into this with so many preconceived notions and glaring biases that she cant even do her job properly.
next is the problematic situation of a white person writing about harems. i was willing to give the story the benefit of the doubt, maybe the author did extensive research, but it doesnt feel that way at all. it feels as if the she is using other countries traditions as a gimmick for a romance plot. and creating a fake country that has these customs doesnt excuse that (especially when indian influences are used on the cover and with character names). it just rubs me the wrong way and i would be really interested in hearing a non-white persons thoughts on this.
so all in all, this was not a difficult book to set aside.
thanks for the ARC, BHC press, but this was a miss for me.
↠ 1 star
June 1, 2021
Blog Review: https://trishadoeseverythingbutstudy2...
I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I have never been as disappointed by an ARC as I was with this.
I have so many issues with this. The first and foremost: THE COVER IS A F*CKING LIE.
I think I have the right to be angry if the cover has a Taj Mahal on it, and there proceeds to be exactly ZERO mention of India in the book. I kept hoping there would be like a field trip or something to Agra, but NO. I'm making a cover-was-a-lie shelf for this book right now.
I am so irritated that I will be plagiarising my status updates, and will be ranting throughout this review. In the nicest way possible.
The fact that this is supposed to be set in the Pacific Island, which is near so many different countries, but the only POCs are the king, his best friend/trusted adviser, and the villain. And yeah the villain's family and such are also POCs, but we never get to know them at all. I would honestly think that there would be more POC characters.
The MC is white, the cliche bully russian/white (It was never completely clear to me), and the other characters of the coterie are not described. The handler of these girls is french. And of course the MC's side is all white, which is not a problem, but why are the only people the MC seem to interact with on this island all non POC?!
It's nothing very off putting, but because I was already angry that there wasn't any India, we have this added benefit of having nearly zero people who might even be asian.
You would think that if it's a palace, we would meet more people, but we have a pretty small cast. Though I think that was because of the Serena's and Shai's 'romance'.
Not even hours into their first meeting, they're already kissing. And then more kissing. And then even more kissing. Then mo—you get the point.
And then they have sex. Because this is the natural progression of a relationship built on two days of mutual kissing, and the sharing of past trauma. While I'm onboard for this sort of thing if it's like conducive to the story and does not end up in them falling in love in the next 48 hours, unfortunately that wasn't the case for this.
A WEEK. ONE F*CKING WEEK. That's ALL it took.
The only saving grace for this was that it was short, honestly, I don't think I could have kept reading this.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of research Serena had done before getting herself enrolled in a coterie; why would a woman get herself into a coterie, fully expecting it to be a harem?!?! Didn't she know that she would be signing NDAs and whatnot, and also some amount of sex, consensual or otherwise (because this was what she went expecting), but none of this seems to cross her mind?!
How on earth did she not research the difference between a coterie and harem!?! One google search would have told her that a coterie is a group of like minded and close-knit people, and a harem is a group of women living together, as wives or concubines, or just living together. No where in the multiple definitions of coterie is sex mentioned. (I might not be right about this, my GK comes from books and google, please tell me if I'm wrong)
What kind of journalist doesn't research her topic of interest, and just go into it uninformed!? I did not think journalism was such a profession, but who knows.
At 74% into the book, there's a quote
Then the article that does end up writing gave me a bad feelings because I don't think it was right for her to write it. This is spoilery, so
Another thing that rubbed me wrong was the fact that the people on Birin Island are so inefficient!? I would think if you were handing a person a ticket into the lives of royalty, the first thing you would get done would be to get NDAs signed. And more important than that, how on earth did none of these people perform a proper background check!??!
What kind of staff is this!? You don't want journalists peeking into the inner workings of your lives and your court, but you will not perform a background check!? And on top of that, Serena uses her real name?! Don't journalists chasing articles like this have to go undercover?!?
Yet another thing that bothered me: You would think that being a Prince you would know who to control your emotions, being in the spotlight all the time, but Shai has literally no control over his emotions. The rival king insinuates some stuff, and Shai just loses it and starts strangling him. I do not like such characters. My preferences for rich bad boys include a mask of cool calm and cutting words that ensure that you'll never try that again. But to each their own, I suppose.
And yet another thing that bothered me: Why would you take a clearly untrained woman with like zero manners and knowledge of how to conduct herself among people who are trying to take your kingdom from you, on the same day you found her half drunk, oh so clumsy, and very stoned. Are there no rules about what all would reflect badly on a guy trying to get the throne?!
An yet another thing that bothered me: one would think that being a prince, you would lock doors before sleeping in the room, if nothing else then for security because you're in a country ruled by a guy who's trying to take your throne and there's no guarantee you'd be murdered int he dead of night?! But nOo, you leave the door unlocked.
And yet one more thing: there was not one scene in this book that had emotional growth but was not followed immediately by a sex scene where all previous emotional growth goes down the drain, and it's as if the emotional scenes were just just there to ensure the characters have sex next. Which is NOT how I like it to work.
And then after she has the realisation that she's in lurve with the bootiful prince, her mother and best friend do absolutely NOTHING to talk her down. IT HAS BEEN ONE WEEK. I don't know about other people, but I depend on my mother for being the voice of reason when I talk to her if I'm in a bad mood.
The only other woman of the coterie we meet with like actual dialogues is Ekaterina, from Russia, and she's a bully. Because how else would we have conflict and room for angst. And the only way her secret would come out, because THESE PEOPLE DON'T DO BACKGROUND CHECKS.
All of their dialogue is super cringey, and nearly nothing is actually funny. The characters are trying to hard banter, but it's obvious to the reader that it's pretty forced. And Serena is so clumsy. It's all she does for so long in the book, that one has to wonder if she wasn't drunk the entire time.
Then at the end, when there's talk about marriage, Serena imagines that the marriage will be at the altar. And I'm like, is this set in Asia or not!? Because I've not had any indication of Christianity up till now, so I'm assuming there will be some traditional rituals, which will most likely not involve any altars. yes, I'm drawing from Hindu marriages, but I'm reasonably sure about this.
And then, I was so surprised that Shai would be marrying with like half a day of notice. Are not royal weddings supposed to be the event of the year or something?! I can't in good faith believe that this marriage didn't have a longer engagement. Or even more notice, because then how are the distinguished guests going to come for it?!
The there was a bit where he told his assistant/best friend to tell the press that the bride cancelled the wedding. And the reasoning he gives for this is that this way the girl's' reputation would not be harmed. Which is so weird because would not this statement put out the impression that this is a girl that gets herself engagements and then doesn't follow!? Maybe a mutual disagreement would have been a better statement. Or even that Shai cancelled it.
Then there were some dialogues/paragraphs of Serena's mother nearly accosting Tareek, and I honestly felt like it was a little like molestation, because it was very weird. The sexual insinuations were weird, and made me feel a little sick.
And at the end, they have sex again. In a car. Which is incorrectly parked. Taking all their time. I hope to God that the car was soundproofed and had tinted windows, because that would have been so traumatising for all passing people. And possible fodder for journalists.
I'm stopping here because I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover, and because I don't want to dwell on this book anymore. I would recommend this only to people looking for a short fast book, and have no care for anything to make sense.
Pre-reading review:
I'm a simple girl, I see Taj Mahal, I automatically go to see what it's about. I see it's a romance, and I automatically request it.
I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I have never been as disappointed by an ARC as I was with this.
I have so many issues with this. The first and foremost: THE COVER IS A F*CKING LIE.
I think I have the right to be angry if the cover has a Taj Mahal on it, and there proceeds to be exactly ZERO mention of India in the book. I kept hoping there would be like a field trip or something to Agra, but NO. I'm making a cover-was-a-lie shelf for this book right now.
I am so irritated that I will be plagiarising my status updates, and will be ranting throughout this review. In the nicest way possible.
The fact that this is supposed to be set in the Pacific Island, which is near so many different countries, but the only POCs are the king, his best friend/trusted adviser, and the villain. And yeah the villain's family and such are also POCs, but we never get to know them at all. I would honestly think that there would be more POC characters.
The MC is white, the cliche bully russian/white (It was never completely clear to me), and the other characters of the coterie are not described. The handler of these girls is french. And of course the MC's side is all white, which is not a problem, but why are the only people the MC seem to interact with on this island all non POC?!
It's nothing very off putting, but because I was already angry that there wasn't any India, we have this added benefit of having nearly zero people who might even be asian.
You would think that if it's a palace, we would meet more people, but we have a pretty small cast. Though I think that was because of the Serena's and Shai's 'romance'.
Not even hours into their first meeting, they're already kissing. And then more kissing. And then even more kissing. Then mo—you get the point.
And then they have sex. Because this is the natural progression of a relationship built on two days of mutual kissing, and the sharing of past trauma. While I'm onboard for this sort of thing if it's like conducive to the story and does not end up in them falling in love in the next 48 hours, unfortunately that wasn't the case for this.
A WEEK. ONE F*CKING WEEK. That's ALL it took.
The only saving grace for this was that it was short, honestly, I don't think I could have kept reading this.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of research Serena had done before getting herself enrolled in a coterie; why would a woman get herself into a coterie, fully expecting it to be a harem?!?! Didn't she know that she would be signing NDAs and whatnot, and also some amount of sex, consensual or otherwise (because this was what she went expecting), but none of this seems to cross her mind?!
How on earth did she not research the difference between a coterie and harem!?! One google search would have told her that a coterie is a group of like minded and close-knit people, and a harem is a group of women living together, as wives or concubines, or just living together. No where in the multiple definitions of coterie is sex mentioned. (I might not be right about this, my GK comes from books and google, please tell me if I'm wrong)
What kind of journalist doesn't research her topic of interest, and just go into it uninformed!? I did not think journalism was such a profession, but who knows.
At 74% into the book, there's a quote
"Should she have known his coterie was not a traditional harem? If she had done more research instead of hopping on the first available flight, would she have uncovered this little tidbit of information?"and I was so outraged at this paragraph.
Then the article that does end up writing gave me a bad feelings because I don't think it was right for her to write it. This is spoilery, so
Another thing that rubbed me wrong was the fact that the people on Birin Island are so inefficient!? I would think if you were handing a person a ticket into the lives of royalty, the first thing you would get done would be to get NDAs signed. And more important than that, how on earth did none of these people perform a proper background check!??!
What kind of staff is this!? You don't want journalists peeking into the inner workings of your lives and your court, but you will not perform a background check!? And on top of that, Serena uses her real name?! Don't journalists chasing articles like this have to go undercover?!?
Yet another thing that bothered me: You would think that being a Prince you would know who to control your emotions, being in the spotlight all the time, but Shai has literally no control over his emotions. The rival king insinuates some stuff, and Shai just loses it and starts strangling him. I do not like such characters. My preferences for rich bad boys include a mask of cool calm and cutting words that ensure that you'll never try that again. But to each their own, I suppose.
And yet another thing that bothered me: Why would you take a clearly untrained woman with like zero manners and knowledge of how to conduct herself among people who are trying to take your kingdom from you, on the same day you found her half drunk, oh so clumsy, and very stoned. Are there no rules about what all would reflect badly on a guy trying to get the throne?!
An yet another thing that bothered me: one would think that being a prince, you would lock doors before sleeping in the room, if nothing else then for security because you're in a country ruled by a guy who's trying to take your throne and there's no guarantee you'd be murdered int he dead of night?! But nOo, you leave the door unlocked.
And yet one more thing: there was not one scene in this book that had emotional growth but was not followed immediately by a sex scene where all previous emotional growth goes down the drain, and it's as if the emotional scenes were just just there to ensure the characters have sex next. Which is NOT how I like it to work.
And then after she has the realisation that she's in lurve with the bootiful prince, her mother and best friend do absolutely NOTHING to talk her down. IT HAS BEEN ONE WEEK. I don't know about other people, but I depend on my mother for being the voice of reason when I talk to her if I'm in a bad mood.
The only other woman of the coterie we meet with like actual dialogues is Ekaterina, from Russia, and she's a bully. Because how else would we have conflict and room for angst. And the only way her secret would come out, because THESE PEOPLE DON'T DO BACKGROUND CHECKS.
All of their dialogue is super cringey, and nearly nothing is actually funny. The characters are trying to hard banter, but it's obvious to the reader that it's pretty forced. And Serena is so clumsy. It's all she does for so long in the book, that one has to wonder if she wasn't drunk the entire time.
Then at the end, when there's talk about marriage, Serena imagines that the marriage will be at the altar. And I'm like, is this set in Asia or not!? Because I've not had any indication of Christianity up till now, so I'm assuming there will be some traditional rituals, which will most likely not involve any altars. yes, I'm drawing from Hindu marriages, but I'm reasonably sure about this.
And then, I was so surprised that Shai would be marrying with like half a day of notice. Are not royal weddings supposed to be the event of the year or something?! I can't in good faith believe that this marriage didn't have a longer engagement. Or even more notice, because then how are the distinguished guests going to come for it?!
The there was a bit where he told his assistant/best friend to tell the press that the bride cancelled the wedding. And the reasoning he gives for this is that this way the girl's' reputation would not be harmed. Which is so weird because would not this statement put out the impression that this is a girl that gets herself engagements and then doesn't follow!? Maybe a mutual disagreement would have been a better statement. Or even that Shai cancelled it.
Then there were some dialogues/paragraphs of Serena's mother nearly accosting Tareek, and I honestly felt like it was a little like molestation, because it was very weird. The sexual insinuations were weird, and made me feel a little sick.
And at the end, they have sex again. In a car. Which is incorrectly parked. Taking all their time. I hope to God that the car was soundproofed and had tinted windows, because that would have been so traumatising for all passing people. And possible fodder for journalists.
I'm stopping here because I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover, and because I don't want to dwell on this book anymore. I would recommend this only to people looking for a short fast book, and have no care for anything to make sense.
Pre-reading review:
I'm a simple girl, I see Taj Mahal, I automatically go to see what it's about. I see it's a romance, and I automatically request it.
July 13, 2021
Welp. Definitely a frontrunner for worst read of the year. It does have some competition and there are 5-6 months left for more awful reads to come, but I truly do think this one will make the shortlist.
The cover and the premise pulled me in - a girl gets cheated on by her fiance and decides to join a modern day harem to throw herself into research? Sounded like a bizarre setup for romance with potential for being something off the beaten path. I was intrigued.
Unfortunately, the book immediately started off on the wrong foot. Serena gets no backstory and there is no lead up to her deciding to join the coterie. She's already been cheated on and she's already joined the harem once we start. What? That was honestly jarring in itself. It felt like it started in the middle of the story.
So really, the book *starts* with insta-love and sadly continues to deteriorate from there. The characters are flat and not a single one is compelling. The coterie is boring. The backstabbing character gets a couple pages and is quickly found out and vilified. It's littered with poor pop culture references. There are also many "humorous" parts that aren't funny at all. I honestly felt bad as I read it because it just kept getting worse and worse with the over the top cheesy love and cringey "steamy" bits and I knew that it wasn't going to save itself. Every time Shai referred to Serena as "my American," I couldn't help but actually say out loud to myself: "This is so bad." Seriously. My dog checked in with me several times as I audibly groaned.
Listen. I don't relish dumping on someone's final work. This is what I mean when I say I feel bad. Someone spent time and energy developing this and putting it out there for the world to see. Kudos to her for getting it out there. But that's it. That's the only positive thing I have to say.
The cover and the premise pulled me in - a girl gets cheated on by her fiance and decides to join a modern day harem to throw herself into research? Sounded like a bizarre setup for romance with potential for being something off the beaten path. I was intrigued.
Unfortunately, the book immediately started off on the wrong foot. Serena gets no backstory and there is no lead up to her deciding to join the coterie. She's already been cheated on and she's already joined the harem once we start. What? That was honestly jarring in itself. It felt like it started in the middle of the story.
So really, the book *starts* with insta-love and sadly continues to deteriorate from there. The characters are flat and not a single one is compelling. The coterie is boring. The backstabbing character gets a couple pages and is quickly found out and vilified. It's littered with poor pop culture references. There are also many "humorous" parts that aren't funny at all. I honestly felt bad as I read it because it just kept getting worse and worse with the over the top cheesy love and cringey "steamy" bits and I knew that it wasn't going to save itself. Every time Shai referred to Serena as "my American," I couldn't help but actually say out loud to myself: "This is so bad." Seriously. My dog checked in with me several times as I audibly groaned.
Listen. I don't relish dumping on someone's final work. This is what I mean when I say I feel bad. Someone spent time and energy developing this and putting it out there for the world to see. Kudos to her for getting it out there. But that's it. That's the only positive thing I have to say.
April 23, 2021
Steamy romance novel that lacked depth.
I wanted to enjoy this book, I was quite intrigued by the premise, but it went straight to cheesy, over the top romance novel and lacked character depth. It was a good amount of romance novel steam, but that couldn't make up for what it lacked. The main relationship also focused on the physical a bit too much, and I'm someone who loves romance novels and enjoys steamy parts, but you need to have the couple have an emotional connection as well.
I'd suggest this when your in the mood for cheesy romance.
Thank you Netgalley for this ebook arc in exchange for an honest review.
I wanted to enjoy this book, I was quite intrigued by the premise, but it went straight to cheesy, over the top romance novel and lacked character depth. It was a good amount of romance novel steam, but that couldn't make up for what it lacked. The main relationship also focused on the physical a bit too much, and I'm someone who loves romance novels and enjoys steamy parts, but you need to have the couple have an emotional connection as well.
I'd suggest this when your in the mood for cheesy romance.
Thank you Netgalley for this ebook arc in exchange for an honest review.
August 26, 2021
2.5/5
Ah... I have got mixed feelings about this book. Its beautiful cover was the reason for my intrigue towards this book. I was extremely excited to see a cross-cultural love story which *might* feature India. Though I am well aware of why the author might've created a fictional Island but everything felt... generalized and flat.
I thoroughly enjoyed the banter between Serena and Shai but their Insta-Love did not seem believable. Her actions, which should've come off as being cute and maybe even goofy turned out to be cringe-y. I have no idea how she is a professional journalist. Same with Shai, he seems to have roamed the world, met people from different countries, and has resided in London but is caught off guard by an American woman and her mannerism. There's something lacking that sort of rubs me off the wrong way. The story advances too fast and the characters lack depth so does the plot of a modern-day Harem in an imaginary island/country. (Could it not be a Harem, please?)
Though it's a sweet story. Cliche. Quick read. Lightens up the mood too but it needs some work done.
Thanks for the ARC, BHC Press, and NetGalley
Ah... I have got mixed feelings about this book. Its beautiful cover was the reason for my intrigue towards this book. I was extremely excited to see a cross-cultural love story which *might* feature India. Though I am well aware of why the author might've created a fictional Island but everything felt... generalized and flat.
I thoroughly enjoyed the banter between Serena and Shai but their Insta-Love did not seem believable. Her actions, which should've come off as being cute and maybe even goofy turned out to be cringe-y. I have no idea how she is a professional journalist. Same with Shai, he seems to have roamed the world, met people from different countries, and has resided in London but is caught off guard by an American woman and her mannerism. There's something lacking that sort of rubs me off the wrong way. The story advances too fast and the characters lack depth so does the plot of a modern-day Harem in an imaginary island/country. (Could it not be a Harem, please?)
Though it's a sweet story. Cliche. Quick read. Lightens up the mood too but it needs some work done.
Thanks for the ARC, BHC Press, and NetGalley
March 11, 2021
This was well written enough, but the insta love was too much for me. From the synopsis I had hoped to have an angsty, jealousy type situation for the heroine, but it's not. TBH, in was too far fetched to be really enjoyable. you would have to suspend belief a great deal. But it was a light, easy read and I imagine that readers who enjoy no drama will like it.
July 27, 2021
I received this Advance Review Copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you so much Netgalley, BHC Press for giving me this opportunity to read and review this book in advance. A very big Thank You!!
REVIEW
Love Match is a story of a Journalist, Serena McAllister who is utterly desperate for a happening story to publish in her newspaper, in order to retain her bread winning job. So, she decides to go to a Princely Island and become a part of a modern day Harem undercover and plans on exposing these kind of institutions which objectify women. But unfortunately, Serena finds herself insanely attracted to the handsome Prince and King-to-be, Shailemon Sharma of the Birin Island. And that of course, makes her task of exposing the Prince and his Harem a lot more difficult than she had anticipated.
Will she keep aside her jittery romantic feelings aside and focus on her job or become victim to her heart’s feelings ? That’s the story of this book.
Love Match is a romance novel which majorly focuses on the life of Serena McAllister and her romantic heart. This novel hardly spans between a week or so. It was utterly fast pacing and so was the relationship between Serena and her Prince which was kind of odd and highly accelerated. It would have been really great, if the author had taken their relationship a bit slowly and steadily. Since their relationship was very much accelerated, their relationship felt nothing more than pheromones doing its trick.
Since, the plot spans over a short period of time, even a day in the book moved forward at such a slower pace. For example, for a day to come to end, it almost took 50 plus pages and that definitely was tiring. The book was narrated from the perspective of both Serena and Shailemon, and that gave away the feelings and emotions of both of them in a silver platter to the readers which obviously did not leave any space of curiosity or anticipation from the reader’s side. Both the voices of Serena and Shailemon was very similar and that made it look like kind of repetitive and confusing at times.
The aura of the Birin Island has been beautifully developed and portrayed. The way in which the author has described the beauty of Birin Island was tremendous and immediately take the readers away to this beautiful piece of land in heaven on earth. Definitely, this effective description of the Island by the author will actually make the readers fallen in love with Birin. The mental image, the author’s writing induced the readers to see was simply spectacular. One can easily smell, feel and experience everything about this Island quite very much vividly.
The character development could have been a bit more interesting and strong. The short and constant anecdotes by Serena was really funny and engaging. Though, it was irrelevant at most of the times, it brought about a smile in Shailemon as well as the reader’s face. It was really satisfying. Serena was quite interesting and funny.
Though the book promises to unravel the truth about modern day Harems, it has failed to bring about the authentic life and cultural essence of Royal family and it’s affair. The author could have focused a bit more on this part. Because even after spending some considerable time at Birin Island’s palace and with the Prince himself and at the same investigating about the lifestyle, it felt like Serena hasn’t shed her stereotypical American outlook about Royal lifestyle or understood it properly. That was the big hole in the plot.
On the other hand, Shailemon’s side of the story brought about some light about his lifestyle in the palace as a Prince. His backstory felt quite authentic and it was well developed and materialized. His position and dilemma throughout the book was completely understandable and acceptable. This part has been wonderfully established and executed. The book told elaborately about the institution of Coterie and that was quite different and new. This ideology of Coterie opened a new door to the readers because Coterie was something definitely unknown to most parts of the world, that too during this modern time. It’s a good thing, that the author had decided to talk about something very new, unique and unknown of.
The writing style of the author was good, a bit of clarity would have been even more great and enchanting to read. There were a few hand full of side characters which were very interesting to read about. A little bit peak into these characters would have been nice. Other than that the plot was fine and moved ahead properly.
MY VIEWS
To be very frank, I was quite disappointed with how the book turned out to be because I was completely misguided with the cover of this book. All I found on the cover was Taj Mahal and the book was called Love Match and my mind immediately screamed that the book was based on India. And that was one of the main reasons why decided to go ahead with this book but to my disappointment, it has nothing to do with India or Taj Mahal and that kind of put me off.
The cover was extremely beautifuly and alluring. If you could ask me to dwell in the beauty of the cover, I can spend all my day gazing at it. A special appreciation should be give for the cover designer, I’m a sucker for beautiful covers. Here, the point is, the book wasn’t as good as the cover. I’m definitely not saying it was a bad read. The book was fine and will keep you occupied for some time. A bit more of detail, character development and baby step relationship could have been much more better.
The steamy romance part in this book was very enticing and fantastic to read but just romance and lust without any strong base of a relationship was kind of confusing and cliche. Because the author had equated sexual attraction to love and that wasn’t totally intolerable. I’m trying not be a prude here but if it has been established somewhere that both the character were in for casual sexual encounters or relationship, and then it has flourished into love, then it would have been completely fine by me to accept it. But this book emphasized on something like Love at first sight on which I seriously do not believe in. Though attraction at first sight is totally acceptable but dude love takes time!!! Serena and Shailemon’s relationship almost felt like a rebound because their relationship was not even deep or something. That was my only issue with this book. But that is completely my mindset right now and it my differ from person to person and maybe time to time, who knows ?
My rating for this book would be 2 out of 5 stars
I would like to recommend this book to people who are into easy, simply and breezy reads. This book will definitely keep you engaged.
Please do not start the book with any expectation like it would be based in India or Taj Mahal because that will completely ruin your experience with the book. And it will lead you to disappointment. Start the book with zero expectation and you might enjoy it!!
Happy reading folks!!
~Meenu
Thank you so much Netgalley, BHC Press for giving me this opportunity to read and review this book in advance. A very big Thank You!!
REVIEW
Love Match is a story of a Journalist, Serena McAllister who is utterly desperate for a happening story to publish in her newspaper, in order to retain her bread winning job. So, she decides to go to a Princely Island and become a part of a modern day Harem undercover and plans on exposing these kind of institutions which objectify women. But unfortunately, Serena finds herself insanely attracted to the handsome Prince and King-to-be, Shailemon Sharma of the Birin Island. And that of course, makes her task of exposing the Prince and his Harem a lot more difficult than she had anticipated.
Will she keep aside her jittery romantic feelings aside and focus on her job or become victim to her heart’s feelings ? That’s the story of this book.
Love Match is a romance novel which majorly focuses on the life of Serena McAllister and her romantic heart. This novel hardly spans between a week or so. It was utterly fast pacing and so was the relationship between Serena and her Prince which was kind of odd and highly accelerated. It would have been really great, if the author had taken their relationship a bit slowly and steadily. Since their relationship was very much accelerated, their relationship felt nothing more than pheromones doing its trick.
Since, the plot spans over a short period of time, even a day in the book moved forward at such a slower pace. For example, for a day to come to end, it almost took 50 plus pages and that definitely was tiring. The book was narrated from the perspective of both Serena and Shailemon, and that gave away the feelings and emotions of both of them in a silver platter to the readers which obviously did not leave any space of curiosity or anticipation from the reader’s side. Both the voices of Serena and Shailemon was very similar and that made it look like kind of repetitive and confusing at times.
The aura of the Birin Island has been beautifully developed and portrayed. The way in which the author has described the beauty of Birin Island was tremendous and immediately take the readers away to this beautiful piece of land in heaven on earth. Definitely, this effective description of the Island by the author will actually make the readers fallen in love with Birin. The mental image, the author’s writing induced the readers to see was simply spectacular. One can easily smell, feel and experience everything about this Island quite very much vividly.
The character development could have been a bit more interesting and strong. The short and constant anecdotes by Serena was really funny and engaging. Though, it was irrelevant at most of the times, it brought about a smile in Shailemon as well as the reader’s face. It was really satisfying. Serena was quite interesting and funny.
Though the book promises to unravel the truth about modern day Harems, it has failed to bring about the authentic life and cultural essence of Royal family and it’s affair. The author could have focused a bit more on this part. Because even after spending some considerable time at Birin Island’s palace and with the Prince himself and at the same investigating about the lifestyle, it felt like Serena hasn’t shed her stereotypical American outlook about Royal lifestyle or understood it properly. That was the big hole in the plot.
On the other hand, Shailemon’s side of the story brought about some light about his lifestyle in the palace as a Prince. His backstory felt quite authentic and it was well developed and materialized. His position and dilemma throughout the book was completely understandable and acceptable. This part has been wonderfully established and executed. The book told elaborately about the institution of Coterie and that was quite different and new. This ideology of Coterie opened a new door to the readers because Coterie was something definitely unknown to most parts of the world, that too during this modern time. It’s a good thing, that the author had decided to talk about something very new, unique and unknown of.
The writing style of the author was good, a bit of clarity would have been even more great and enchanting to read. There were a few hand full of side characters which were very interesting to read about. A little bit peak into these characters would have been nice. Other than that the plot was fine and moved ahead properly.
MY VIEWS
To be very frank, I was quite disappointed with how the book turned out to be because I was completely misguided with the cover of this book. All I found on the cover was Taj Mahal and the book was called Love Match and my mind immediately screamed that the book was based on India. And that was one of the main reasons why decided to go ahead with this book but to my disappointment, it has nothing to do with India or Taj Mahal and that kind of put me off.
The cover was extremely beautifuly and alluring. If you could ask me to dwell in the beauty of the cover, I can spend all my day gazing at it. A special appreciation should be give for the cover designer, I’m a sucker for beautiful covers. Here, the point is, the book wasn’t as good as the cover. I’m definitely not saying it was a bad read. The book was fine and will keep you occupied for some time. A bit more of detail, character development and baby step relationship could have been much more better.
The steamy romance part in this book was very enticing and fantastic to read but just romance and lust without any strong base of a relationship was kind of confusing and cliche. Because the author had equated sexual attraction to love and that wasn’t totally intolerable. I’m trying not be a prude here but if it has been established somewhere that both the character were in for casual sexual encounters or relationship, and then it has flourished into love, then it would have been completely fine by me to accept it. But this book emphasized on something like Love at first sight on which I seriously do not believe in. Though attraction at first sight is totally acceptable but dude love takes time!!! Serena and Shailemon’s relationship almost felt like a rebound because their relationship was not even deep or something. That was my only issue with this book. But that is completely my mindset right now and it my differ from person to person and maybe time to time, who knows ?
My rating for this book would be 2 out of 5 stars
I would like to recommend this book to people who are into easy, simply and breezy reads. This book will definitely keep you engaged.
Please do not start the book with any expectation like it would be based in India or Taj Mahal because that will completely ruin your experience with the book. And it will lead you to disappointment. Start the book with zero expectation and you might enjoy it!!
Happy reading folks!!
~Meenu
Want to read
April 22, 2021Simplistic...
The blurb sets out all the usual tropes of a good romcom but the story launches in as though midway through the book...we missed the backstory! (the juicy parts anyway!) This felt like the script for a super cheesy rom-com on netflix on a sunday afternoon but the book just couldn't grip me... I tried a couple of times but sadly a DNF.
The blurb sets out all the usual tropes of a good romcom but the story launches in as though midway through the book...we missed the backstory! (the juicy parts anyway!) This felt like the script for a super cheesy rom-com on netflix on a sunday afternoon but the book just couldn't grip me... I tried a couple of times but sadly a DNF.
April 20, 2021
That cover caught my attention instantly, then the description of a harem in modern times and how the contrast of cultures could play an important role in this love story.
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I liked that it wasn't a soft and tender Cinderella love story. That the characters are not perfect or that it wasn't a hero who comes to the rescue.
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I found it to be a fluid Romcom with an ideal rhythm. The descriptions of the aromas and the landscape completed the story perfectly.
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The book is set on the fictional island of Birin and a modern version of the harem that maintains royalty in Arab countries. Prince Shailemon has just inherited his father's place and must accommodate their expectations that everyone have of him, such as maintaining the tradition of a cotaire and find a adecuate wife. In the other hand cames Serena who goes in search of her last chance of a good story, in order to not lose her job at a new york newspaper, what she does not expect is to run into the prince face to face in his first minutes in the palace and be involved in inexpected and quirky situations.
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Instalove, funny situations and a dream landscape are all that is good in a travel romance with good characters
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Thanks to BHC Press and #NeGalley for give me this great book in exchange for my honest review.
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I liked that it wasn't a soft and tender Cinderella love story. That the characters are not perfect or that it wasn't a hero who comes to the rescue.
.
I found it to be a fluid Romcom with an ideal rhythm. The descriptions of the aromas and the landscape completed the story perfectly.
.
The book is set on the fictional island of Birin and a modern version of the harem that maintains royalty in Arab countries. Prince Shailemon has just inherited his father's place and must accommodate their expectations that everyone have of him, such as maintaining the tradition of a cotaire and find a adecuate wife. In the other hand cames Serena who goes in search of her last chance of a good story, in order to not lose her job at a new york newspaper, what she does not expect is to run into the prince face to face in his first minutes in the palace and be involved in inexpected and quirky situations.
.
Instalove, funny situations and a dream landscape are all that is good in a travel romance with good characters
.
Thanks to BHC Press and #NeGalley for give me this great book in exchange for my honest review.
May 31, 2021
Thank you NetGalley, author Laire McKinney, and BHC Press for giving me a free arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
2.5 stars
After reading the premise of this book gave me high hopes for this book, but unfortunately this book feel short of my expectations. The characters were surface level and all over the place with their actions and mind sets. The writing made for an easy and quick read, which could be finished in about three hours. I found their romance sort of insta-lovey but ended in a cheesy big romantic gesture. The plotline was pretty predictable, as romances tend to be, but the general “plot twist” was foreshadowed and obvious very early on. Overall, I would read another book by this author in the future. I would recommend this book to those who are looking for an easy cute romance.
2.5 stars
After reading the premise of this book gave me high hopes for this book, but unfortunately this book feel short of my expectations. The characters were surface level and all over the place with their actions and mind sets. The writing made for an easy and quick read, which could be finished in about three hours. I found their romance sort of insta-lovey but ended in a cheesy big romantic gesture. The plotline was pretty predictable, as romances tend to be, but the general “plot twist” was foreshadowed and obvious very early on. Overall, I would read another book by this author in the future. I would recommend this book to those who are looking for an easy cute romance.
May 12, 2021
I was instantly sold on this book because I judged it by its cover. Having recently visited the Taj Mahal, I thought Wow, this will be a light romance set in India and I’ll probably chuckle a lot. I was wrong.
With a strong premise and what I thought was a quite fun and original idea to explore harems, I had high hopes, though very quickly I struggled to engage with the story and found very little connection to any of the characters. I think that can be attributed to a lack of any meaningful character development. I didn’t know much about either of the two MCs so it was hard to like them very much. Sadly, even the supporting characters were all essentially caricatures of typical romance book storylines - the beautiful evil Russian blonde, the overweight and over-the-top villain, the hippie-dippy devil may care mother, etc.
I found the dialogue really strained in a lot of places, and though we didn’t get to know the characters very deeply, what was established about them often felt contradicted shortly after by something they said. The same goes for the main storyline: Our protagonist is meant to be in this harem undercover to expose how vile it is to objectify women, then spends the next 100 or so pages objectifying the prince. She has deep-seated trust issues with men, but then falls for him in a matter of days. Our Prince can never trust her again and they can never be together, but then moments later he’s begging her not to leave. Beyond that, the over the top dramatic reactions and then sudden change of heart of both our protagonists gave me whiplash!
I’m just so frustrated. I finished the book because I wanted to give it a full and honest review. This had such a great premise and could have been amazing.
*Thank you to LibraryThing and BHC Press for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
With a strong premise and what I thought was a quite fun and original idea to explore harems, I had high hopes, though very quickly I struggled to engage with the story and found very little connection to any of the characters. I think that can be attributed to a lack of any meaningful character development. I didn’t know much about either of the two MCs so it was hard to like them very much. Sadly, even the supporting characters were all essentially caricatures of typical romance book storylines - the beautiful evil Russian blonde, the overweight and over-the-top villain, the hippie-dippy devil may care mother, etc.
I found the dialogue really strained in a lot of places, and though we didn’t get to know the characters very deeply, what was established about them often felt contradicted shortly after by something they said. The same goes for the main storyline: Our protagonist is meant to be in this harem undercover to expose how vile it is to objectify women, then spends the next 100 or so pages objectifying the prince. She has deep-seated trust issues with men, but then falls for him in a matter of days. Our Prince can never trust her again and they can never be together, but then moments later he’s begging her not to leave. Beyond that, the over the top dramatic reactions and then sudden change of heart of both our protagonists gave me whiplash!
I’m just so frustrated. I finished the book because I wanted to give it a full and honest review. This had such a great premise and could have been amazing.
*Thank you to LibraryThing and BHC Press for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
March 11, 2022
DNF 49%
Serena was annoying, bad at her job, whiny and just not the MC i had hoped she would be. I had hoped this would be funny, rom-com, interesting and was hoped the harem would be dealt with well... It was not. Just ugh.
Serena was annoying, bad at her job, whiny and just not the MC i had hoped she would be. I had hoped this would be funny, rom-com, interesting and was hoped the harem would be dealt with well... It was not. Just ugh.
May 20, 2021
I was drawn to this book because of the cover, by the synopsis is this a book I would usually read - No.
Having said that I actually liked it.
Does it read like the script of a typical Rom-com movie, yes
Does it have insta love, yes
Is the plot cliché, yes
If you put all of that aside and read it for what it is, it is a well written love story with some funny banter and well placed steamy scenes.
Having said that I actually liked it.
Does it read like the script of a typical Rom-com movie, yes
Does it have insta love, yes
Is the plot cliché, yes
If you put all of that aside and read it for what it is, it is a well written love story with some funny banter and well placed steamy scenes.
March 5, 2021
It is a light and quick read which is great, read it in under 3 hours, if it had been longer it might have been a DNF for me. This just was not my cup of tea. For me this was a a lesson on not judging a book by its cover. I saw the cover and its description in Netgalley and thought it might be a cute story. First the cover does not match the story at all, this happens in a tropical island why is the cover or almost like a taj mahal? Second this is a total romance disguised as a cute romance novel cover. I saw the authors other book alter and its cover clearly state that it is a more steamy romance that I was expecting. Not that its bad, it just did not fit the story for me here. The ending seemed just an unnecessary moment to throw extra steamy romance scenes when really the story was done and it just didn't add anything to it. The concept is great and i was all for it, it might be far fetched but I was totally into it ( i love my hallmark movie style girl meets prince and fall in love in a day fantasy) yet somehow here it didn't totally work for me. I don't know if it was the writing or the characters but i never fully got into it. Also by the end of the book i still wasn't clear as to the point of a coiterie and its difference to a harem. For it being the key point I think it glossed over it and involving some of the other female characters.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC review copy
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC review copy
March 17, 2021
*Thanks to Netgalley and BHC Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*
I keep flip flopping back and forth on this one; but I think ultimately it just wasn't for me. The good: the sexy scenes were quite good and the banter between Shai and Selena was actually really funny in moments. I will always love the trope of "woman goes abroad and stumbles into loving a prince," because it's just so insane who wouldn't, this story in particular felt a little stiff and weird.
Some things that I think could have been better/changed: (1) I really wish the reason for her being there wasn't the harem thing, it felt weirdly racialized and insensitive and while I can't comment on the cultural aspects (it's implied that this takes place in a South Asian country and I am not South Asian) I'd encourage the author and publisher to find lots of Own Voices reviewers, (2) if Selena really works with and cares about sex workers, she would not call them "prostitutes" like she does through the entire book, and (3) the timeline was a little strange to me, and I couldn't tell if this happened over the course of a month or 4 days (I think it was the latter).
I appreciate the advance copy, and I think the bones of this story could be something good if some changes were made.
I keep flip flopping back and forth on this one; but I think ultimately it just wasn't for me. The good: the sexy scenes were quite good and the banter between Shai and Selena was actually really funny in moments. I will always love the trope of "woman goes abroad and stumbles into loving a prince," because it's just so insane who wouldn't, this story in particular felt a little stiff and weird.
Some things that I think could have been better/changed: (1) I really wish the reason for her being there wasn't the harem thing, it felt weirdly racialized and insensitive and while I can't comment on the cultural aspects (it's implied that this takes place in a South Asian country and I am not South Asian) I'd encourage the author and publisher to find lots of Own Voices reviewers, (2) if Selena really works with and cares about sex workers, she would not call them "prostitutes" like she does through the entire book, and (3) the timeline was a little strange to me, and I couldn't tell if this happened over the course of a month or 4 days (I think it was the latter).
I appreciate the advance copy, and I think the bones of this story could be something good if some changes were made.
March 8, 2021
I really wanted to like this book. The cover and the description sounded like a cute start to a romance and I’m a sucker for solid chick-lit. Unfortunately, this is not that book. It’s not even that genre! Love Match is a true romance novel that was challenging to get through. Luckily, it is a fairly quick read taking under 3 hours to complete reading. About 4% of the way in, we get this charming piece of insight into our character’s burgeoning love story:
“Her long chestnut hair flowed down her back in loose waves. The tan pencil skirt and white button-up blouse made her look like a 1950s secretary, but he liked the look and easily—too easily—envisioned her shimmying that skirt up over the curve of her hips. He cleared his throat as he lowered his folded hands over his groin.” For me, it seemed like a great story idea that was poorly executed. The dialogue is just a little too cheesy, the romance is just a little too fast, etc.. It just didn’t work for me but may work for someone looking for a light and steamy beach read.
I received a free copy of this book’s ARC in exchange for my honest review.
“Her long chestnut hair flowed down her back in loose waves. The tan pencil skirt and white button-up blouse made her look like a 1950s secretary, but he liked the look and easily—too easily—envisioned her shimmying that skirt up over the curve of her hips. He cleared his throat as he lowered his folded hands over his groin.” For me, it seemed like a great story idea that was poorly executed. The dialogue is just a little too cheesy, the romance is just a little too fast, etc.. It just didn’t work for me but may work for someone looking for a light and steamy beach read.
I received a free copy of this book’s ARC in exchange for my honest review.
April 5, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley and BHC Press for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The story opens with Serena McAllister arriving on Birin Island to become a part of Prince Shailemon Sharma's coterie, a modern-day harem. Serena is a journalist and plans to uncover what's really going on at the coterie in hopes of landing a promotion at work, taking the coveted spot away from her rival. Meanwhile, the prince is dealing with his own conflicts, with the recent death of his father, the King, and the assumption that Shailemon will ascend to the throne. However, as sparks begin to fly between Serena and Prince Shailemon, our main characters must decide what's really worth it when love is on the line.
I requested this book because it felt a bit quirky and it did not disappoint. I don't care much if a romance is predictable or believable - it's fiction! What matters more is my pull to the characters, and how immersed I find myself in the story. I flew through this and I loved it. Even though it maybe felt a bit fast in terms of how quickly feelings developed, the characters addressed that, so even when it was a bit much, I was still able to enjoy it. I read this in less than 24 hours, and it was perfect for spring break. This would make a great beach read!
The story opens with Serena McAllister arriving on Birin Island to become a part of Prince Shailemon Sharma's coterie, a modern-day harem. Serena is a journalist and plans to uncover what's really going on at the coterie in hopes of landing a promotion at work, taking the coveted spot away from her rival. Meanwhile, the prince is dealing with his own conflicts, with the recent death of his father, the King, and the assumption that Shailemon will ascend to the throne. However, as sparks begin to fly between Serena and Prince Shailemon, our main characters must decide what's really worth it when love is on the line.
I requested this book because it felt a bit quirky and it did not disappoint. I don't care much if a romance is predictable or believable - it's fiction! What matters more is my pull to the characters, and how immersed I find myself in the story. I flew through this and I loved it. Even though it maybe felt a bit fast in terms of how quickly feelings developed, the characters addressed that, so even when it was a bit much, I was still able to enjoy it. I read this in less than 24 hours, and it was perfect for spring break. This would make a great beach read!
June 30, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley and BHC Press for an e-galley of Love Match.
Ever wondered what a modern day harem was like? Have no fear, Serena is going undercover to get the scoop - and to score the coveted promotion at work. However, when she arrives on the tropical island of Birin, Serena discovers that things are much more complicated than she imagined. An immediate nemesis within the harem, combined with a handsome, charming king-to-be proves to be a different type of challenge. Will Serena get the headline she needs, or will she find love instead?
Ever wondered what a modern day harem was like? Have no fear, Serena is going undercover to get the scoop - and to score the coveted promotion at work. However, when she arrives on the tropical island of Birin, Serena discovers that things are much more complicated than she imagined. An immediate nemesis within the harem, combined with a handsome, charming king-to-be proves to be a different type of challenge. Will Serena get the headline she needs, or will she find love instead?
April 16, 2021
Love Match is the story of an American journalist who journeys to an island unknown to most of the world to write an expose on harems in the modern day. What she didn’t expect was to find a charming prince who destroyed all of her ideas for this article. Readers be warned, this is a cute as heck love story - however, it is an insta-love story. And if that isn’t for you, I understand. With that being said, once I got past the insta-love section in the beginning, I really did enjoy so much of this story. It has a lot to offer. Because the beginning was not for me, the book is receiving 3 stars. But again, I really did enjoy most of it. Love Match really is worth a read. Here’s why:
What I loved:
- the overall romance (post insta-love) was great in my opinion. I was rooting for these characters
- the cultural challenges. Everything about the cultural divide between America and Birin Island were so fascinating. I want to know so much more about Birin.
- YES to talking about the problems with America
- modern day harems vs harems of the old world. I love getting to look into the history and modernization of women in the court of kings
What I didn’t love so much (besides the insta-love):
- I felt really thrown into the story without enough background. Once you get past it, everything’s fine
- it is pretty predictable, as romances tend to be. But the general “plot twist” was foreshadowed and obvious very early on
- I think the journalism role was a little clumsy and I don’t love Serena as a main character
Again, definitely worth a read if you’re interested in cultural clashing, misguided intentions, and just wanting a cute romance to read quickly.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and BHC Press for sending me and advanced ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Love Match comes out on June 3, 2021!
What I loved:
- the overall romance (post insta-love) was great in my opinion. I was rooting for these characters
- the cultural challenges. Everything about the cultural divide between America and Birin Island were so fascinating. I want to know so much more about Birin.
- YES to talking about the problems with America
- modern day harems vs harems of the old world. I love getting to look into the history and modernization of women in the court of kings
What I didn’t love so much (besides the insta-love):
- I felt really thrown into the story without enough background. Once you get past it, everything’s fine
- it is pretty predictable, as romances tend to be. But the general “plot twist” was foreshadowed and obvious very early on
- I think the journalism role was a little clumsy and I don’t love Serena as a main character
Again, definitely worth a read if you’re interested in cultural clashing, misguided intentions, and just wanting a cute romance to read quickly.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and BHC Press for sending me and advanced ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Love Match comes out on June 3, 2021!
June 9, 2021
Blog Review: https://trishadoeseverythingbutstudy2...
I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I have never been as disappointed by an ARC as I was with this.
I have so many issues with this. The first and foremost: THE COVER IS A F*CKING LIE.
I think I have the right to be angry if the cover has a Taj Mahal on it, and there proceeds to be exactly ZERO mention of India in the book. I kept hoping there would be like a field trip or something to Agra, but NO. I'm making a cover-was-a-lie shelf for this book right now.
I am so irritated that I will be plagiarising my status updates, and will be ranting throughout this review. In the nicest way possible.
The fact that this is supposed to be set in the Pacific Island, which is near so many different countries, but the only POCs are the king, his best friend/trusted adviser, and the villain. And yeah the villain's family and such are also POCs, but we never get to know them at all. I would honestly think that there would be more POC characters.
The MC is white, the cliche bully russian/white (It was never completely clear to me), and the other characters of the coterie are not described. The handler of these girls is french. And of course the MC's side is all white, which is not a problem, but why are the only people the MC seem to interact with on this island all non POC?!
It's nothing very off putting, but because I was already angry that there wasn't any India, we have this added benefit of having nearly zero people who might even be asian.
You would think that if it's a palace, we would meet more people, but we have a pretty small cast. Though I think that was because of the Serena's and Shai's 'romance'.
Not even hours into their first meeting, they're already kissing. And then more kissing. And then even more kissing. Then mo—you get the point.
And then they have sex. Because this is the natural progression of a relationship built on two days of mutual kissing, and the sharing of past trauma. While I'm onboard for this sort of thing if it's like conducive to the story and does not end up in them falling in love in the next 48 hours, unfortunately that wasn't the case for this.
A WEEK. ONE F*CKING WEEK. That's ALL it took.
The only saving grace for this was that it was short, honestly, I don't think I could have kept reading this.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of research Serena had done before getting herself enrolled in a coterie; why would a woman get herself into a coterie, fully expecting it to be a harem?!?! Didn't she know that she would be signing NDAs and whatnot, and also some amount of sex, consensual or otherwise (because this was what she went expecting), but none of this seems to cross her mind?!
How on earth did she not research the difference between a coterie and harem!?! One google search would have told her that a coterie is a group of like minded and close-knit people, and a harem is a group of women living together, as wives or concubines, or just living together. No where in the multiple definitions of coterie is sex mentioned. (I might not be right about this, my GK comes from books and google, please tell me if I'm wrong)
What kind of journalist doesn't research her topic of interest, and just go into it uninformed!? I did not think journalism was such a profession, but who knows.
At 74% into the book, there's a quote
Then the article that does end up writing gave me a bad feelings because I don't think it was right for her to write it. This is spoilery, so
Another thing that rubbed me wrong was the fact that the people on Birin Island are so inefficient!? I would think if you were handing a person a ticket into the lives of royalty, the first thing you would get done would be to get NDAs signed. And more important than that, how on earth did none of these people perform a proper background check!??!
What kind of staff is this!? You don't want journalists peeking into the inner workings of your lives and your court, but you will not perform a background check!? And on top of that, Serena uses her real name?! Don't journalists chasing articles like this have to go undercover?!?
Yet another thing that bothered me: You would think that being a Prince you would know who to control your emotions, being in the spotlight all the time, but Shai has literally no control over his emotions. The rival king insinuates some stuff, and Shai just loses it and starts strangling him. I do not like such characters. My preferences for rich bad boys include a mask of cool calm and cutting words that ensure that you'll never try that again. But to each their own, I suppose.
And yet another thing that bothered me: Why would you take a clearly untrained woman with like zero manners and knowledge of how to conduct herself among people who are trying to take your kingdom from you, on the same day you found her half drunk, oh so clumsy, and very stoned. Are there no rules about what all would reflect badly on a guy trying to get the throne?!
An yet another thing that bothered me: one would think that being a prince, you would lock doors before sleeping in the room, if nothing else then for security because you're in a country ruled by a guy who's trying to take your throne and there's no guarantee you'd be murdered int he dead of night?! But nOo, you leave the door unlocked.
And yet one more thing: there was not one scene in this book that had emotional growth but was not followed immediately by a sex scene where all previous emotional growth goes down the drain, and it's as if the emotional scenes were just just there to ensure the characters have sex next. Which is NOT how I like it to work.
And then after she has the realisation that she's in lurve with the bootiful prince, her mother and best friend do absolutely NOTHING to talk her down. IT HAS BEEN ONE WEEK. I don't know about other people, but I depend on my mother for being the voice of reason when I talk to her if I'm in a bad mood.
The only other woman of the coterie we meet with like actual dialogues is Ekaterina, from Russia, and she's a bully. Because how else would we have conflict and room for angst. And the only way her secret would come out, because THESE PEOPLE DON'T DO BACKGROUND CHECKS.
All of their dialogue is super cringey, and nearly nothing is actually funny. The characters are trying to hard banter, but it's obvious to the reader that it's pretty forced. And Serena is so clumsy. It's all she does for so long in the book, that one has to wonder if she wasn't drunk the entire time.
Then at the end, when there's talk about marriage, Serena imagines that the marriage will be at the altar. And I'm like, is this set in Asia or not!? Because I've not had any indication of Christianity up till now, so I'm assuming there will be some traditional rituals, which will most likely not involve any altars. yes, I'm drawing from Hindu marriages, but I'm reasonably sure about this.
And then, I was so surprised that Shai would be marrying with like half a day of notice. Are not royal weddings supposed to be the event of the year or something?! I can't in good faith believe that this marriage didn't have a longer engagement. Or even more notice, because then how are the distinguished guests going to come for it?!
The there was a bit where he told his assistant/best friend to tell the press that the bride cancelled the wedding. And the reasoning he gives for this is that this way the girl's' reputation would not be harmed. Which is so weird because would not this statement put out the impression that this is a girl that gets herself engagements and then doesn't follow!? Maybe a mutual disagreement would have been a better statement. Or even that Shai cancelled it.
Then there were some dialogues/paragraphs of Serena's mother nearly accosting Tareek, and I honestly felt like it was a little like molestation, because it was very weird. The sexual insinuations were weird, and made me feel a little sick.
And at the end, they have sex again. In a car. Which is incorrectly parked. Taking all their time. I hope to God that the car was soundproofed and had tinted windows, because that would have been so traumatising for all passing people. And possible fodder for journalists.
I'm stopping here because I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover, and because I don't want to dwell on this book anymore. I would recommend this only to people looking for a short fast book, and have no care for anything to make sense.
Pre-reading review:
I'm a simple girl, I see Taj Mahal, I automatically go to see what it's about. I see it's a romance, and I automatically request it.
I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I have never been as disappointed by an ARC as I was with this.
I have so many issues with this. The first and foremost: THE COVER IS A F*CKING LIE.
I think I have the right to be angry if the cover has a Taj Mahal on it, and there proceeds to be exactly ZERO mention of India in the book. I kept hoping there would be like a field trip or something to Agra, but NO. I'm making a cover-was-a-lie shelf for this book right now.
I am so irritated that I will be plagiarising my status updates, and will be ranting throughout this review. In the nicest way possible.
The fact that this is supposed to be set in the Pacific Island, which is near so many different countries, but the only POCs are the king, his best friend/trusted adviser, and the villain. And yeah the villain's family and such are also POCs, but we never get to know them at all. I would honestly think that there would be more POC characters.
The MC is white, the cliche bully russian/white (It was never completely clear to me), and the other characters of the coterie are not described. The handler of these girls is french. And of course the MC's side is all white, which is not a problem, but why are the only people the MC seem to interact with on this island all non POC?!
It's nothing very off putting, but because I was already angry that there wasn't any India, we have this added benefit of having nearly zero people who might even be asian.
You would think that if it's a palace, we would meet more people, but we have a pretty small cast. Though I think that was because of the Serena's and Shai's 'romance'.
Not even hours into their first meeting, they're already kissing. And then more kissing. And then even more kissing. Then mo—you get the point.
And then they have sex. Because this is the natural progression of a relationship built on two days of mutual kissing, and the sharing of past trauma. While I'm onboard for this sort of thing if it's like conducive to the story and does not end up in them falling in love in the next 48 hours, unfortunately that wasn't the case for this.
A WEEK. ONE F*CKING WEEK. That's ALL it took.
The only saving grace for this was that it was short, honestly, I don't think I could have kept reading this.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of research Serena had done before getting herself enrolled in a coterie; why would a woman get herself into a coterie, fully expecting it to be a harem?!?! Didn't she know that she would be signing NDAs and whatnot, and also some amount of sex, consensual or otherwise (because this was what she went expecting), but none of this seems to cross her mind?!
How on earth did she not research the difference between a coterie and harem!?! One google search would have told her that a coterie is a group of like minded and close-knit people, and a harem is a group of women living together, as wives or concubines, or just living together. No where in the multiple definitions of coterie is sex mentioned. (I might not be right about this, my GK comes from books and google, please tell me if I'm wrong)
What kind of journalist doesn't research her topic of interest, and just go into it uninformed!? I did not think journalism was such a profession, but who knows.
At 74% into the book, there's a quote
"Should she have known his coterie was not a traditional harem? If she had done more research instead of hopping on the first available flight, would she have uncovered this little tidbit of information?"and I was so outraged at this paragraph.
Then the article that does end up writing gave me a bad feelings because I don't think it was right for her to write it. This is spoilery, so
Another thing that rubbed me wrong was the fact that the people on Birin Island are so inefficient!? I would think if you were handing a person a ticket into the lives of royalty, the first thing you would get done would be to get NDAs signed. And more important than that, how on earth did none of these people perform a proper background check!??!
What kind of staff is this!? You don't want journalists peeking into the inner workings of your lives and your court, but you will not perform a background check!? And on top of that, Serena uses her real name?! Don't journalists chasing articles like this have to go undercover?!?
Yet another thing that bothered me: You would think that being a Prince you would know who to control your emotions, being in the spotlight all the time, but Shai has literally no control over his emotions. The rival king insinuates some stuff, and Shai just loses it and starts strangling him. I do not like such characters. My preferences for rich bad boys include a mask of cool calm and cutting words that ensure that you'll never try that again. But to each their own, I suppose.
And yet another thing that bothered me: Why would you take a clearly untrained woman with like zero manners and knowledge of how to conduct herself among people who are trying to take your kingdom from you, on the same day you found her half drunk, oh so clumsy, and very stoned. Are there no rules about what all would reflect badly on a guy trying to get the throne?!
An yet another thing that bothered me: one would think that being a prince, you would lock doors before sleeping in the room, if nothing else then for security because you're in a country ruled by a guy who's trying to take your throne and there's no guarantee you'd be murdered int he dead of night?! But nOo, you leave the door unlocked.
And yet one more thing: there was not one scene in this book that had emotional growth but was not followed immediately by a sex scene where all previous emotional growth goes down the drain, and it's as if the emotional scenes were just just there to ensure the characters have sex next. Which is NOT how I like it to work.
And then after she has the realisation that she's in lurve with the bootiful prince, her mother and best friend do absolutely NOTHING to talk her down. IT HAS BEEN ONE WEEK. I don't know about other people, but I depend on my mother for being the voice of reason when I talk to her if I'm in a bad mood.
The only other woman of the coterie we meet with like actual dialogues is Ekaterina, from Russia, and she's a bully. Because how else would we have conflict and room for angst. And the only way her secret would come out, because THESE PEOPLE DON'T DO BACKGROUND CHECKS.
All of their dialogue is super cringey, and nearly nothing is actually funny. The characters are trying to hard banter, but it's obvious to the reader that it's pretty forced. And Serena is so clumsy. It's all she does for so long in the book, that one has to wonder if she wasn't drunk the entire time.
Then at the end, when there's talk about marriage, Serena imagines that the marriage will be at the altar. And I'm like, is this set in Asia or not!? Because I've not had any indication of Christianity up till now, so I'm assuming there will be some traditional rituals, which will most likely not involve any altars. yes, I'm drawing from Hindu marriages, but I'm reasonably sure about this.
And then, I was so surprised that Shai would be marrying with like half a day of notice. Are not royal weddings supposed to be the event of the year or something?! I can't in good faith believe that this marriage didn't have a longer engagement. Or even more notice, because then how are the distinguished guests going to come for it?!
The there was a bit where he told his assistant/best friend to tell the press that the bride cancelled the wedding. And the reasoning he gives for this is that this way the girl's' reputation would not be harmed. Which is so weird because would not this statement put out the impression that this is a girl that gets herself engagements and then doesn't follow!? Maybe a mutual disagreement would have been a better statement. Or even that Shai cancelled it.
Then there were some dialogues/paragraphs of Serena's mother nearly accosting Tareek, and I honestly felt like it was a little like molestation, because it was very weird. The sexual insinuations were weird, and made me feel a little sick.
And at the end, they have sex again. In a car. Which is incorrectly parked. Taking all their time. I hope to God that the car was soundproofed and had tinted windows, because that would have been so traumatising for all passing people. And possible fodder for journalists.
I'm stopping here because I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover, and because I don't want to dwell on this book anymore. I would recommend this only to people looking for a short fast book, and have no care for anything to make sense.
Pre-reading review:
I'm a simple girl, I see Taj Mahal, I automatically go to see what it's about. I see it's a romance, and I automatically request it.
April 6, 2021
I admittedly was drawn in by the cover of Love Match, and admittedly swayed by the plot. The novel tells the story of Serena McAllister who learns of her fiance's betrayal and in her desperation for something to hold on to, decides to join a harem in the hopes of writing a strong enough piece to secure her a staff position. She travels to Birin Island where she meets Prince Shailemon Sharma, or Shai - and the rest, as they say, is history.
While an overall enjoyable read, I found the characters a little too stereotypical and not well-fleshed out. The overall pacing and flow of the novel felt a bit choppy and disorganized as well, and while social media is certainly in many of our lives today, this medium felt a little overused in the novel.
While an overall enjoyable read, I found the characters a little too stereotypical and not well-fleshed out. The overall pacing and flow of the novel felt a bit choppy and disorganized as well, and while social media is certainly in many of our lives today, this medium felt a little overused in the novel.
March 24, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley and BHC Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Selena just found out her fiancé was cheating on her. So she decides to fly halfway around the world to join a coterie on Birin Island. There, she meets the gorgeous hunk, Prince Shailemon and of course, it’s love at first sight.
I desperately wanted to love this one. I thought the cover was great and I enjoy a good royalty falls for commoner trope. So I was psyched when I got approved for the ARC! But this wasn’t it, fam. I didn’t realize I liked slow burn as much as I did until I realized how fast this love story happened. It was almost comically fast. Actually, a lot of things seemed to happen too fast for me and without enough explanation. It’s well-written enough, though I could live without some parts of it. I actually stopped and laughed when 5’7” was considered tall for a woman and Selena said she “wasn’t used to men towering over her”. I mean, sure 5’7” is a little above average but it’s not freakishly tall. There were a few other comments like this.
The one thing that sort of saved this one is the steamier bits. They were pretty good and there were a fair amount of them. But honestly, this one really just didn’t do it for me. Which is a shame, because I adore that cover and the premise. It had a lot of potential for me! But I realized when it didn’t immediately hook me in, that it wasn’t going to happen.
2/5 stars
Selena just found out her fiancé was cheating on her. So she decides to fly halfway around the world to join a coterie on Birin Island. There, she meets the gorgeous hunk, Prince Shailemon and of course, it’s love at first sight.
I desperately wanted to love this one. I thought the cover was great and I enjoy a good royalty falls for commoner trope. So I was psyched when I got approved for the ARC! But this wasn’t it, fam. I didn’t realize I liked slow burn as much as I did until I realized how fast this love story happened. It was almost comically fast. Actually, a lot of things seemed to happen too fast for me and without enough explanation. It’s well-written enough, though I could live without some parts of it. I actually stopped and laughed when 5’7” was considered tall for a woman and Selena said she “wasn’t used to men towering over her”. I mean, sure 5’7” is a little above average but it’s not freakishly tall. There were a few other comments like this.
The one thing that sort of saved this one is the steamier bits. They were pretty good and there were a fair amount of them. But honestly, this one really just didn’t do it for me. Which is a shame, because I adore that cover and the premise. It had a lot of potential for me! But I realized when it didn’t immediately hook me in, that it wasn’t going to happen.
2/5 stars
March 21, 2021
I am reviewing this book that I received free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
When I first saw this book on Netgalley, I thought the cover is cute and sounds like a cute, chick-lit romance. However, from the very beginning, this book felt disjointed and rushed. There was no slow build of the main character and about her life and why she was going to this other country. No, she was just there all of a sudden meeting this prince and the dialogue was just so cheesy. The romance was really not romance but just steamy, rushed attraction. There were a few repeated expressions the two main characters each said in the beginning and overused expressions really bother me. The main character is supposed to be there to research harems and how they objectify women but yet she has no problem objectifying the prince with some of the dialogue she used. She is also supposed to have trust issues with men due to her father abandoning her at a young age and the whole ex-fiance cheating on her but yet again, she has no problem with this prince throwing himself at her when they have just barely interacted in one of the scenes and making out with her in a public hallway at his palace. I would much rather she have slapped him. The book was very rushed and characters under-developed. All this to say, I did not enjoy this book and it wasn't what I thought it would be. If you want a quick, steamy read you can read in a day, then this would be for you.
When I first saw this book on Netgalley, I thought the cover is cute and sounds like a cute, chick-lit romance. However, from the very beginning, this book felt disjointed and rushed. There was no slow build of the main character and about her life and why she was going to this other country. No, she was just there all of a sudden meeting this prince and the dialogue was just so cheesy. The romance was really not romance but just steamy, rushed attraction. There were a few repeated expressions the two main characters each said in the beginning and overused expressions really bother me. The main character is supposed to be there to research harems and how they objectify women but yet she has no problem objectifying the prince with some of the dialogue she used. She is also supposed to have trust issues with men due to her father abandoning her at a young age and the whole ex-fiance cheating on her but yet again, she has no problem with this prince throwing himself at her when they have just barely interacted in one of the scenes and making out with her in a public hallway at his palace. I would much rather she have slapped him. The book was very rushed and characters under-developed. All this to say, I did not enjoy this book and it wasn't what I thought it would be. If you want a quick, steamy read you can read in a day, then this would be for you.
March 6, 2021
⭐️⭐️ I honestly looked forward to reading this book and was so pleased when NetGalley awarded me an ARC. I am a fan of romance fiction, and enjoy reading this genre. But this was a great idea that did not translate to the page. I think it could have made an excellent story, but it didn’t deliver in the end. My main suggestion, if I were bold, would be that the author tone down the slapstick comments like “sleep-around-Sue” and the cartoonish cast of characters like Serena’s pot-smoking Mother. Even Serena, the undercover journalist, and subsequent love interest, was ridiculously accident-prone and perennially intoxicated by the aroma of jasmine. We get it. This book read more like a Disney fairytale with a little s-e-x thrown in for good measure. I’m sorry it was not for me. #lovematchbook @netgalley #romance #ihate2benegative #sorry
March 13, 2021
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.
2 stars, was hoping for a meet cute type story, but this one was just all over the place.
Selena is the scorned ex-fiancé with Daddy issues who runs off to a fictional island to investigate modern harems or “coteries” undercover. Upon her arrival she literally runs into a window, meets Prince Shai and then instant love.
I can appreciate a story with a good plot, but this book is almost novella length, so there was a lot in a little amount and some plots that never resolved. It also had a bit of a dual personality between the first and second halves.
I think with some polish and a few more pages, the book would work better.
2 stars, was hoping for a meet cute type story, but this one was just all over the place.
Selena is the scorned ex-fiancé with Daddy issues who runs off to a fictional island to investigate modern harems or “coteries” undercover. Upon her arrival she literally runs into a window, meets Prince Shai and then instant love.
I can appreciate a story with a good plot, but this book is almost novella length, so there was a lot in a little amount and some plots that never resolved. It also had a bit of a dual personality between the first and second halves.
I think with some polish and a few more pages, the book would work better.
March 6, 2021
Serena's fiance has cheated on her one too many times, she's also up for a promotion at her job, she just needs a great story. After seeing an article about coteries, modern day harems, she decides to go undercover to get the scoop on them.
If you're looking for a mindless, quick read, this is it. It had the potential to be a much better story but lacked a lot of depth. A lot of it was just farfetched and unbelievable. I had a hard time believing that a prince, who is educated and has lived abroad, is in awe of an "American" and what he considers Americans to be. This is a great read if you want something quick that you don't really need to pay attention to.
Thanks to Netgalley and BHC Press for the ARC of this book.
If you're looking for a mindless, quick read, this is it. It had the potential to be a much better story but lacked a lot of depth. A lot of it was just farfetched and unbelievable. I had a hard time believing that a prince, who is educated and has lived abroad, is in awe of an "American" and what he considers Americans to be. This is a great read if you want something quick that you don't really need to pay attention to.
Thanks to Netgalley and BHC Press for the ARC of this book.
March 7, 2021
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.
The blurb of the story had me hooked. As someone who loved watching Magnificent century (Turkish dizi ), I wanted to read about the harem in "Birin island". I really, really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case for me. The h is rude, she reminds me of a 90 days fiancé participant who leaves to another country, another culture, clouded with an air of superiority and who waits for it to be exactly like America. I went off track but great stupid show ! Recommend. This book? it ain't for me but can be your cup of tea.
Sorry x
The blurb of the story had me hooked. As someone who loved watching Magnificent century (Turkish dizi ), I wanted to read about the harem in "Birin island". I really, really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case for me. The h is rude, she reminds me of a 90 days fiancé participant who leaves to another country, another culture, clouded with an air of superiority and who waits for it to be exactly like America. I went off track but great stupid show ! Recommend. This book? it ain't for me but can be your cup of tea.
Sorry x
March 10, 2021
A tale as old as time... Girl’s fiancé cheats on her so she joins a modern day harem in hopes of furthering her career with an expose piece. The book follows a very short period of Serena McAllister moonlighting in Prince Shailemon’s coterie and focuses on both dealing with internal turmoil. Prince Shailemon must marry in order to be king. The big question is: Will he marry out of obligation or for a love match? While at times the back and forth on their feelings became a little too much, this was a solid read.
May 4, 2021
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with this ARC on NetGalley.
I must admit that I, like many others, was drawn to this mostly for the cover. And, because I could tell from the title that it was a romance, I didn't really read the summary and instead formed my own expectations.
Here's the spoiler-free premise: Serena is an American journalist vying for a promotion at work, one that if she doesn't win, will likely leave her without a job. She's also recently discovered that her fiancé has cheated on her -- again. So when a last-minute opportunity to join a coterie on the other side of the world arises, Serena leaves immediately, no questions asked, hoping to glean an article from her experience in what she's expecting to be a "modern-day harem." Upon her arrival, she's immediately thrust into life as Prince Shailemon's guest at various events before she's even had a proper orientation. Though Serena is very clearly unrefined and out of place, "Shai" finds himself inexplicably attracted to her. And Serena can't deny her attraction to him either, despite her certainty that he's using her -- and women in general -- for his own pleasure. The result? A quickly ignited romance at risk of crumbling under Serena's motives and Shai's obligations.
I'll start with what I liked, which was the overall story. This book is billed as Coming to America meets Pretty Woman but, having seen (and loved) both of those movies, I disagree a little bit. It's true that like Prince Akeem in Coming to America, Prince Shailemon must marry soon, but that's pretty much as far as the similarities go. The comparison to Pretty Woman, though, is definitely apparent. Serena is not only uncouth by royal standards, she's pretty wild in general. In fact, at one point, the reader learns that her now ex-fiancé insinuated that she wasn't good enough for certain circles. That's kind of understandable though -- Serena's kind of a potty mouth and doesn't exercise any sort of tact or restraint. Ever. (Seriously, read the room girl!) But I liked that about her to be honest, and so did Shai. She's seen as "refreshing" because she makes Shai laugh, which he doesn't do often, especially in his current circumstances. I like that they can't deny their attraction, that Serena calms Shai and that Shai makes Serena believe in love again.
However, I think this book lacked substance considering the amount of potential the premise has. Not to spoil it, but we don't really get to see much of coterie life at all: Serena doesn't get an orientation, we only meet two other coterie women (one of whom is the main antagonist and the other only has about two lines), and Serena is the only guest of choice at the few events where Shai needs a companion. Also (again, mini spoiler) Serena doesn't write her article along the way; she really only jots a few notes and then her computer is stolen. While Serena and Shai do get to have a few serious conversations, they're brief, and always sandwiched between lighter topics or sex. Or both. And all of this takes place over the span of a week, including Serena's return to New York, so lots of assumptions and very little character growth.
The language in this book felt often misplaced. It was too formal when it didn't need to be and too casual at times where formality seemed inherent. Eventually, the writing just felt immature. It read like McKinney swapped simple words for words that "sound smart" but didn't necessarily fit. Additionally the sex scenes were cringe-worthy, not because of the sex -- I'm an adult -- but because of the wording. It just didn't flow. It was like reading someone's first attempt at sexting. Lastly, I can tell that the banter between Serena and Shai was meant to be witty in addition to funny (because they laughed a lot) but the humor definitely fell flat.
Overall, I neither loved nor hated this book. I can appreciate that this is a pretty short story, and fairly light in subject matter. But, it was just too convenient. There's not much depth (the amount depth at all is debatable) and the conflict is overemphasized because it's introduced so late in the story and then easily resolved without much explanation. I don't think I'd recommend this to serious readers, but if you like quick, steamy romances and can ignore a few plot holes and lack of detailed logistics for the sake of a happily-ever-after, then this is for you.
I must admit that I, like many others, was drawn to this mostly for the cover. And, because I could tell from the title that it was a romance, I didn't really read the summary and instead formed my own expectations.
Here's the spoiler-free premise: Serena is an American journalist vying for a promotion at work, one that if she doesn't win, will likely leave her without a job. She's also recently discovered that her fiancé has cheated on her -- again. So when a last-minute opportunity to join a coterie on the other side of the world arises, Serena leaves immediately, no questions asked, hoping to glean an article from her experience in what she's expecting to be a "modern-day harem." Upon her arrival, she's immediately thrust into life as Prince Shailemon's guest at various events before she's even had a proper orientation. Though Serena is very clearly unrefined and out of place, "Shai" finds himself inexplicably attracted to her. And Serena can't deny her attraction to him either, despite her certainty that he's using her -- and women in general -- for his own pleasure. The result? A quickly ignited romance at risk of crumbling under Serena's motives and Shai's obligations.
I'll start with what I liked, which was the overall story. This book is billed as Coming to America meets Pretty Woman but, having seen (and loved) both of those movies, I disagree a little bit. It's true that like Prince Akeem in Coming to America, Prince Shailemon must marry soon, but that's pretty much as far as the similarities go. The comparison to Pretty Woman, though, is definitely apparent. Serena is not only uncouth by royal standards, she's pretty wild in general. In fact, at one point, the reader learns that her now ex-fiancé insinuated that she wasn't good enough for certain circles. That's kind of understandable though -- Serena's kind of a potty mouth and doesn't exercise any sort of tact or restraint. Ever. (Seriously, read the room girl!) But I liked that about her to be honest, and so did Shai. She's seen as "refreshing" because she makes Shai laugh, which he doesn't do often, especially in his current circumstances. I like that they can't deny their attraction, that Serena calms Shai and that Shai makes Serena believe in love again.
However, I think this book lacked substance considering the amount of potential the premise has. Not to spoil it, but we don't really get to see much of coterie life at all: Serena doesn't get an orientation, we only meet two other coterie women (one of whom is the main antagonist and the other only has about two lines), and Serena is the only guest of choice at the few events where Shai needs a companion. Also (again, mini spoiler) Serena doesn't write her article along the way; she really only jots a few notes and then her computer is stolen. While Serena and Shai do get to have a few serious conversations, they're brief, and always sandwiched between lighter topics or sex. Or both. And all of this takes place over the span of a week, including Serena's return to New York, so lots of assumptions and very little character growth.
The language in this book felt often misplaced. It was too formal when it didn't need to be and too casual at times where formality seemed inherent. Eventually, the writing just felt immature. It read like McKinney swapped simple words for words that "sound smart" but didn't necessarily fit. Additionally the sex scenes were cringe-worthy, not because of the sex -- I'm an adult -- but because of the wording. It just didn't flow. It was like reading someone's first attempt at sexting. Lastly, I can tell that the banter between Serena and Shai was meant to be witty in addition to funny (because they laughed a lot) but the humor definitely fell flat.
Overall, I neither loved nor hated this book. I can appreciate that this is a pretty short story, and fairly light in subject matter. But, it was just too convenient. There's not much depth (the amount depth at all is debatable) and the conflict is overemphasized because it's introduced so late in the story and then easily resolved without much explanation. I don't think I'd recommend this to serious readers, but if you like quick, steamy romances and can ignore a few plot holes and lack of detailed logistics for the sake of a happily-ever-after, then this is for you.
May 14, 2021
Love Match by Laire McKinney is a romance novel set in some secluded Island where we see a Prince, whose King/Father has just died and hence is here back to the Island to rule from his long life lived in Europe.
Serena, a journalist enters this world in order to read a story which might get her promoted. She has preconceived notions about the Kingdom and its Coitier system, which according to Serena is similar to older generations Traditional Harem's.
Shai, the Prince and the rightful to be King of the Island, is looking the rightful wife and has some females come by his palace, who learns about politics, royal delegations, etc. from Madame Moire. The story definitely needs working.
Coming to the important parts in the plot, although the plot has a powerful start the book directly jumps from one point to another, without any hint or relativeness. From Serena being dressed by the Madame over there at the palace, for attending the ball with Shai and Atta, to suddenly she and Shai being in each others arms?
Serena, as a character is very problematic for me. She is a journalist who went into this kingdom and world by already having some prejudices into this world. But that's not how it is supposed to be right? Her characters starts off as a smart, independent women who is here to do her investigation. But all she is about is a stupid and irritating girl.
I am sorry, but I guess author had something completely different in her mind while reading this book, but it just does not reflect. I feel this book is only about forcing a cultural attribution of some nations and their traditions in a wrong light.
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Thank NetGalley & Publisher for the eARC.
Serena, a journalist enters this world in order to read a story which might get her promoted. She has preconceived notions about the Kingdom and its Coitier system, which according to Serena is similar to older generations Traditional Harem's.
Shai, the Prince and the rightful to be King of the Island, is looking the rightful wife and has some females come by his palace, who learns about politics, royal delegations, etc. from Madame Moire. The story definitely needs working.
Coming to the important parts in the plot, although the plot has a powerful start the book directly jumps from one point to another, without any hint or relativeness. From Serena being dressed by the Madame over there at the palace, for attending the ball with Shai and Atta, to suddenly she and Shai being in each others arms?
Serena, as a character is very problematic for me. She is a journalist who went into this kingdom and world by already having some prejudices into this world. But that's not how it is supposed to be right? Her characters starts off as a smart, independent women who is here to do her investigation. But all she is about is a stupid and irritating girl.
I am sorry, but I guess author had something completely different in her mind while reading this book, but it just does not reflect. I feel this book is only about forcing a cultural attribution of some nations and their traditions in a wrong light.
_______
Thank NetGalley & Publisher for the eARC.
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