June 2024 Standalone BOTM - Truly, Madly, Deeply, by Alexandria Bellefleur

[Alaina]

Sparks fly when a lovelorn romance novelist and a divorce lawyer who has sworn off relationships agree to cohost a podcast series offering dating advice to viewers, in Truly, Madly, Deeply, the next steamy queer rom-com from Lambda Literary Award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur.

As a bestselling romance novelist, everyone thinks Truly Livingston is an expert on happily-ever-afters. She’s even signed on to record a podcast sharing relationship advice. Little do they know she feels like an imposter—her parents just announced they’re separating, she caught her fiancé cheating, and her entire view on love has been shaken to the core. Truly hopes the podcast will distract her... until she meets her cohost.

Her first impression of Colin McCory is...hot. But then he opens his extremely kissable mouth. Colin’s view on love just pisses Truly off, even if he does have an annoyingly attractive face. Bickering with a cynical divorce lawyer is the last thing she needs—so she walks out, with no plans to return.

A few days later, Truly is surprised when Colin tracks her down, asking for a fresh start. Truly can’t deny the little thrill she gets from Colin begging, so she reluctantly agrees. As they go from enemies to friends to something else entirely, Truly discovers they have more in common than she ever imagined, including their shared queerness. He’s a genuinely good guy—charming, sweet, and equally as unlucky in love as herself—and there’s something about Colin that drives Truly a little wild. When their attraction reaches a fever pitch, Truly is happy for the first time in years. Yet she can’t help but wonder... is Colin truly, madly, deeply in love with her? Or is it all too good to be true?

**This BOTM thread will be open until July 5th @ Midnight (in your time zone)**

[Ela (Mouse333)]

Chapters 1 - 6

(view spoiler)[ From the beginning, there are things that I think are meant to be funny, but I'm not seeing the humour and some of them are even annoying.
• The pathetic excuse Justin gave and just his whole character.
• Truly's "hatred" for Colin has immediately made me dislike her, along with her hostile and rude behaviour, which was an over the top reaction. Another hate to love that feels blown out of proportion. Granted, it seems like Truly's mostly gotten over her hatred, but I still don't really like her because of how naive she's acting when it comes to her parents. I don't think I'm going to like it if she tries to put her plan in motion either.
• The rule in Truly's parents' house about the titles and the songs. I didn't think it was funny, especially when they're discussing something important but still being silly. Maybe it's just because I'm not into musicals.

I like Colin, Caitlin, and Lulu. Hopefully, Truly's character will grow on me.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ela (Mouse333)]

Chapters 7 - 11

(view spoiler)[ Another thing that's supposed to be funny but it's just not working for me here, is Truly accidently texting Colin and her accidently liking his picture. I think it's just because I don't like Truly. Even though it's supposed to be banter, she's still rude, she's stuck on the fact that Colin is a family (divorce in her mind) lawyer, and the whole plan with her parents is rubbish.

I'm curious what the book that she's writing is about, and I'd be interested in seeing any cases that Colin is handling.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ela (Mouse333)]

Chapters 11 - 17

(view spoiler)[ I don’t like that Truly went through with her plan, especially since she hasn’t even talked to her parents about why they’re separating.

Colin’s family is horrible and I wish something would make them see things clearly, but it feels like this book is trying to realistic so I don’t think anything’s going to change.

I did like the scene where Colin meets Truly's family.
(hide spoiler)]

[Ela (Mouse333)]

Chapters 18 - 22 (end)

(view spoiler)[ This book could have been fine, but I didn’t like Truly and since she’s the main character, I found most things annoying instead of funny. Also, it felt like Colin’s character was made around Truly’s, so that everything suited her.

I didn’t really care about the storyline with Truly’s parents - it seemed like unnecessary additional drama.

While I’m glad that the conflict wasn’t big, I still didn’t like that Truly decides that she needs to break up with Colin because her parents might not last.
(hide spoiler)]

[Alaina]

Today is the LAST day to add comments for BOTM points!

[Jessica]

Chapter three
(view spoiler)[ Well damn her life is just falling apart. She should not have gone to that Podcast, they would have understood if she rescheduled. I knew her parents story was too good to be there but this is rough. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Chapter Six
I'm enjoying the sexual tension and banter but could do without (view spoiler)[ the parent trapping. Apart from that there's no real plot and I feel like this would be better as a vibes and sexual tension book instead of adding in this thing with her parents. It's obviously not going to go well and I'm already cringing just thinking about it. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Chapter Thirteen
Well that escalated quickly, in more ways than one. (view spoiler)[ I'm glad we're delaying this terrible parent trapping but going to meet his parents is a little soon. They are going to be awful and I'm not looking forward to it. Let's go back to them being horny for each other all the time. (hide spoiler)]

[Jessica]

Ela (Mouse333) wrote: "Chapters 1 - 6

From the beginning, there are things that I think are meant to be funny, but I'm not seeing the humour and some of them are even annoying.
• The pathetic excuse Justin gave and ju..."
I actually like Truly but I agree about these weird supposed to be funny but aren't things. The song titles especially, you can't talk like that. That would not be a thing. And Justin in a way it was comical because of what he said but not in context of what she's experiencing.