Anyta Sunday - Leo Loves Aries

A new person will enter your life in the early year, Leo. Look past any moments of frustration they might bring and laugh—this could be the start of a thriving friendship.
Theo Wallace usually laughs at the horoscopes his mom sends. Still hung up on his ex-girlfriend and practically friendless, this one begs him to reconsider. Because a friendship that stuck, that thrived…
Well, that would be a reason to leave past pains behind and look to the Bright Future.
When his sister Leone challenges him to find her the perfect date for a spring wedding, Theo uses it as a chance to make new friends. Theo’s ex economics tutor and newest roommate Mr Jamie Cooper seems to be a possible and convenient match. Real convenient. Like written in the stars, convenient.
All he has to do is make sure this Jamie is good enough. Could really be the one for her, and the friend for him.
But watch out, Leo, the stars have a surprise in store…

Comment: After seeing the recommendation for this book at a message board I usually participate in, I thought this would be a good story to read and I added it to my TBR. I got it some time ago and this month, I decided it would be a good choice to add to my May list.

In this book we meet Theo, a college student, and a very smart and extrovert person. Theo lives in an apartment with his sister Leone, also a student. They are both down because their respective exes decided they were a better with one another and now Theo and Leone got an invitation for their wedding. The siblings also need to rent one room to someone, to help with expenses and by luck, Theo finds the perfect candidate, Jamie Cooper.

Jamie is a tutor at the university and he teaches some classes, among them one Theo attended and where they met. Jamie is the perfect roommate, he cooks and he is considerate of Leone, who is practically blind. Theo thinks Jamie and Leone would be a great couple and he also becomes an amazing best friend. But Is Theo really just looking at things through a friendship perspective or is Jamie turning out to be something much more important than a mere friend?

Apart from one or two not-that-important details, this book is very close to be perfect. I really had a great time reading about Theo, Jamie and Leone and the secondary characters that do make things look even more adorable.

And I think "adorable" is a good adjective to describe this story. Every situation is described in such a way that this is simply cute and adorable all the way through.

This story is very sweet and told in a narrative I found very appealing. The writing was easy and accessible and managed to highlight the important things quite well, something we always dread not having in a new author.

I think the problem is how, being this a 1st person POV, we loose interesting points in the relationship development. Yes, I can understand the purpose but the reality is Theo, as the narrator only presents his own thoughts. There are some situations where it would great to have more than just one POV, for certain.

Theo is the only narrator so, except when he's talking to someone or thinking, we don't get access to others' ideas. This wouldn't be such an issue for me if Theo weren't such a clueless character for most part of the book. Yes, I can see why but... it delays the romance a lot and not always in a smooth way (as one would expect from a sexually tensed situation).

Despite the changes I'd make, this is still a great story, where Theo doesn't become gay just because he is attracted to Jamie. I liked this idea that we can fall in love with that person and adjust our desires and wishes according to that. It's not an easy concept, we are educated to think black and white when it comes to sexual orientation but it really shouldn't be such a big deal and in this novel we can have an example of that.

The romance, apart from Theo's lack of focus, is very cute, all the scenes between them are obvious signs where things are going and I wanted their coming together at last to be epic but I feel it could have been better than what it ended up being. But the situations that led to their final reunion and declarations of love were well entwined with the plot and the scenes of their daily lives and routines.

I'm very satisfied with this book and I do plan on reading more by the author, even if only in this series. I'll find time to add her work to my TBR and reading eventually.

Grade: 8/10