Mysterious. Privileged. Legendary. His entire life he’s been surrounded by the press as they dig for tidbits to see if his fairytale life is for real or all mirrors and social media lies. Since he hit the scene, his secrets have been his and his alone to keep. And that’s where I come in.
Assigned to investigate Saint and reveal his elusive personality, I’m determined to make him the story that will change my career.
But I never imagined he would change my life. Bit by bit, I start to wonder if I'm the one discovering him...or if he's uncovering me.
Comment: Time does fly!
It's time for another TBR Challenge read and this month the theme is Contemporary, which is vague enough - or broad enough - to be one of the easiest themes where one can pick a book. Since I like to follow my monthly lists, I chose a book from my list and that's why I ended up with Katy Evans' story. However, I was definitely not impressed. My own fault, though.
This is the first book I've read by this author.
In this story we meet Rachel, a young woman who works for the magazine Edge, but due to several factors, the magazine is not doing well, so basically Rachel is given an assignment to be able to write such a piece that everyone would want to buy it and the best theme to grab public's attention is Malcolm Saint, this alpha rich guy who everyone is interested in but that still manages to keep his privacy despite his man whore ways and behavior.
Rachel sees Malcolm as a job but since the first encounter when Rachel seems to captivate Malcolm despite not being in her best (her POV), there is a strange connection between them. As they get to know one another better, the relationships also gets more profound. But Rachel still sees Malcolm as a job, right? What will happen when he finds out the truth?
I got this book because of its premise: a girl in not so great financial means in life has a way to be in contact with a richer, more influential guy and despite the odds, they might discover enough common things to be together. I tend to like this trope and I always love when authors create interesting ways to make it happen while keeping it realistic.
I obviously hoped for that here but while reading, I couldn't help to notice that there was at least one detail or one element in each chapter that I'd change or prefer to see different.
Since I won't bore you to death with such an in depth analyses, I'll just leave a list of stuff I found made the story less appealing to me:
- The characters' personality would be described in certain ways which would lead me to assume they would stay that way or a big event would cause them to change but not always.
The heroine wasn't shy but she wasn't an extrovert either. She loved her job. She wanted to care of her mother who sacrificed a lot for her. She wanted to be useful. She wanted to be successful enough to help her mother too. She went to her first interview with the hero in overalls and with paint in her clothes.
All these things made e think she was a down to earth woman, that she was smart but caring, that she was aware of who she was, both professionally and emotionally.
However, her behavior towards the hero was always a lie in her eyes for she was using him. Of course she would fall in love but considering the dialogues they had, I can't understand why they would ever be in sync over anything (hint: their dialogues weren't clever/witty/existent at times).
- Despite the similarities to Fifty Shades of Grey - which I haven't read, but reviews on GR and the video of "love me like you do", the song by Ellie Goulding, have generously given me enough to base my opinion on - Rachel isn't also only a sweet young woman in coveralls and Malcolm isn't simply a tortured alpha but they both embark on a relationship constantly spent in situations I don't think actually added a lot, since most time they are in places owned/managed by Malcolm so for poor, almost dazzled Rachel that shouldn't be easy to process or they are in clubs, where Rachel would have negative thoughts about other women having different takes in life.
I just can't see why putting interacting in these situations was credible and interesting or why would this lead them to become a couple or understand each other.
- Rachel is the narrator so of course that limits things a lot, but Malcolm doesn't share much most of the time. Rachel is also a reporter but despite taking countless notes, I can't imagine a journalist with only one assignment - which, from a reality POV, how silly can it be, unless you are a paparazzi bent on exploiting someone but then people would notice your behavior - to devote so much of her time in doing...well, nothing. In the first 3 interviews Rachel has with Malcolm, before they start spending more time together, she barely speaks in the time he gives her, so dumbstruck by his appearance she is. I don't think fans of professional-porn would endure this one.
Ok, I could go on, but to summarize, I found there wasn't enough consistency in the main character's behavior and attitudes. I didn't find them as engaging as I'd expect and I also can't seem to foresee any huge improvements overall.
Although this is an easy story to read, I found that the complexity I expected wasn't there and the writing itself was rather childish at times. Just an impression obviously colored by my fixing on the negative aspects, but there you go.
So, thinking of this, I was ready to call it quits with this world because it wasn't very interesting for me but I was proven right even more when I got to the end of the story.
There is no HEA.
Actually, there is no end to this story. In the last page, while Rachel is about to enter Malcolm's office for a certain issue, I'm told the story continues in the next book. I was not aware this would be one of those books divided into three. But even so, this one should still have an end. A conclusion of sorts. I imagine, "what if the author wasn't able to finish the series/all parts?" This would mean the story would never be finished! I felt very annoyed.
One less star/grade for that alone.
All things considered, I don't know if I'm just past my endurance of new adult stories which read more like YAs anyway, or if this story would never be a good one for me but...yes, not a good choice. But again, based on the premise, based on the average on GR, based on some friends' reviews, I assumed this would be better. How sad when a premise falls totally flat for you.
Still, taste is relative...
Grade: 3/10
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