Alexa Martin

Better than Fiction

Amelia

"It's very rude that you know me so well that you won't even let me lie to myself.

Deborah Kerr

This was plenty cute. I always enjoy a book-store romance.

Elaina 

Honestly, I really just didn't like the characters in this book. I tried so hard to like them, but I just couldn't. Combine that with the excessive use of the f-word, and I couldn't get into the book at all. I do think the cover is adorable and one of my favorites this year, which is mostly why I'm rating this 2-stars.

i just really wanted this to be better than it was unfortunately. it was a fun premise and had a lot of great plot points but it also felt so rushed and somehow not properly resolved. i was really looking forward to this book, too. so that was a bummer.

Cici Pearson

Lydia B

In her will, Drew Young's grandmother leaves her the bookstore called The Book Nook, a place that holds many special memories for Drew. While she is barely keeping her head above water, Drew deals with grief and financial woes. A group of ladies known as the Dirty Birds hosts a book club every week at the Book Nook. They contact famous romance author, Jasper Williams to speak at the bookstore. Jasper proves to not only be handsome, but also kind, so Drew offers to help him survey Colorado for locations to use in his next book. As Drew gets to know Jasper, she wonders if his romance roots are rubbing off on her.

Better than Fiction introduces Drew, a sarcastic character with a strong voice, as the protagonist. Unfortunately the character of Jasper is wildly underdeveloped leaving readers knowing very little about him other than the fact that he is almost too perfect. However other characters in the story provide excellent support and offer several smile inducing moments. The plot is very light but does deal briefly with heavier issues of the loss of a loved one and emotional abuse. Overall, Better than Fiction is an entertaining romance that ends with a very satisfying conclusion.

Lynn Braden

In her will, Drew Young's grandmother leaves her the bookstore called The Book Nook, a place that holds many special memories for Drew. While she is barely keeping her head above water, Drew deals with grief and financial woes. A group of ladies known as the Dirty Birds hosts a book club every week at the Book Nook. They contact famous romance author, Jasper Williams to speak at the bookstore. Jasper proves to not only be handsome, but also kind, so Drew offers to help him survey Colorado for locations to use in his next book. As Drew gets to know Jasper, she wonders if his romance roots are rubbing off on her.

Better than Fiction introduces Drew, a sarcastic character with a strong voice, as the protagonist. Unfortunately the character of Jasper is wildly underdeveloped leaving readers knowing very little about him other than the fact that he is almost too perfect. However other characters in the story provide excellent support and offer several smile inducing moments. The plot is very light but does deal briefly with heavier issues of the loss of a loved one and emotional abuse. Overall, Better than Fiction is an entertaining romance that ends with a very satisfying conclusion.

i check out barnes and noble’s romance section every couple of weeks to see what new releases i need to purchase and i was pleasantly surprised to see this book on one of the tables because i requested this on netgalley months ago. did i get approved? no. now why do i already have history with a book that’s been out for a little less than a week? regardless, i decided to buy because i adored the summary. plus, i obviously thought i would enjoy because i requested it on netgalley. (duh) 

but the question is… did i enjoy this book? short answer i’ll tell my friends; yes. long answer only people on goodreads would care for: i thought this book did what it needed to do to portray this plot and kick in all the buzzworthy tropes for the booktok pals. it felt flat in certain parts of it and incredibly one dimensional, which was really sad because, like i said, i really thought i’d enjoy this book! there were several times throughout reading where i audibly yawned or rolled my eyes by how predictable the circumstances were. oh and pleaseeee do not get me started on the dialogue. i wanted to seriously throw this book against the wall or something because holy moly… i wish the author dedicated more of the book to building up the platonic relationship between drew and jasper instead of hyper fixing on… whatever drew was doing (man idek) and i think the perfect solution to that would be DUAL POV (point of view) PLEASEEEEEE SOMEONE REWRITE THIS TO INCLUDE JASPERS POV!!! i can’t even count on my hand how many scenes i’d killll to know what jasper was thinking? too many! the hike, the confrontation with drew’s dad!!!! ouuuu the way i would’ve turned this review from a 3 to a solid 4.5. gosh okay is this me formally stating all romance novels should be dual pov? oh yeahhhh..

this was unnecessarily long. i’m sorry. but lowkey i spoke real idk.

rowan !

i check out barnes and noble’s romance section every couple of weeks to see what new releases i need to purchase and i was pleasantly surprised to see this book on one of the tables because i requested this on netgalley months ago. did i get approved? no. now why do i already have history with a book that’s been out for a little less than a week? regardless, i decided to buy because i adored the summary. plus, i obviously thought i would enjoy because i requested it on netgalley. (duh) 

but the question is… did i enjoy this book? short answer i’ll tell my friends; yes. long answer only people on goodreads would care for: i thought this book did what it needed to do to portray this plot and kick in all the buzzworthy tropes for the booktok pals. it felt flat in certain parts of it and incredibly one dimensional, which was really sad because, like i said, i really thought i’d enjoy this book! there were several times throughout reading where i audibly yawned or rolled my eyes by how predictable the circumstances were. oh and pleaseeee do not get me started on the dialogue. i wanted to seriously throw this book against the wall or something because holy moly… i wish the author dedicated more of the book to building up the platonic relationship between drew and jasper instead of hyper fixing on… whatever drew was doing (man idek) and i think the perfect solution to that would be DUAL POV (point of view) PLEASEEEEEE SOMEONE REWRITE THIS TO INCLUDE JASPERS POV!!! i can’t even count on my hand how many scenes i’d killll to know what jasper was thinking? too many! the hike, the confrontation with drew’s dad!!!! ouuuu the way i would’ve turned this review from a 3 to a solid 4.5. gosh okay is this me formally stating all romance novels should be dual pov? oh yeahhhh..

this was unnecessarily long. i’m sorry. but lowkey i spoke real idk.

Better than Fiction

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