Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Idea of You

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The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

38 reviews

kelly_e's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Title: The Idea of You
Author: Robinne Lee
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: June 13, 2017

T H R E E • W O R D S

Juicy • Angsty • Intense

📖 S Y N O P S I S

When Solène Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of a prestigious art gallery in Los Angeles, takes her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favorite boy band, she does so reluctantly and at her ex-husband’s request. The last thing she expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. But Hayes Campbell is clever, winning, confident, and posh, and the attraction is immediate. That he is all of twenty years old further complicates things.

What begins as a series of clandestine trysts quickly evolves into a passionate relationship. It is a journey that spans continents as Solène and Hayes navigate each other’s disparate worlds: from stadium tours to international art fairs to secluded hideaways in Paris and Miami. And for Solène, it is as much a reclaiming of self, as it is a rediscovery of happiness and love. When their romance becomes a viral sensation, and both she and her daughter become the target of rabid fans and an insatiable media, Solène must face how her new status has impacted not only her life, but the lives of those closest to her.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Since her Princess Diaries days, I have always been an Anne Hathaway fan, so when I learned she'd be Solène in the movie adaptation of The Idea of You I added the book to my TBR. It also came highly recommended by several bookish friends and I knew summer time would be the perfect time to finally pick it up.

What started out highly engaging, soon turned to the same thing happening - them meeting up in a different city and having sex - from one chapter to the next. There is no denying the potential of the story, yet it lacked substance and I simply got bored with the repetitiveness of the the plot. The way the sex overtakes the narrative was disappointing.

I also had a hard time making a connection with the world they are living in. There is a lot of glitz, glamour, and privilege within the celebrity lifestyle, the L.A. setting, and all of the jet setting for their meetups, which makes their world seem way out of grasp.

Overall, The Idea of You had the makings of a smash hit, yet unfortunately it lacked the necessary substance. Despite making total sense, the ending was so abrupt I didn't actually believe it was the end. I did appreciate the author choosing to have the woman be the older of the two characters, and I'll be interested to watch the movie to see my thoughts on it.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• age-gap
• boy bands
• secret trysts

⚠️ CW: sexual content, divorce, bullying, stalking, alcohol, sexual harassment, cursing, suicide attempt, self-harm, injury/injury detail, blood, pregnancy, panic attacks/disorders

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Love, she said, was not always perfect, and not exactly how you expected it to be. But when it descended upon you, there was no controlling it."

Content Warnings

jerrysaywhaaa's review against another edition

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emotional funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book surprised me, I went into thinking it would be trashy fan fiction about Harry Styles and One Direction. It’s actually a commentary on double standards with how society treats men vs. women as they age; the weird parasocial relationships people form with celebrities; and how society tends to view art girls like as lesser. It helped reading it after the movie came out (even though it makes the story way more palatable for general audiences) and picturing the main characters as Anne Hathaway & Nicholas Galitzine. Random final thought: Hayes is definitely into pegging

Content Warnings

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

i enjoyed the ending but the story and characters and writing were cringey. there were a few interesting themes touched on but overall wasn’t a massive fan. typically not a great fan of this trope anyway.

Content Warnings

egheinze's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Content Warnings

theprinceofdenmark's review against another edition

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emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

this book was mis-marketed so badly that whoever was in charge should be fired. this is straight up erotica with a sad ending, not a lighthearted novel about a mom and temu harry styles. that said, it was well written and the ending made more sense than most of this genre.

Content Warnings

bookscatcoffee's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

2.0

Not a fan of this book. I found the female MC to be needy and conflicted. And the way she let men dictate her life, I could not accept that, particularly since it seemed to be at odds with her character. I enjoyed the descriptions of the art, but the rest, I could have definitely left behind. 2 stars

Contemporary fiction

Content Warnings

kayebee13's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

Very fast read as I was genuinely curious on what was going to happen and it was an interesting setup. However, it was a little one note and predictable. Got really tired of the number of times the main character said some variation of "you're only 20. ' Lots of spicy scenes which really seemed to emphasize that's really the main thing they had in common. Lots of underage drinking and other situations that felt cringey and took away from my initial excitement about flipping the typical May December romance on its head.

Content Warnings

vreyna20_2004's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I hated this book. God, the only thing that I liked about this book was the fact that Hayes bought a painting that Solene liked, and had it shipped to her house but other than that? ASS.

All Solene does is make fun of little girls (who are the same age as her daughter) and calling them “girls in heat”. Like this 40-year old is telling her daughter to not feel like she shouldn’t exist because she’s a girl, she then goes on and judges little girls. She has an existential crisis about not being visible because of her age which is why Solene is adamant in having her daughter feel comfortable but then you go on and be the people who put down girls. What the actual fuck?? I kid you not she calls little fucking girls, bitches and that’s what enraged me. All because she didn’t like that they were sending her threats. She groups every fan as those “bitches” forgetting that her own daughter is included in that.

Then Solene has a weird obsession with Hayes’ age where she says things like “it was both horrifying and impressive.” after he talked about being groomed. And also, how she’s impressed that a 20 year old is able to last longer than most of her flings like she is comparing him to her college flings. She’s also mentioning the fact that he will dump his used condom while rolling a new one. The fuck? And don’t get me started at Solene constantly calling Hayes a boy. She would say “oh, sweet boy” like he’s her child but then she’s saying things about how she feels old with him. Like she gets mad that her husband is dating someone younger than her and also gets upset that she can’t date someone younger without society looking down upon her when she could just fucking embrace it. Fucking god. OH, and they constantly say “hi” and “hi” made me want to rip my hair off.

This story also doesn’t have any plot because it’s just Hayes and her running around to fuck and yeah I kept groaning. They’re not a good couple just cause they have mind-blowing sex. Actually, I lied. There is a plot. The plot? Was not hurting her daughter. And what do they do? Hurt the daughter. And what does Solene do when her daughter finds out? She tells her daughter that she doesn’t love him the way she does basically downplaying her emotions. You’re the mom and you’re going to tell your daughter how she feels. I get it, she’s 13 years old but when I was 13 the things I felt were intensified and for her to downplay it just angered me. What kind of shitty mom is she? And the fact that I would be the same age as the daughter and my mom would be the same as Solene so my anger just intensified. Like she’s a fucking shitty ass mom, I don’t care. And I was listening to the audiobook but man I feel bad for those people who don’t know French cause I barely understood what they said.

But the thing that angered me about this book was the author. UGH!!!!! The things I found out about the author just made me irritated to read this book but I wanted background noise. For starters, shge hates that women’s works are called fanfiction while men’s works aren’t which is valid, however, to take an EXTREMELY popular trope from fanfiction, take inspiration not just from Harry Styles supposedly even though it feels like a Harry Styles fanfic, and then write a somewhat self-insert about you being 40 and dating a musician then people would start calling it fanfiction. And to have the gall to cry about your story being called a fanfiction and a romance when it’s been commercialized as a romance while you did nothing to stop it or correct it, is fucking hilarious. As someone who wants to get into writing, the way you need to get a literary agent all depends on the genre. If you write a fantasy, then find a fantasy agent and it seems as if she didn’t do that. Talk to your agent, the company producing your books, literally anyone so that when it’s being put into shelves it’s not categorized as such. I get romances have rules I don’t like happy endings but to go crying to a journalist about the category is so pathetic. This book is absolute garbage and for her to go on and say that she likes literary fiction and that’s why her books is a literary fiction when it’s mostly romance (sex) oriented is fucking laughable.

I don’t fucking know why I even read this book. Maybe it’s the spirit of Halloween that got me but man do I regret reading this book.

Content Warnings

kdailyreads's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

chelle22's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful sad

5.0

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