A review by allomancersam
Her Best Friend, the Duke by Laura Martin
2.0
2 Stars
Didn't finish the last little bit, but got far enough so ehh.
I was just bored. This is very character driven with no outside plot, which is fine, but I didn't really care about the characters. I don't usually go for unrequited friends to lovers -which I'll get into- but this promised something of a flirting lessons dynamic which I thought would make it interesting. It had a few good moments, but overall very meh.
I've spent the last year or so really fine tuning the types of tropes and stories I like (not to say I'll never step outside of those; any trope can be done well), and friends to lovers ranks quite low on my list of romance tropes. I do really like it when certain conditions are met -it has to be mutually requited with some outside force keeping them apart, not their own stupidity- but this was not it. Unrequited friends to lovers necessitates a few things, namely: one friend pining, the other being completely oblivious, some sort of revelation like "wow, how did I never see you in this light before?", and general insecurities and hesitations. It also usually features some kind of love triangle in order to facilitate jealousy or the characters' realizations. Every single of one of these things in so incredibly tiring to me, and I don't find any of these story beats to compelling.
This one is probably on me, but meh.
Didn't finish the last little bit, but got far enough so ehh.
I was just bored. This is very character driven with no outside plot, which is fine, but I didn't really care about the characters. I don't usually go for unrequited friends to lovers -which I'll get into- but this promised something of a flirting lessons dynamic which I thought would make it interesting. It had a few good moments, but overall very meh.
I've spent the last year or so really fine tuning the types of tropes and stories I like (not to say I'll never step outside of those; any trope can be done well), and friends to lovers ranks quite low on my list of romance tropes. I do really like it when certain conditions are met -it has to be mutually requited with some outside force keeping them apart, not their own stupidity- but this was not it. Unrequited friends to lovers necessitates a few things, namely: one friend pining, the other being completely oblivious, some sort of revelation like "wow, how did I never see you in this light before?", and general insecurities and hesitations. It also usually features some kind of love triangle in order to facilitate jealousy or the characters' realizations. Every single of one of these things in so incredibly tiring to me, and I don't find any of these story beats to compelling.
This one is probably on me, but meh.