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A review by podanotherjessi
Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
This book feels like it was perfect for me. Fake dating romance! Set on a Christmas tree farm!! But it really fell flat for me. So here's a list of the things I really didn't like in this book in the order I realized I didn't like them.
1. I don't like the narrator. That's not something I judge the book on, but it did affect my enjoyment. Her voice just grated on me.
2. The fake dating situation didn't need to happen. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief on fake dating because obviously it's silly. But in this case, the situation could have so easily been avoided. Even with Stella still lying, she had months between submitting her story and the influencer coming. It would have been much easier to lie and say they broke up than to do this whole thing. Which even so I'd be willing to move past if not for...
3. Stella is clearly in love with Luka from the jump. This isn't even an inference; she says it outright. A romance with characters that are already interested in each other is a hard sell for me because I really enjoy watching characters falling in love. But it's way worse to me in a fake dating scenario because even being in Stella's head and knowing how reluctant she was, it's hard not to feel kind of icky about her asking Luka to do this. It just feels like ulterior motives, no matter how many other reasons she has for it.
4. It's only single perspective. This is a preference, but I just vastly prefer to see the romance develop from both sides. And in particular, I love seeing a man completely obsessed with a woman, which we don't see here because we don't get Luka's perspective. Nonetheless...
5. Luka is also obviously in love with Stella. Without being in his head, this is still so clear. And it makes Stella look horribly stupid that she doesn't see it. He makes a "you're so cute when you X" comment in like chapter 3, and there's no platonic explanation for that.
And that's all just in the first couple chapters. When I get to spoiler territory, there's more even more specific issues. Such ashow incredibly, creepily possessive both Stella and Luka are. Luka gets jealous because Stella is smiling with another guy?? And it's not even that he thinks there was flirting going on. He just thinks her smile belongs to him?? And Stella thought it was relatable???? You should want to see the person you love happy, even if it's not directly because of you.
And on top of all that, so much of this book was setting up the sequels. This would bother me more if I was enjoying what was going on with Luka and Stella, but really it was just a little something to make me roll my eyes.
That said, this book wasn't all bad. I really did love the cast of characters, even if they were exaggerated and silly. The setting was really lovely too. I probably won't continue reading the series, but those two elements do have me second-guessing that decision.
1. I don't like the narrator. That's not something I judge the book on, but it did affect my enjoyment. Her voice just grated on me.
2. The fake dating situation didn't need to happen. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief on fake dating because obviously it's silly. But in this case, the situation could have so easily been avoided. Even with Stella still lying, she had months between submitting her story and the influencer coming. It would have been much easier to lie and say they broke up than to do this whole thing. Which even so I'd be willing to move past if not for...
3. Stella is clearly in love with Luka from the jump. This isn't even an inference; she says it outright. A romance with characters that are already interested in each other is a hard sell for me because I really enjoy watching characters falling in love. But it's way worse to me in a fake dating scenario because even being in Stella's head and knowing how reluctant she was, it's hard not to feel kind of icky about her asking Luka to do this. It just feels like ulterior motives, no matter how many other reasons she has for it.
4. It's only single perspective. This is a preference, but I just vastly prefer to see the romance develop from both sides. And in particular, I love seeing a man completely obsessed with a woman, which we don't see here because we don't get Luka's perspective. Nonetheless...
5. Luka is also obviously in love with Stella. Without being in his head, this is still so clear. And it makes Stella look horribly stupid that she doesn't see it. He makes a "you're so cute when you X" comment in like chapter 3, and there's no platonic explanation for that.
And that's all just in the first couple chapters. When I get to spoiler territory, there's more even more specific issues. Such as
And on top of all that, so much of this book was setting up the sequels. This would bother me more if I was enjoying what was going on with Luka and Stella, but really it was just a little something to make me roll my eyes.
That said, this book wasn't all bad. I really did love the cast of characters, even if they were exaggerated and silly. The setting was really lovely too. I probably won't continue reading the series, but those two elements do have me second-guessing that decision.