A review by elenajohansen
Dare to Love by Carly Phillips
2.0
You can tell this is the start to a new family-based romance series, because there are a million siblings introduced as quickly as possible to establish the protagonists of future books in the series. I'm not opposed to this style of series at all, but I prefer the setups to be far less blatant, and also not to come at the cost of a good story at the outset. Most of these names being thrown around had very little to do with the plot, which focused on the hero's jealousy of and competition with his half-brother, who was the love interest's best friend.
There's a compelling story in there somewhere, or at least the potential for one. But I didn't read it here. The hero elevates "controlling" to its own art form and constantly put me off. (I'm not into the controlling type of man IRL, but I can often set that aside when I read, if there's redeeming qualities or underlying issues. If the dude's just a jerk, I won't like him.) The heroine was the typical "I'm strong and independent unless I'm in the same room as the hero then I'm overcome with lust" type. The half-brother/best friend is not interesting on his own, not a very good friend to the heroine in most cases, and generally just as much of a jerk as the hero.
I will give credit where it's due, despite this being centered around the themes of competition and jealousy, it's immediately clear that the love triangle only exists in the hero's head, not the heroine's or the best friend's. Which I do appreciate from a meta standpoint, though it led to the hero beating the dead horse of "But I don't believe neither of you has romantic feelings for the other." Because men and women can't be friends, obviously, a viewpoint which lowers the hero even further in my estimation, a feat I didn't realize was possible until it happened. I do not recommend this book to anyone, even if you like the controlling type of man, because there are much better examples to be found elsewhere.
There's a compelling story in there somewhere, or at least the potential for one. But I didn't read it here. The hero elevates "controlling" to its own art form and constantly put me off. (I'm not into the controlling type of man IRL, but I can often set that aside when I read, if there's redeeming qualities or underlying issues. If the dude's just a jerk, I won't like him.) The heroine was the typical "I'm strong and independent unless I'm in the same room as the hero then I'm overcome with lust" type. The half-brother/best friend is not interesting on his own, not a very good friend to the heroine in most cases, and generally just as much of a jerk as the hero.
I will give credit where it's due, despite this being centered around the themes of competition and jealousy, it's immediately clear that the love triangle only exists in the hero's head, not the heroine's or the best friend's. Which I do appreciate from a meta standpoint, though it led to the hero beating the dead horse of "But I don't believe neither of you has romantic feelings for the other." Because men and women can't be friends, obviously, a viewpoint which lowers the hero even further in my estimation, a feat I didn't realize was possible until it happened. I do not recommend this book to anyone, even if you like the controlling type of man, because there are much better examples to be found elsewhere.