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A review by elenajohansen
Status Update by Annabeth Albert
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I generally like forced-proximity romances because two characters rubbing each other the wrong way, before they get to the right way, is usually a lot of fun even when the conflicts or theme of the story are serious.
There wasn't a lot of fun in this, unfortunately, because the contrast between buttoned-up religious virgin and happy-go-lucky geek was less grumpy/sunshine and more hurt/comfort. I see how the various plot hooks and character tropes are supposed to fit together and create a romance full of sparks and energy, but I never felt it.
The sweet moments were still sweet, but the religious issues were painted as so grim and condemning that the story seemed to rush through overcoming them. Either Noah's internalized homophobia shouldn't have been so central to his character, or more time should have been taken to let him grapple with it.
And I'm disappointed with the nerd branding on this one. With the series title being "Gaymers" I expected gaming to be more important than it is. With the title being "Status Update" I expected social media to be a reasonable presence in the story, and it wasn't. (Whether that's a good or bad thing is mostly down to how it would have been handled if it were present.) I constantly felt like there was a serious mismatch between the branding and the actual content of the story, like this was a story the author wanted to write, but had to somehow make it fit a series concept already underway--but this is the first in the series, so that doesn't seem to be the case.
There wasn't a lot of fun in this, unfortunately, because the contrast between buttoned-up religious virgin and happy-go-lucky geek was less grumpy/sunshine and more hurt/comfort. I see how the various plot hooks and character tropes are supposed to fit together and create a romance full of sparks and energy, but I never felt it.
The sweet moments were still sweet, but the religious issues were painted as so grim and condemning that the story seemed to rush through overcoming them. Either Noah's internalized homophobia shouldn't have been so central to his character, or more time should have been taken to let him grapple with it.
And I'm disappointed with the nerd branding on this one. With the series title being "Gaymers" I expected gaming to be more important than it is. With the title being "Status Update" I expected social media to be a reasonable presence in the story, and it wasn't. (Whether that's a good or bad thing is mostly down to how it would have been handled if it were present.) I constantly felt like there was a serious mismatch between the branding and the actual content of the story, like this was a story the author wanted to write, but had to somehow make it fit a series concept already underway--but this is the first in the series, so that doesn't seem to be the case.