A review by libertyreads789
The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I’m going to do this review a little differently and start with one of the smallest details that made me happy while reading this one. The main character convinces the love interest to start watching her favorite TV show with her. And while she never comes out and says it, it’s obvious that her favorite show is The Vampire Diaries, with all its trashy drama and teen angst. Which is such a dumb thing to like in a romance novel, but as someone who also loves the messiness of TVD, it made me happy. It also made me SO happy when I was reading about them going to a Halloween Masquerade Ball while being dressed like those characters. (She went as Katherine and one of the Salvatore brothers from flashbacks in the show. Wrong choice, but whatever.) Is it dumb to like those parts of the book because of silly fandom things? Yes. But did I find those to be my favorite parts despite being so silly? Yes.

Continuing with the Halloween party, that was probably the hottest Not Actually A Sex Scene Sex Scene I’ve ever read. I’m asexual, I don’t love sex scenes in general, and it actually takes a lot for me to be invested enough in a sex scene to be disappointed when they’re interrupted. But there was so much Angst and Longing that it was somehow the exact type of sex scene to make me invested. Now, don’t get me started on the other sex scenes because those gave me The Ick so bad. It seemed like any time we had a scene where they’re longing or tiptoeing right up to the line but never crossing it that I was invested and enjoying their steaminess. But the second it crossed into being an actual sex scene there would be something they would say or do that just hit me wrong. He has a kink where he likes choking her (lightly, as emphasized a thousand times), they have a scene where they’re watching each other master bait which I found...weird, and there’s always this subtle undertone of Dom/Sub in their interactions (she thinks ‘Sir’ in her head at one point, he tells her what to do and she does it...stuff like that). But that’s probably way too much about the sex scenes given that there are only a handful throughout the almost 400 page novel. As far as the romance itself goes, I felt like everything happened so quickly. She was just always into him. Immediately. And he was also always into her. It never felt like something building and it didn’t feel authentic. So that kept me out of the story for the first 75 pages or so. By then it felt like they had spent enough time around each other to actually know they like each other. The pacing itself was kind of weird. It would go really quickly and then everything would slow down and then speed up really fast and then slow down again. It was just a weird reading experience when it comes to the pace.

Overall, I think if you like angst riddled romance, steamy romance, and don’t have my hang up on sex scenes then this is probably a book for you. Despite the things I didn’t like about the novel, this was still such a fast and easy read for me.

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