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A review by mrsjoylovesbooks
The Love Plot by Samantha Young
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Thank you to @berkleyromance for the free ebook and @PRHAudio for the audiobook.
The Love Plot is the definition of the grumpy/sunshine romance trope. Rafe is literally in a bad mood when he meets Star, who is dressed as a Disney princess at his niece's birthday party. His mood isn't a whole lot better the next time he sees her either. Despite their drastic differences, these two opposites end up in a fake-dating situation. Rafe needs his family to get off his back and stop trying to set him up and Star likes the idea of traveling across the country with what Rafe is willing to pay her. Rafe is serious and Star is just enjoying life and satisfied with her goal of being happy and not worrying about a career or anything else. I enjoyed the fake dating and I really liked Rafe, so much that I would have liked his POV. Star just wasn't my kind of heroine. Maybe it was just a little too much of the "free spirit" influence of her hippie parents and her unwillingness to compromise in the name of her uniqueness, but she came across as immature for most of the book. Of course, she does have emotional growth by the end of the story and I appreciated her journey to get there. I didn't see the emotional connection on page as much as their obvious physical connection. Despite this, I really liked Rafe and how Star made him happy. It was nice to see how much his true personality came out and his sweet side shined the more time he spent with Star. Both characters had family issues even though their families are drastically different and I appreciated that they both were able to overcome those issues. Star especially had some healing to go through because of her family and this subplot added a lot of emotion to the story. Oh, and Rafe is a veterinarian who sometimes takes pets home to care for them overnight. I mean, he is seriously sweet!
CW: parental neglect
The Love Plot is the definition of the grumpy/sunshine romance trope. Rafe is literally in a bad mood when he meets Star, who is dressed as a Disney princess at his niece's birthday party. His mood isn't a whole lot better the next time he sees her either. Despite their drastic differences, these two opposites end up in a fake-dating situation. Rafe needs his family to get off his back and stop trying to set him up and Star likes the idea of traveling across the country with what Rafe is willing to pay her. Rafe is serious and Star is just enjoying life and satisfied with her goal of being happy and not worrying about a career or anything else. I enjoyed the fake dating and I really liked Rafe, so much that I would have liked his POV. Star just wasn't my kind of heroine. Maybe it was just a little too much of the "free spirit" influence of her hippie parents and her unwillingness to compromise in the name of her uniqueness, but she came across as immature for most of the book. Of course, she does have emotional growth by the end of the story and I appreciated her journey to get there. I didn't see the emotional connection on page as much as their obvious physical connection. Despite this, I really liked Rafe and how Star made him happy. It was nice to see how much his true personality came out and his sweet side shined the more time he spent with Star. Both characters had family issues even though their families are drastically different and I appreciated that they both were able to overcome those issues. Star especially had some healing to go through because of her family and this subplot added a lot of emotion to the story. Oh, and Rafe is a veterinarian who sometimes takes pets home to care for them overnight. I mean, he is seriously sweet!
CW: parental neglect
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse