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A review by kindleandilluminate
The Meet-Cute Project by Rhiannon Richardson
1.0
Mia Hubbard has enough on her plate between swim team, math club, volunteer work, and making it through her junior year of high school - not to mention her bridezilla sister's impending wedding. So when she's told she has just a few months to find a date to that wedding, her friends rally round to help her out - by orchestrating a series of romcom meet-cutes... what could possibly go wrong?
The Meet-Cute Project sounds like such a cute premise, but the nitty-gritty of that premise is more than a little forced. Big sis Sam is supposedly such a details-obsessed Bridezilla that she's having meltdowns over the exact shade of purple of her wedding flowers...but when the best man drops out of the wedding, she tells Mia to just find herself a new date/groomsman?? I tried to get past the initial weird set-up, but the rest of the book continues in much the same vein, with the most contrived, artificial, mountain-out-of-molehills drama imaginable just to keep the plot twisting along. None of the obstacles are real - like when Mia realizes she scheduled a date for the same night as her sister's bridal shower...and decides it would be far too mature and reasonable to reschedule, so instead she has to manufacture drama by sneaking out of the house to go on this date and ditch the shower. Mia herself is immature even beyond what's reasonable for a YA book's teenaged heroine, and while her initial awkwardness and total inability to flirt with the series of potential dates her friends parade in front of her is #relatable, neither she nor any of the supporting characters is especially interesting or engaging. Including the ultimate love interest, whose favorite pastime seems to be telling Mia she's being silly even when he himself is pulling completely unnecessary, made-up-for-the-dramz shenanigans like hiding his identity and lying about having a girlfriend. None of it makes sense. None of this story makes sense! Sentences contradict themselves on the same page ("All he wants to talk about is the club we're both in, and he doesn't answer my questions about his college plans!" "All he talks about is his college plans, how self-obsessed he is!" back to back), characters behave bizarrely with no justification except to cause drama and prolong the plot, and it's ultimately just so flat, forced, and faked at every step.
A cute premise - less than cute execution. It's just disappointing from start to finish.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advance review copy.
The Meet-Cute Project sounds like such a cute premise, but the nitty-gritty of that premise is more than a little forced. Big sis Sam is supposedly such a details-obsessed Bridezilla that she's having meltdowns over the exact shade of purple of her wedding flowers...but when the best man drops out of the wedding, she tells Mia to just find herself a new date/groomsman?? I tried to get past the initial weird set-up, but the rest of the book continues in much the same vein, with the most contrived, artificial, mountain-out-of-molehills drama imaginable just to keep the plot twisting along. None of the obstacles are real - like when Mia realizes she scheduled a date for the same night as her sister's bridal shower...and decides it would be far too mature and reasonable to reschedule, so instead she has to manufacture drama by sneaking out of the house to go on this date and ditch the shower. Mia herself is immature even beyond what's reasonable for a YA book's teenaged heroine, and while her initial awkwardness and total inability to flirt with the series of potential dates her friends parade in front of her is #relatable, neither she nor any of the supporting characters is especially interesting or engaging. Including the ultimate love interest, whose favorite pastime seems to be telling Mia she's being silly even when he himself is pulling completely unnecessary, made-up-for-the-dramz shenanigans like hiding his identity and lying about having a girlfriend. None of it makes sense. None of this story makes sense! Sentences contradict themselves on the same page ("All he wants to talk about is the club we're both in, and he doesn't answer my questions about his college plans!" "All he talks about is his college plans, how self-obsessed he is!" back to back), characters behave bizarrely with no justification except to cause drama and prolong the plot, and it's ultimately just so flat, forced, and faked at every step.
A cute premise - less than cute execution. It's just disappointing from start to finish.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advance review copy.