Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins UK / One More Chapter for the eARC for review.


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TW: Suicide


I'm going to chalk up some of the pacing issues to the fact that this is a book translated from French.

Still.

This book is about a ~bad boy~ a-list actor who, after beating up a guy at a nightclub for the 50th time or something has to do COMMUNITY SERVICE (for some reason, instead of, you know, jail) at Sarah's dying bookshop in small-town France. She's ~pure~ and ~shy~ and Maxime just KNOWS she's too good for him 😤 so he tries to keep his distance.

If you could read the notes I made as I read this, I think you would laugh. Here are the highlights:

Spoilers!

At one point, Maxime says something to the likes of "Sarah calmed me," which honestly just reminded me of those ridiculous tiktoks where the guys is about to punch the mirror and when the beat drops to the song, his girlfriend / wife appears in front of him to catch his fist and give him a hug.

Damien (Maxime's childhood BFF) is so involved in negotiating Maxime's punishment? This guy literally beat a guy to a pulp and is being accused of sexual harassment (the encounter was consensual BTW, but those were the charges), and his agent and lawyer were just like "you know who we need? Max's old friend who owns a VINEYARD to come in and talk to the judge"

HUH??

Damien also negotiates several furloughs during Maxime's community service (community service?! for those charges?!!!) WHO IS DAMIEN AND WHY ARE THE POLICE NEGOTIATING WITH HIM??? It literally makes no sense soz

The first few chapters are out of order. like, we see Maxime on his way to Chateaurenard after Damien tells him about his community service BEFORE we get Sarah's POV of Damien coming to her with the offer to have Maxime do his community service at her bookshop??

On a more serious note, there were lots of issues with this relationship. It's toxic AF. Maxime goes on and on in the beginning about Sarah's childlike innocence, how sweet and shy she is, and how SEXY he finds that 👀

Maxime has major jealousy, anger and violence issues, but it's okay because Sarah ~changes~ him. He's also a major player and slight misogynist in the beginning, going so far as to describe an encounter with a woman at a club as boring because she didn't put up more of a challenge. And an actual quote from his chapter:

"I didn’t really care about what she was feeling – I just wanted her body and to do whatever I felt like with it."

Can we have problematic characters who have real and meaningful arcs in a book? For sure. But this is straight up gross and I'm not convinced meeting the ~right woman~ would "fix" a guy like this. Ah, but it's okay, because Maxime has a secret heart of gold 🥰🥰 and inner shame 🥺🥺 because he can't read 😢😢 and has daddy issues 💔💔



I signed up for this ARC because of the premise of enemies-to-loves in a bookshop!!! Should have been a fluffy, fun, quick opposites-attract romance. But we got a (TW!!) suicide subplot??? 

Don't waste your time on this one. Sorry. Cute cover, though!