Scan barcode
A review by jessicaisreading
Now That It's You by Tawna Fenske
2.0
I'm giving this book 2 stars only because it started out so promising and there is genuine chemistry between the main characters.
But it all started to go to shit (for me) at around 39% and never redeemed itself. The entire Midland family is full of assholes. Matt, for being a ROYAL DICK to Meg throughout what seems like their entire relationship, and insisting that Meg pay him $10K for the pictures he took for her cookbook when, while they were together, he wanted no repayment (other than BJs. Wow, how super male of you).
Sylvia, for hating Meg for dumping Matt (he deserved it) and then suing her for half the proceeds of her cookbook. Oh, and also for saying truly horrible things to Meg basically up until their last conversation.
And Kyle, basically for breathing. For agreeing that the lawsuit was valid and gaslighting Meg into believing the same (I hate that she capitulated on this at the end. Matt didn't deserve that money and neither did his estate/the family. She had PROOF that he didn't want money or credit). For encouraging his brother to cheat on Meg just because he didn't want them to get married. I would have maybe been more sympathetic to this - and by that I mean I would've thought he was a major asshole instead of thinking he was a morally corrupt asshole - if Matt was a serial cheater or something, and Kyle was like "let this be the nail in the coffin!" But he had never cheated on Meg before, and Kyle knew this was her weak spot given the history with her parents. He knew exactly how she would respond. He took the choice from both Meg and Matt to decide that their relationship wasn't going to work. He took away a sense of closure for both characters that I think is completely unforgivable. That, above everything else, makes me really, really dislike him. Which I'm pissed about, because he was wonderful up into the point he started saying his mom was right for demanding a cut of the cookbook profits.
And I kind of hate Meg, too, for allowing people to walk all over her during the entirety of this book, and also for the ten years she was in a relationship with Matt. She defends herself several times throughout the story, but her actions reflect the EXACT opposite of what she says. I literally groaned out loud when I got to the part where she agrees to give Matt's estate a cut. For fucking what?! FOR WHAT?! That money wasn't his! He took some pictures and she used it in her book. She did 95% of the work and he didn't care about repayment until they broke up and he decided to be a big prick about it.
Ugh.
It also got really cringeworthy reading Meg's internal monologue about Matt when she was with Kyle. Especially when she was *with* Kyle. It ended up taking me away from the connection between the two of them because this ghost (I mean, kind of literally?) would pop up in the middle of it. And all of the talk about Kyle's ex-girlfriends too. It just felt like they were in a constant cycle of revisiting the past for reasons that became very tiring.
Oh, and when Kyle helped her prep for the bachelorette party and he refused her offer to pay him? And she paid him with dessert instead? Dear Meg, that is the thing that got you into this huge ass mess in the first place. You should have paid him. And gotten a receipt. I mean, Jesus.
I think this could have been a really wonderful, really beautiful book had the whole lawsuit not come into play. Or even if it did come into play and Kyle acted as a mediator between his mother and Meg. I would have been okay with that. But his weird mama's boy, guilty-conscience white knighting of the whole thing was just gross. And that paired with his role in Meg and Matt's breakup made it all too rage-inducing for me.
But it all started to go to shit (for me) at around 39% and never redeemed itself. The entire Midland family is full of assholes. Matt, for being a ROYAL DICK to Meg throughout what seems like their entire relationship, and insisting that Meg pay him $10K for the pictures he took for her cookbook when, while they were together, he wanted no repayment (other than BJs. Wow, how super male of you).
Sylvia, for hating Meg for dumping Matt (he deserved it) and then suing her for half the proceeds of her cookbook. Oh, and also for saying truly horrible things to Meg basically up until their last conversation.
And Kyle, basically for breathing. For agreeing that the lawsuit was valid and gaslighting Meg into believing the same (I hate that she capitulated on this at the end. Matt didn't deserve that money and neither did his estate/the family. She had PROOF that he didn't want money or credit). For encouraging his brother to cheat on Meg just because he didn't want them to get married. I would have maybe been more sympathetic to this - and by that I mean I would've thought he was a major asshole instead of thinking he was a morally corrupt asshole - if Matt was a serial cheater or something, and Kyle was like "let this be the nail in the coffin!" But he had never cheated on Meg before, and Kyle knew this was her weak spot given the history with her parents. He knew exactly how she would respond. He took the choice from both Meg and Matt to decide that their relationship wasn't going to work. He took away a sense of closure for both characters that I think is completely unforgivable. That, above everything else, makes me really, really dislike him. Which I'm pissed about, because he was wonderful up into the point he started saying his mom was right for demanding a cut of the cookbook profits.
And I kind of hate Meg, too, for allowing people to walk all over her during the entirety of this book, and also for the ten years she was in a relationship with Matt. She defends herself several times throughout the story, but her actions reflect the EXACT opposite of what she says. I literally groaned out loud when I got to the part where she agrees to give Matt's estate a cut. For fucking what?! FOR WHAT?! That money wasn't his! He took some pictures and she used it in her book. She did 95% of the work and he didn't care about repayment until they broke up and he decided to be a big prick about it.
Ugh.
It also got really cringeworthy reading Meg's internal monologue about Matt when she was with Kyle. Especially when she was *with* Kyle. It ended up taking me away from the connection between the two of them because this ghost (I mean, kind of literally?) would pop up in the middle of it. And all of the talk about Kyle's ex-girlfriends too. It just felt like they were in a constant cycle of revisiting the past for reasons that became very tiring.
Oh, and when Kyle helped her prep for the bachelorette party and he refused her offer to pay him? And she paid him with dessert instead? Dear Meg, that is the thing that got you into this huge ass mess in the first place. You should have paid him. And gotten a receipt. I mean, Jesus.
I think this could have been a really wonderful, really beautiful book had the whole lawsuit not come into play. Or even if it did come into play and Kyle acted as a mediator between his mother and Meg. I would have been okay with that. But his weird mama's boy, guilty-conscience white knighting of the whole thing was just gross. And that paired with his role in Meg and Matt's breakup made it all too rage-inducing for me.