Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by cozywbooks
Love Not Qualified by Maeve Hazel
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you for the Arc!
First of all, let's start with something positive, I have read previous works of Maeve Hazel such as Safety Measures, and I came to the conclusion that she likes to represent disabled people, people struggling mentally or someone who has eating disorder which is great. Representation is much needed for invoking empathy among people towards others.
Maeve Hazel's writing is very digestible. You can read it in one sitting or when you need something cute, silly romances to wrap up the day or when you just want to shut off your brain and do nothing but read.
Plot was very predictable and generic, which is not something bad because contemporary romance does tend to follow the same formula to write romances, but it feels messy and all over the place. Sometimes, when she jumps from one scene to another, it feels like she didn't complete the previous scene. For example, when the mmc went back home after arguing with his brother to fix their relationship, she showed a little bit of conversation and then jumped to the next scene, when a good number of scenes were about him and his brother.
Also, since this book is a dual perspective, the male perspective picks up where the female perspective ended and that's how the timeline is. But in some places, it didn't follow these rules as in one chapter, starting from the same time but showed from the female perspective. Though it was easy to understand when it happened.
The pace and the flow of their relationship was all over the place. He lied to her twice even though he said he wouldn't do it again. There was a quote that the fmc said, that two broken hearts can't be together and she has no intention to fix him, which is I agree too. I really didn't want her to get back with him until they both solved their own problem with a therapist or by themselves. So when they got back together, I was still left wondering by the fmc if she really solved her problem individually or not.
Relationships are messy in real life, and people are not perfect, too, so if that's what Maeve Hazel wanted to capture, then she did it. But the fact that they love each other was not convincing. I didn't feel the love (idk it might just be me).
First of all, let's start with something positive, I have read previous works of Maeve Hazel such as Safety Measures, and I came to the conclusion that she likes to represent disabled people, people struggling mentally or someone who has eating disorder which is great. Representation is much needed for invoking empathy among people towards others.
Maeve Hazel's writing is very digestible. You can read it in one sitting or when you need something cute, silly romances to wrap up the day or when you just want to shut off your brain and do nothing but read.
Plot was very predictable and generic, which is not something bad because contemporary romance does tend to follow the same formula to write romances, but it feels messy and all over the place. Sometimes, when she jumps from one scene to another, it feels like she didn't complete the previous scene. For example, when the mmc went back home after arguing with his brother to fix their relationship, she showed a little bit of conversation and then jumped to the next scene, when a good number of scenes were about him and his brother.
Also, since this book is a dual perspective, the male perspective picks up where the female perspective ended and that's how the timeline is. But in some places, it didn't follow these rules as in one chapter, starting from the same time but showed from the female perspective. Though it was easy to understand when it happened.
The pace and the flow of their relationship was all over the place. He lied to her twice even though he said he wouldn't do it again. There was a quote that the fmc said, that two broken hearts can't be together and she has no intention to fix him, which is I agree too. I really didn't want her to get back with him until they both solved their own problem with a therapist or by themselves. So when they got back together, I was still left wondering by the fmc if she really solved her problem individually or not.
Relationships are messy in real life, and people are not perfect, too, so if that's what Maeve Hazel wanted to capture, then she did it. But the fact that they love each other was not convincing. I didn't feel the love (idk it might just be me).