Scan barcode
A review by whimsicallymeghan
You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky
3.5
Matthew Prince has been the star of his own show his entire life; never thinking about the consequences of his actions because he’s rich with a PR team to fix whatever is broken. So when Matthew buys an island after a disaster of a break-up, his parents send him back to a small town with his grandparents to learn about life without money. While there, he’s forced to share his room and his space with Hector, the hired help for the season. The two despise each other, but make a pact to work together in order to get back to their families and regular life. For the most part, this was a good ‘enemies to lovers’ story, but our main character made it really hard to like. Yes, Matthew did evolve as a character and he learned quite a bit, but there was just something about him that this reader just didn’t care for. He came off as pompous, even when he was trying to be good, like he was self-righteous, and it just didn’t sit well. The way his parents were portrayed also felt so off-putting. We’re led to believe that Matthew is like his mother, but we never really got more than a few hints here and there from either her character, or the grandma. The reader would have liked to explore that more, but then again, this was Matthew’s story. The reader knew right from the start that Matthew’s “best friend” wasn’t really his friend, that whole scene played out perfectly for the reader, and it felt so good for Matthew to finally realize what he was holding onto, wasn’t good. The other side characters, the ones from the small town, were so much fun to read; they had this real homey and loveable quality to them, the reader couldn’t get enough of them. They are glad that we got to see them more than the parents and the characters from his rich life. As for the plot itself, it was good and cheery, for the most part; it did have a few downer moments, like the predictable third act break-up that we get in romances. A lot of this plot felt very predictable, but it was still fun to read. The plot about his parents and his mom was definitely shocking, who does that to their own kid? But the fact that Matthew doesn’t forgive them right away felt very healthy, and showed good character growth. In the end, even though Matthew could be hard to like, he was flawed and made for a good character, this was cute; it was to be expected how it would end, but still overall, enjoyable.