DNFing at the third Taylor Swift reference. Authors, the Venn Diagram of People Who Read Romance Novels and People Who Listen To Taylor Swift is not a circle. Please stop. 

Maybe there’s some growth later, but 25% in this has got to be the most melodramatic and infantalizing representation of Hyperactive-Type ADHD I’ve ever read. It’s like Chamberlain read an online listicle about what it looks like in 13 year old boys and applied every single bullet point to a 27-year-old successful chef MMC. There’s something very inauthentic about it. 

I really did not like the dynamic of how Ellie triggers Kieran’s feelings of shame and inadequacy. She reminds him of his shitty teachers and parents. Right off the bat. We are basing a relationship off this? She doesn’t even know him and she already doesn’t understand him. Imagine years down the road when the relationship is tough and maybe she’s feeling bitter and resentful because he’s scatterbrained or overwhelmed or slipped up on the house work. I just feel like she’d be the type of person to weaponize his neurodivergence against him. It ain’t gonna work. Sincerely, an inattentive ADHD reader who loves a hyperactive ADHD man. 

To top it all off: I felt nothing for these two. Either as individuals or as a couple. When are we supposed to get some frickin chemistry? Some yearning? At 25% in shouldn’t we at least have some signals other than internal thoughts of oh, this person is hot? Observations of someone's physical attractiveness are such a weak way to build a romance. You always need this + more and there was no more. 

Last - the POVs. One chapter we have 4 POV switches. We don’t need this. Pick one per chapter. It just strikes me as amateur, like you want to have your cake and eat it too by showing every little thing from the right character’s perspective. There’s even a typo where Ellie is supposedly explaining that Hank is her brother but whoops we are supposed to be in Kieran’s perspective and he says “I finally say with a sigh.” These quick switches didn’t add or illuminate anything important IMO that really mandated a POV switch. 

I didn't make it this far, but other reviews indicate that Chamberlain engages in some

character assassination against the late husband. This is another amateur writing move - you don't need to make us DISLIKE the prior love interest for us to fully invest in the romance. It's okay for people to have pasts. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it struck me as feeding into the stereotype in romance where it's okay for men to have romantic histories but not women - unless they were unhappy and we can discount them.

 

TL;DR I don’t believe you, Sarah Chamberlain.