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madeline 's review for:
Not Your Average Hot Guy
by Gwenda Bond
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Callie, a recent college grad looking for her next step, can definitely handle watching over the family escape room business for the weekend. Until, of course, a small cult wanders in and begins to summon a demon. Before she knows it, Callie is responsible for saving the world from certain extinction, and she can only do it with the hot intern demon they summoned, who just so happens to be the literal son of Lucifer. Can Callie save the world and fall in love at the same time, or will everything go up in... ahem, smoke?
This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I was really disappointed to see some other early reviewers reporting they were less than satisfied. In the end, I'm glad I saw those reviews because they tempered my expectations for a novel with a ridiculously fun premise that struggles to find its footing.
NYAHG is neither YA nor New Adult, and it suffers a lot from not being able to pick a side. Either we lean into the camp or we lean into the responsibility of saving the world, and this book doesn't do either and it falls flat. Callie is less a real human being and more a vessel of knowledge. There's no discernible shift between her POV and Luke's, and the style works much better for him than for her. Additionally, the book starts off with a really... immature? unrefined? tone that has a serious shift around 15%. Like, going from AO3 fanfic written by a 14 year old to a professionally written and edited shift. I'm willing to chalk this up to ARC status but I was certainly more engaged post-shift.
Overall, I think this book is too neat, particularly in the final 15%. All their problems are wrapped up fairly easily and without any real angst. It could have been either more tightly edited and remained its current length or had another 40 pages in it and it wouldn't have suffered either way.
I'll be recommending this as a YA novel over a NA romance, particularly to fans of early seasons of Supernatural and Lucifer. If you liked the "ragtag group of friends staves off the apocalypse" vibe, I recommend When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry.
Thanks very much to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!
This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I was really disappointed to see some other early reviewers reporting they were less than satisfied. In the end, I'm glad I saw those reviews because they tempered my expectations for a novel with a ridiculously fun premise that struggles to find its footing.
NYAHG is neither YA nor New Adult, and it suffers a lot from not being able to pick a side. Either we lean into the camp or we lean into the responsibility of saving the world, and this book doesn't do either and it falls flat. Callie is less a real human being and more a vessel of knowledge. There's no discernible shift between her POV and Luke's, and the style works much better for him than for her. Additionally, the book starts off with a really... immature? unrefined? tone that has a serious shift around 15%. Like, going from AO3 fanfic written by a 14 year old to a professionally written and edited shift. I'm willing to chalk this up to ARC status but I was certainly more engaged post-shift.
Overall, I think this book is too neat, particularly in the final 15%. All their problems are wrapped up fairly easily and without any real angst. It could have been either more tightly edited and remained its current length or had another 40 pages in it and it wouldn't have suffered either way.
I'll be recommending this as a YA novel over a NA romance, particularly to fans of early seasons of Supernatural and Lucifer. If you liked the "ragtag group of friends staves off the apocalypse" vibe, I recommend When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry.
Thanks very much to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!