Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks.
Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline.
I think I've grown tired of contemporary romance. This review could be considered 'spoilery', so be forewarned.
This is the story of a girl (Rosie) who has a crush on her best friend's cousin, Lucas. Said cousin lives in Spain. Rosie covertly stalks Lucas's Insta and has kept her crush a secret. The ceiling in her apartment collapsed, to the point that she could look through the ceiling and see her neighbor's private bits from underneath his robe. (Not a pleasant sight.)
Her best friend, Lina, just got married. The ceiling situation forces her out of her apartment and she goes to stay at Lina's while Lina is on her honeymoon. Lucas arrives and tries to get in the apartment, rattling the doorknob. She thinks he's trying to break in and calls the police. (I thought this was a bit of an over-reaction, a corny contrived way to make it an awkward meet-cute.) He eventually convinces her that he's the cousin. And that begins their relationship.
Rosie is living a life of contradictions. She worries for her brother, who is keeping secrets about his job, his life, and is avoiding seeing both Rosie and her father. Her father's health is poor but he pretends that he's fine. But Rosie is keeping secrets, too. She's quit her big-time engineering job (the one that her father brags about to all his friends) in favor of being a romance writer. And how she's suffering from major writer's block.
Lina suggests she gets back into the dating pool for inspiration (among other things). Lucas over hears their conversation and offers to be her guinea pig. He is, of course, incredibly charming. (Their first date includes going to a record shop -- where she often goes because it brings her joy -- and has her pick out a record that will be their soundtrack -- such a great idea!) The pair have really combustible chemistry, so falling in love is inevitable.
Maybe at one point I might have enjoyed reading about her twenty-something angst. I might have had the curiosity to find out what her brother is doing (I suspect being an exotic dancer) and what exactly happened to Lucas (I suspect a bad accident involving water, that he's kept hidden) and how her secrets getting revealed will play out (it will be messy but blow over quickly and will only bring her family closer). But not any more. I got really tired of her being so skittish and shy and him internally obliquely complaining about his bum leg. And so I ended up skipping about 20 chapters to get to the end.
I skipped the part where she runs to the airport and offers to come with him wherever he wants to go. I skipped the part where he rejects her and breaks her heart. I skipped their bemoaning as they're apart. I picked up the story where he's sitting on his abuela's couch moping as he misses her. (I've lost patience with the noble coward who pushes his love away because she's so much better than him... Especially because even though everything we seen -- how considerate, kind, giving, etc. he is -- makes him a total idiot for thinking it. But maybe he has survivor's guilt from the accident that caused his limp. Not that I read that, because I skipped 20 chapters, but it's a guess.) Linna calls and rebukes him for being an idiot, especially because Rosie loves him. (And he's shocked that Rosie could love him -- even though she proffered going with him wherever, so they could be together. Characters can be dense, but this is just a little too ridiculous.) The epilogue has him moving to America so they can be together, with her being a successful novelist and him starting culinary school (did I mention that he can cook?). I give a pathetic confetti toss.
It was all pretty predictable. With a perfect hero that's wounded and tragic who has a terrible opinion of himself. It's got the third act separation that romance writers seem to employ all too often to provide unneeded angst. It plays to those tropes that just really get on my nerves. It wasn't terrible. But, it wasn't memorable and I had no emotional investment in their story. And that's why I gave it a 2.5 out of 5.
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