5th DNF of 2022
There’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases–a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice–with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan–from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…
Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he’s making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…
CW: Sexual content, cancer, ableism, sexual harassment
Rating
DNF @38%
Review
You know when a book won’t be for you from the start; this book is that for me. So that’s why I DNFed it, and even if it’s an unpopular opinion, I don’t mind.
The only thing that I liked in the book was the representation of Asperger’s. Yes, I liked Stella, how she lives with it and how people struggle to understand it, which makes her feel like not good in a relationship, except that she doesn’t have any problem, it’s the others that are the problem.
Sadly, the list stops there.
The first element that I had difficulties with was Michael. Yeah, I didn’t like him at all and from the start. I feel like he is just manipulative and toxic behind his cute and understanding behaviour. I was also fed up with his repetitive monologue about his problems and how he isn’t enough for Stella as he is a bad guy like his father. For me, these monologues didn’t even feel genuine.
The other problem I had was the feeling of convenience more than an actual plot. From the beginning, you have well-timed events that create the situation to later create a problem and be resolved by them being a couple. It’s so visible that it makes the story predictable and sometimes puts you off the story.
The romance isn’t believable; the insta-love and the way they are the only ones for each other was kinda cringy for me. Like Stella can’t bear it when people touch her, but there is no problem with him even if they have known each other for like an hour. You also sometimes have a difference between the ‘did’ and ‘told’.
The last thing is Philip. We don’t need to have him; he doesn’t really help in the story. It feels like the story needs a villain, and here he is.
As for all the books I DNF, I would have loved to like them, but I didn’t see myself continuing this book.
Liz.
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