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I have had the suspicion that Lynn Painter's works are not one for me to indulge in, especially after the catastrophe from reading Better Than the Movies. But well, me with my best quality � I'll give her that benefit of the doubt. Plus, considering that this is not a YA romance, perhaps we will have something good in the house.

Regrettably, I am not a bit surprised when this novel also turned out to be another disappointment. This is even worse and I can't help but develop Olivia's annoying habit of rolling her eyes that sometimes I wonder how she still didn't get them squinted from doing it every 60 seconds.

I'll be benevolent and go with what I enjoyed with Mr. Wrong Number: the romance
There's just something so conspiring in craving the dangers of forbidden romance. The whole ordeal of falling for your brother's best friend does sound tempting and I think Lynn Painter went industriously in making sure Colin and Olivia's affair didn't go to waste as in her previous work. They bantered, helped each other out, and had a few funny scenes here there.

It was just a bit stroke of luck that Lynn Painter is being safe with the level of smuttiness. I understand if she was being considerate of her readers since her debut book was YA and she may have not attracted lots of adult readers to begin with, but I think it was clear enough if this is an adult romance, what readers should expect out of it.

People read smuts for many reasons; sometimes it's for entertainment or experience; sometimes, it's just because and I can be a bit of both or more. It’s not like I’m being demanding of what is unnecessary. As for this case, I think if there will be a bit more details than a close-door scene, it will help to flesh out both Colin and Olivia's chemistry. The romance was enjoyable but it did not hit the roof. Why is that? Now let's get to the nastiest part of my review.

“When things don't go as planned, we can either pout and behave like a reticent child, or take some time to reconsider our choices. Ruminate over what we've done in our past, and how best to move forward in our future.�

The book's main takeaway was on finding yourself and never stopping at failures. I appreciate the themes that Lynn Painter is going for. It was a good reminder and I honestly get the message she was trying to set forth. It was relatable, especially when you're struggling, had a parent who always brings you down and I guess, overall miserable.

Frankly speaking though, it was a bit hard to swallow when none of the characters are likable. Now that I've met Olivia, I believe the author just loves to write her heroines ✨quirky� and ✨different� and Olivia's entire personality is just her series of unfortunate events. She was so one-dimensional; it was either being clumsy or hypercritical. I noticed that Painters likes to make a point of her characters' traits by having them repetitively signified all the time.

I was having a hard time resonating with Olivia because she pisses me off a lot with her immaturity and scathing mind. This book utilized such a disgraceful kind of miscommunication trope and I did not dig it one bit. It makes sense when it happened to the author's YA characters because they don't suppose to have most things figured out, but when you're reaching your 30s, I'm expecting a bit of rationality on your end. Both the MCs seem to age backwards instead of their own prime.

"He's still an asshole. He looks at me like he knows he's better than me"

While I appreciate Colin's POV (because I can't remember if we had one for Wes), it was unavailing at first because it was just more of his reaction and thoughts on Olivia instead of letting readers unravel him as a person. And when you're relying on a disparaging worldview of a heroine to allow you to get to know the other characters, it didn't help your case.

I believe it was not Lynn's intention to give a lot of focus to Colin but it was only the latter that we get to know more of him than just "the love interest" or the "jerk" as claimed by the Queen of Rolling Eyes. For a good part, the author didn't give room for any lewd thoughts or objectification from Colin in feigning his attraction to Olivia. Like, he was just appreciating her as a real person and it's refreshing. He lives up to his status quo and that’s the only matchable piece of himself as a grown successful man.

Having that said, did I enjoy the book? Still NO, or maybe, if only the characters, the plot, and the romance were parallel from the beginning. The beam scale was skewed all the time for when the romance was good, the characters were there to ruin the whole course of the book or vice versa. The plot was absurd and a lot of thing just doesn’t make sense.

What's more now that my hypothesis is correct, it's best to say, it was nice to read Lynn Painters' works as this will be my last or not. Let's just hope she didn't come out with pretty covers that got me weak all the time because who judges a book by its cover? Definitely me, duh.