Hi! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich! Today, I’ll be reviewing this book and sharing my favorite quotes, so don't forget to leave a comment below letting me know which one was your favorite!
Also, a big thanks for FFBC Tours and Feiwel and Friends for giving me the opportunity to read this book early! And please, go follow the tour and everyone's posts here!
About the book:
Author: Cale Dietrich
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Pages: 334
ISBN: 9781250107138
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Synopsis:
There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.
Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?
Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.
What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.
About the author:
Cale Dietrich is a YA devotee, lifelong gamer, and tragic pop punk enthusiast. He was born in Perth, grew up on the Gold Coast, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia. The Love Interest is his first novel. 
Find him:
Review:
- No Spoilers
The Love Interest is a book that has been on my mind for months because its concept is completely original and it sounded so much fun, so I already knew which book I had to pick up in May.
And I read it as planned. However, my feedback isn't the one I thought I would have.
And before anything, let me tell you this: I liked The Love Interest. It was an overall good book that worked around this fantastic idea that there's an organization that locks people away - so they can work to be the best physical version of themselves - and then assigns them to become close with important people, or even their loved ones, and share the secrets that they gather. It's like they're spies. And at this point, everything's good, but the book complicates things.
So, first let's talk about what I liked more about The Love Interest.
The organization itself was an incredible and well-done concept. The author came up with an original and complex idea of an organization that profits from secrets that are shared though relationships that were manipulated from the very beginning.
The LGBT romance between the main characters - Caden and Dylan - was another amazing quality, not only because of the diversity aspect, but also because they're both spies who are trying to make a girl fall in love with one of them, so the perspective of them falling in love with each other instead sounds so much fun! Regarding Caden and Dylan's relationship, I really liked them together - until I stopped enjoying the story, because nothing made sense anymore.
So, what happen? There's a point in the book where the story changes its direction completely and goes off into something that - for me at least - doesn't make a lot of sense with what the author wrote in the first half of the book. And I don't think that that sudden shift worked well for the book itself.
There was something else that I also didn't liked: after the sudden shift, the story takes off at an incredible speed. Everything happens so fast, and what should have taken longer is actually what happens in a couple of chapters. That didn't work for me, since it made the climax seem unrealistic.
So, briefly The Love Interest could have been an easy 5 stars book, if it hadn't shift completely from the plot and if it hadn't finished the story prematurely.
And I read it as planned. However, my feedback isn't the one I thought I would have.
And before anything, let me tell you this: I liked The Love Interest. It was an overall good book that worked around this fantastic idea that there's an organization that locks people away - so they can work to be the best physical version of themselves - and then assigns them to become close with important people, or even their loved ones, and share the secrets that they gather. It's like they're spies. And at this point, everything's good, but the book complicates things.
"People don't have to save the world to be good," says Trevor. "John Green gets that, and I do too. All you have to be is honest and kind, and then you're good."
So, first let's talk about what I liked more about The Love Interest.
The organization itself was an incredible and well-done concept. The author came up with an original and complex idea of an organization that profits from secrets that are shared though relationships that were manipulated from the very beginning.
The LGBT romance between the main characters - Caden and Dylan - was another amazing quality, not only because of the diversity aspect, but also because they're both spies who are trying to make a girl fall in love with one of them, so the perspective of them falling in love with each other instead sounds so much fun! Regarding Caden and Dylan's relationship, I really liked them together - until I stopped enjoying the story, because nothing made sense anymore.
Only he's underestimated me. He thinks he can play me and I won't notice.
Oh man, I'm going to mop the floor with him.
So, what happen? There's a point in the book where the story changes its direction completely and goes off into something that - for me at least - doesn't make a lot of sense with what the author wrote in the first half of the book. And I don't think that that sudden shift worked well for the book itself.
There was something else that I also didn't liked: after the sudden shift, the story takes off at an incredible speed. Everything happens so fast, and what should have taken longer is actually what happens in a couple of chapters. That didn't work for me, since it made the climax seem unrealistic.
So, briefly The Love Interest could have been an easy 5 stars book, if it hadn't shift completely from the plot and if it hadn't finished the story prematurely.
- With Spoilers (let's do it!)
I don't have much to talk about the first half of this book, so let's talk about what made a 5 stars into a 3 stars book, shall we?
Caden's - and every other character that suddenly knew about the mission - idea of taking down the entire organization and releasing hundreds or even thousand of boys into the streets was so premature. First, there was no world building before this! Nothing prepared us to even the idea of the characters doing that. And secondly, was I the only person who felt that their plan and 'assault' was too easy? Five teenagers decide to take down a well-organized organization, they get in, kill a bunch of people, one of them dies - still not over that! - and then they are out, that's it: the organization is over. (WHAT?)
So, suddenly this book became a dystopian cliche. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared to be disappointed.
So, suddenly this book became a dystopian cliche. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared to be disappointed.
And what happened to all of the boys that were released? And what about the organization? They freed one establishment, but there were more establishments in different countries, what about those?
So many questions and an incongruous climax left me so frustrated!
The last chapter also annoyed me a bit. It's 5 years after the 'organization take-down (not really, but okay!)' and it doesn't even clarifies us regarding Caden and Dylan's (did they change their names after the take-down??) relationship, or what happened to all of the other characters... There was no relevant information in that chapter, so its existence is also questionable.
Regret. Oh, bloody regret, I've seen you on TV but never had the chance to feel you in real life. And man, you freaking suck.
Overall, The Love Interest was a bit of a disappointment. Sure, the first half of the book was great, but I can't give 5 stars to a book that wasn't great until the very end. Not only that, a book that shifted completely from its main focus and just decided to change even its genre, from YA Contemporary to Dytopian!
I was so sure I would love this book, and even if I had good moments with it, the ending ruined my overall experience.
Thunderhead 
I really love the quotes you pulled out-- especially the last 2. Sorry this book didn't completely work out for you. Thanks for being on the tour!!
ReplyDeleteThis book had so many amazing quotes, it was hard to pick a few! <3
DeleteNo problem, I was so excited to read it and being on the tour gave me the chance to do it! Thank you for having me!! :D
(SPOILERS)
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about the last third of the book... suddenly we're full-on dystopia Hunger Games with the protagonists running from the establishment but somehow managing to take it down in under 8 hours? It was a little unbelievable. I think I'd be more willing to forgive it if we'd actually gotten on some close on WHAT the heck was up with Dyl's feelings. Why did he say The Mean Thing to Caden earlier if he felt differently?? What happened in between that and the epilogue to change his mind so drastically??? The epilogue would have been the PERFECT PLACE to settle that huge question mark but it just did... nothing.
Overall it was a really great book and I'll definitely be recommending it but it could have been even better and for something I was so hyped about the flaws stand out a bit more than they usually would.
EXACTLY! I felt the same way! Dyl's feelings were all over the place and what he said didn't made any sense! And I'm still not over that!
DeleteI liked it, but I didn't felt like the first part of the book was that FANTASTIC, and the last third of the book was a complete disappointment!
Thank you for commenting and have a nice day! :)
So the author probably didn't want to kill one of the boys, vide premise of the novel, so he went with the craziest ending possible and hopefully no one would notice. I can understand why it was frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he probably didn't want to kill one of the main characters and decided to turn the book upside down... what a disappointment!
Delete