Series: N/A
Traits & Tropes: waking up married; forced proximity; fake relationship
Publication Date: 01.18.22
Genre/Setting: Contemporary; Dublin, Ireland/Los Angeles, California, USA
Heat Level: 0
Rating: 2.5/5
In an epic case of ‘the whiskey made me do it’ wannabe screenwriter Cara Kennedy finds herself caught up in the excitement of the Irish tradition of women proposing to men on Leap Day. Her last day in Dublin sees her waking up next to an attractive man with tin foil rings on both their fingers. She has to leave the same day so the two decide to dissolve the marriage from US, with Finn returning back to LA with Cara. Finn’s natural charm gets him noticed by the big shot agent who just happens to be Cara’s boss, causing Cara to question if he’s really there for her or for a potential career. With limited time to do it, Finn must show Cara he’s after her and not a fast ticket to fame.
I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. I was super excited to read something set in Dublin, but unfortunately the time spent there was pretty short and most of the action takes place in LA. Finn was a musician and tour guide in Dublin who never once mentioned acting or wanting to try to be an actor so when his supposed desire to make Hollywood connections became a key plot point, I just couldn’t buy it and the fact that Cara did made her intelligence as a heroine questionable. If anything, she pushed and encouraged him into the acting thing, and it wasn’t really something he’d wanted. In fact, he told Cara his passion was landscape design and then suddenly he’s going to an audition and that just felt like a nonsensical swerve in the plot. Granted, a lot of the logistics of the book aren’t plausible so it’s definitely important to remember that it is fiction, but some of the leaps Cara made were just a bit much for me. Overall, she actually treated Finn pretty poorly and I never could quite figure out what he saw in her or where the connection was coming from. This wasn’t helped by the fact that any sex scenes occurred off page, which is fine, but they also weren’t mentioned until pages, sometimes chapters, later and we never got the discussion of feelings or emotional depth or any indication that the relationship was deepening. Any of that development that was present occurred off page, so I was left feeling that both characters were rather flat, especially given that Finn and Cara really don’t get much alone together time on page either. Add in the fact that we are only given Cara’s perspective and never Finn’s and his character feels especially flat, like he’s just a token hot Irish guy with many talents, but mostly just there to be hot and have an accent. None of this is helped by Cara’s insistence on there being an undeniable connection between her and Finn, while ignoring him and calling their relationship fake in the same breath. I was also a little thrown by the epilogue from the dog’s perspective. It was cute and all, but not quite what I wanted to read and finally having Finn’s perspective might’ve been better, or maybe just too little too late. This was a cute and humorous story, but without a ton of depth, though that makes it good for those who want a light-hearted, low angst read, as long as it being a bit low on the romance is okay too.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1596372740
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