Fortunately, Darcy’s uncle owns a thrift shop where she can hide out from the world. There’s also Lucas, the wickedly hot fix-it guy she can’t stop crushing on, even if she’s not sure they’ll ever get out of the friend zone.
But it’s here among the colorful characters of her uncle’s world that Darcy begins to see something more in herself...if she has the courage to follow it.
My Thoughts:
It took me a long time to get through this book. I almost gave up on it.
The idea of this story pulled me in and I wanted to know what was going to happen. I wanted to know where Darcy's father disappeared to. I wanted to know how Darcy and her mom were going to deal with the dad skipping out on them. I wanted the mom to find a decent job, pull herself together. I wanted Darcy to find herself. The story pulled me in and kept me wanting to find out what happened.
But. It dragged. All of it. There was so much repeating of ideas and reiterated thoughts. Waaaaaay too much repetition. Especially about the love interest. "We're just friends. Are we just friends? He's so hot but we're only friends, I swear. I mean I'm kind of in love with him but we're only friends." It got old. Real quick. The romance took way too long to come to about and when it did it felt anticlimactic. Too much anticipation. Other things were like that, too. The book could have been half as long as it was, if all the repetitive thoughts were taken out. I started skimming after a while.
Overall the book was just too long. In some places it almost felt like every action of every day was catalogued. There was too much explaining. Too much sifting through the same feelings over and over. I think Roberts' writing style is rubbing off on me as this review is sounding quite repetitive as well.
The characters didn't have all that much depth, to be honest. Darcy was kind of immature, although she did learn to take care of herself and her mother, she then did something totally stupid near the end of the book that rendered her an idiotic little girl in my opinion. Liz was always the same kind, supportive person. Charlie was the male version of Liz. Darcy's mom did go through some changes but it felt very superficial. Lucas, the love interest, was very flat and not at all interesting to me in any real way. And did it bother no one else that Lucas was in his second year of college (probably about 20-ish?) and dating girls in high school? I don't even know how old Darcy was, 16, maybe? If he really was as hot and amazing as this book made it sound, he probably could have been dating girls whose relationships wouldn't have landed him in jail. In a few years, when Darcy turned 18, it wouldn't bother me so much to have her dating an older guy. A 16- and 20-year-old dating, though? Rubs me the wrong way.
Darcy's dad was the most interesting person in the whole novel and we hardly got any page-time with him.
And why is the title of this "How (not) to Fall in Love"? I was kind of expecting some reverse self-help book or something. Some kind of bullet-pointed system of what not to do when falling love. Or even a statement about how Darcy's and Lucas' method of falling in love could have been helped along in some way. Or something. Anything. The title didn't make sense at all in relation to the book. Most of the book wasn't even about the love story; It was about Darcy's dad leaving and all the aftermath. Did not make sense. Didn't work. Could have been way better.
So while the story dragged and I didn't like the romancey stuff and got bored by all the repetition, I did want to find out what happened with Darcy's family. That's something, right?
Sexual Content: Moderate
Language: Moderate
Violence: Mild (if any)
Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate
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