Have you ever hit rock bottom?
I embarrassingly have.
It’s why I’m wearing my girl’s decorative scarf over my head, clutching her lady drink to my chest, and singing ever so softly to Joni Mitchell while swaying back and forth.
This is what therapists refer to as LOSING IT.
Oldest story in the book: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy screws up MASSIVELY, girl tells boy to suffocate in the fruits of his very own unborn children.
Heard it before? I’m sure you have.
So what’s so different about this story? Well, it’s about me, The Modern Gentleman, New York City’s top advice columnist, and my rather ungraceful downfall from my pristinely polished pedestal.
It’s about a girl I met who threw all my proven theories to the wind and left me awkward, needy, and absolutely head-over-wingtipped shoes in love.
This is a story about June Lacy and how she single-handedly dismantled The Modern Gentleman
Sometimes I look for short books in audio to pass the time, whether I’m cleaning or when I’m just sitting with my baby and can’t hold a book in hand.
This book was offered to me by Scribed under books I would like. Although I have some hesitation about the author – I’ve read two of her books and enjoyed them (Diary of a bad boy and Bossman bridegroom). However, I’ve read two more of her books and just couldn’t enjoy it (In The Change-Up, I got annoyed with the heroine! She ruined the book) So, I was a bit hesitant to start this book, but since it was short and the synopsis did not sound so bad, I tried.
It’s a book told from the male side and begins with a breakup between him and the heroine (really similar to the beginning of Tangled by Emma Chase). Then we go back to the beginning when he explains what happened that led him to sit depressed at home because of the breakup.
The male character, Wes, is not bad but not the best there is. He writes a column about the modern gentleman and advises men.
June the heroin – again, the writer manages to create a character that is not lovable. She was even a little annoying.
At the same time, I laughed throughout some parts of the book!
The way Wes tells about the chain of events about dating June to his friends – it just made me laugh!
But I still haven’t found anything else positive for the story itself, especially for John’s character. Her stubbornness and this over mysterious was so exhausting and unnecessary. (Maybe at the end there is an explanation for why she was like that, but I DNF after 11 chapters)
In books, it is necessary to see development. We need to see that the characters are developing and growing, which I didn’t feel here.
More than that, out of 19 chapters in audio, in chapter 11, I already felt that the problem is not only that the heroine is a bit unbearable, she also drags down the hero with her.
It’s hard for me to understand why turning a man into such a fool because the heroine is “intriguing” or “not like any other woman,” and it’s even at a point where they barely shook hands (and I love a slow burn, but that wasn’t the problem).
I tried, really tried. I could not continue this book.