The Love Interest

by Cale Dietrich

In a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies, the stakes are high for two agents, Caden and Dylan, whose mission to compete for a girl destined for great power becomes complicated when Caden finds himself falling in love with his competition.

The agents of the secret spy organization are all teenagers. 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. They have to be at the top of their game-- because whoever the girl doesn't choose will die. But things become complicated when Caden finds himself falling in love with Dylan.

• ISBN10: 125010713X
• ISBN13: 9781250107138
• Publish Date: 16 May 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 28 November 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

One of the most anticipated reads of 2017 for many of us.
This one surprisingly lived up to most of the hype surrounding it and even surprised me a few times.

[liz089]

It was not really what I expected from this story.. and I did not really like this one as much as I'd hoped.

The MC was kind of.. generic in my opinion and I did not really feel much for him. He was kind of boring ? Also none of the other characters seemed that interesting or had much depth to begin with.

Secondly, the romance took over most of the plot. This could have been SO MUCH MORE then it ended up being. Most of the time it was about Dyl and feelings and blegh.. just give me more action !! More excitement !! It was all so dull and not much was happening. Only after 75% of the book finally some stuff seemed to happen, but by then it was kind of too late.

I did like the twist in the whole love triangle thing. It is different then we are used to, and I like that.

But all in all it was kind of disappointing. I wanted it to be more of a spy novel, full of action and stabbing, not just some angsty teen drama. So I can not give it more then 2.5 stars.. rounded down to 2.

[Leah]

The Love Interest is one of the most compelling books that I’ve read so far in 2017, I had no idea what it was about going in (I had read the blurb, obviously when I requested it from Netgalley), but by the time I came to read it, I had mostly forgot. So it made the beginning a little more interesting, because I was trying to figure out just what the hell was going on, but after a super quick GoodReads refresh, I was on my way and let me tell you, this book is so incredible. The plot, the writing, the swoon-factor, just everything about it added up to make a book that’s hard to forget, leaving me in a bit of a daze as to what to read next, since this was so good.

The entire concept of the book is both incredible and frightening. It makes you paranoid – are Love Interests real things? *Quietly looks at the WH* DO PEOPLE SELL OTHER PEOPLE THEIR SECRETS? Are you secretly falling in love with someone who was, to all intents and purposes, manufactured to your exact specifications? What a world we live in. It would have been great, if the Love Interests weren’t made for nefarious purposes and weren’t made to compete, with the threat of the losing Love Interest being destroyed. It’s like, woah. The added complication was Caden. He was such a sympathetic, likeable narrator, despite the many, many times he tells us he isn’t a Nice, that he was incorrectly classified, not that he’s going to tell anyone (except for the reader) about that, obviously. Then it gets so muddy when Dyl is introduced (*swoon*) and Juliet, who I felt so sorry for, for being deceived.

Everything about the book was spot-on, but it was that unexpected romance that made my heart sing. I saw it coming waaaaaaaaayyyy before Caden ever did (bless him). Then it all went to pot for a hot minute there, where I started to question everything I knew, but it was so worth it, because I was so invested, like I’ve never been invested in a love story before. I mean, I generally get pretty involved in my ships, but this one was the best. I wanted to both savour it and devour it, all at the same time.

My love for this book is immense, and not only because Cale Dietrich quoted one of my favourite sitcoms How I Met Your Mother (and I will fight you about that finale episode which was PERFECT. FIGHT ME, I swear I’m ready to go – I will go down with that episode ship, and I thought it came full circle) and Ted’s blue french horn. YES. I live for that kind of stuff in books. This was the perfect storm of a book – everything about it was fantastic, it was pitch perfect in every single way and Caden was such a good narrator. So damn good. Cale Dietrich has written one of the most captivating debut novels of the year. I loved every single page, I’ll be buying a hard copy for sure, and I look forward to seeing what Cale Dietrich writes next. My heart wants a sequel, but my head was just fine with how it ended. I just want to swoon some more.

[Ashley]

The best part of the book was the gay guys. I really loved watching that story unfold and the guy slowly starting to realize that he's gay and understand what his feelings mean. Loved that!

The stuff I didn't quite like...

Juliet was boring. Caden has feelings for someone else, but given that he's supposed to be going after Juliet, she's still quite a big character. But she was pretty cardboard. I think I expected more from her because she was supposed to be this hugely intelligent person and I just thought she'd be more... interesting?

The world building was kind of thin. There's this huge concept of a secret spy organization, but the most we get is:

- We've existed for thousands of years, accept it.
- Nobody knows we exist but we've infiltrated everywhere, accept it.
- We target teenagers.

I guess some of it was just hard to buy. For example, I'm all for a good teenager-in-love romance. I know that kind of high school romance can happen, does happen, and can turn into a forever thing. But let's face it, more often than not, that probably isn't the case in real life. It does happen, but probably not most of the time. And yet this huge spy agency builds its business on making teenagers fall in love, betting that it will be forever love... IDK, it just kind of had me constantly questioning how logical it was.

And then there's the whole good/bad stereotype thing. I started out liking the idea but it got kind of cheesy. I looked at some other reviews that suggested the book was supposed to be poking fun at some YA tropes rather than being serious? But how is that something you even know? Maybe I'm being obtuse but I feel like I couldn't tell the difference. And it came back around to that realistic/world building factor: it seemed so silly that this huge spy organization built its whole thing on the idea that there are two types of exaggerated people: bad and nice.

Maybe there were parts of this book I just didn't "get" right. Maybe I took parts of it too seriously. I don't know.

In short: I LOVED reading about Caden discovering who he was, falling for Dylan, and seeing that relationship develop. Love love love.

The spy agency part? Kind of disappointing.

Favourite quotes:

"I guess I thought I was straight just because everyone treated me like I was, and no one ever gave me a chance to think otherwise."

"Like, by liking guys, I automatically take on that role in her life. That I'm suddenly a supporting character in her story rather than the hero of my own."

[layawaydragon]

I was given an ARC copy for a blog tour I signed up for. I quickly had to drop from the tour though because I couldn't finish it.