Originally published on the Book Babe's Reads
For those of you who don't know, I love Cassie Mae and her stories. I love her romances. I love her characters, and the plots. So, it's really no surprise that I quite enjoyed No Interest in Love.
The story here is quite simple - it's a road trip story, where two people who have known each other for years are now forced to be in such close proximity for such a long time that they start noticing each other's... appeal. Even if they swore they will never go there with each other.
Telling the story is Jace, an aspiring actor who is really all about the women acting will get him. He follows the "Stinson" approach to life--Barney Stinson. And while he had a heart of gold underneath it all, I didn't like his attitude about his job. Was he serious about it? Absolutely. Did he do it from the right reasons? Nope.
The most interesting aspect about Jace was his struggles with reading and writing, and I kind of wish we got to see more of that. It gave his character much needed vulnerability that helped ease his otherwise slight douche-ness and making him more of a lovable jerk.
Shay is a strong girl known mostly for being Elmo girl. You know, from the meme? Yep. She's also Jace's manager. She is this strong girl who never shows weakness and is known for her (attempt at) poker face.
The best part about this book is hands down seeing two people fall in love. This book really does bring across the little moments that make them attracted to one another. The small things the other person does that makes it impossible not to fall in love with them.
That said, I didn't like this one quite as much as I did Doing It For Love... though maybe I'm being unfair, because I freakin' ADORED that one.
Mostly because of a couple of things.
The most prominent one was the lack of actual showbiz in this book. I love a good road-trip story, but the motivation behind this one is an audition. It's a love story between an actor and his manager for god's sake! But we get very little about showbiz. Barely any line rehearsals, with only one being meaningful.
We get almost nothing on Shay's side of things, either. Like, the managing bit. I still don't quite understand what Shay's role is, because apparently she is not exactly Jace's manager. In general I felt like we got very little on Shay's side of things. I didn't get to know her half as well as I did Jace.
And then at the end... what happened with that uber important job? We learn nothing about it! It's like the whole subject of their careers is used as nothing more than a MacGuffin--a plot device, and therefore it's not really important what happens with it. But it shouldn't be this way. At least not to me.
All these things bothered me. They were like little nuggets of information that I needed for the experience to be complete but didn't actually get to experience.
However, I still enjoyed this book. And I would definitely read the next one Mae writes.
However, I still enjoyed this book. And I would definitely read the next one Mae writes.