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A review by whosevita
The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean
2.0
"I'm never going to love her. I'm not capable of it. Cuz my girlfriend died bc of me" -King for 90% of the book
2 pages later "remember that girl I said I loved?? SIke I actually didn't I still can't love anyone. Especially not you Sophie."
Literally 5 pages later: "omg I love Sophie more than anything and I want to marry her."
Literally 2 pages later: "omg I can't believe I ever loved her. She betrayed me. My heart is now ice blablablabla. I am never going to love her. "
Literally 4 pages later: "omg I made a mistake!!!1!1!!! I actually do love her."
That is literally just this entire book. Back and forth and back and forth. This book flips so many time that at the end of it, nothing makes sense anymore.
Sarah McLean has some habits in her writing.
-A hero who continuously (but accidentally insults) his love interest.
-A love interest who was enough self pity to fill 14 Olympic sized swimming pools.
And are these two combined are absolutely horrid. They just go on and on and on. He says something vaguely insulting, which she ofcourse immediately takes to heart. In his inner monologue he despairs about how he insulted her and that actually: she is the most perfect, most beautiful, most extraordinary creature ever. I can take this once or twice. BUT 28 TIMES. NO PLEASE JUST NO.
And okay, insecurity is a very real thing but it's SO annoying how the heroine just keeps lamenting about how unattractive she is, how undesirable, blablablabla. The love interest doesn't seem annoyed by this superfluous stream of self pity but I, as the reader certainly am.
And the thing I hate most about McLean's books. The tortured hero. Just pages upon pages of how traumatising his childhood was, how much he hates his father, how she is perfect and he isn't. And ofcourse SHE thinks "but I can fix him". The words are not said but heavily implied. I hate hate HATE the "I can fix him" trope. It's overdone, annoying, and harmful. A hero with angst can be good, interesting, fun. But not like this. Not with him monologueing on and on about how terrible his life is, with her clutching his hand in despair. That she says something like "I wanna make him feel better" and having sex. Its truly the fetishisation of male trauma. Why does his trauma turn her on??
The MONOLOGUES. It just shows that McLean can't create character depth without describing the backgrounds of her characters in agonising detail.
I had to FORCE myself to finish it. It was sO boring and predictable.
2 pages later "remember that girl I said I loved?? SIke I actually didn't I still can't love anyone. Especially not you Sophie."
Literally 5 pages later: "omg I love Sophie more than anything and I want to marry her."
Literally 2 pages later: "omg I can't believe I ever loved her. She betrayed me. My heart is now ice blablablabla. I am never going to love her. "
Literally 4 pages later: "omg I made a mistake!!!1!1!!! I actually do love her."
That is literally just this entire book. Back and forth and back and forth. This book flips so many time that at the end of it, nothing makes sense anymore.
Sarah McLean has some habits in her writing.
-A hero who continuously (but accidentally insults) his love interest.
-A love interest who was enough self pity to fill 14 Olympic sized swimming pools.
And are these two combined are absolutely horrid. They just go on and on and on. He says something vaguely insulting, which she ofcourse immediately takes to heart. In his inner monologue he despairs about how he insulted her and that actually: she is the most perfect, most beautiful, most extraordinary creature ever. I can take this once or twice. BUT 28 TIMES. NO PLEASE JUST NO.
And okay, insecurity is a very real thing but it's SO annoying how the heroine just keeps lamenting about how unattractive she is, how undesirable, blablablabla. The love interest doesn't seem annoyed by this superfluous stream of self pity but I, as the reader certainly am.
And the thing I hate most about McLean's books. The tortured hero. Just pages upon pages of how traumatising his childhood was, how much he hates his father, how she is perfect and he isn't. And ofcourse SHE thinks "but I can fix him". The words are not said but heavily implied. I hate hate HATE the "I can fix him" trope. It's overdone, annoying, and harmful. A hero with angst can be good, interesting, fun. But not like this. Not with him monologueing on and on about how terrible his life is, with her clutching his hand in despair. That she says something like "I wanna make him feel better" and having sex. Its truly the fetishisation of male trauma. Why does his trauma turn her on??
The MONOLOGUES. It just shows that McLean can't create character depth without describing the backgrounds of her characters in agonising detail.
I had to FORCE myself to finish it. It was sO boring and predictable.