ARC Review: Love and Other Man-Made Disasters by Nicola Doherty
10:00
Series: None
Author: Nicola Doherty
Published June 2nd 2016 by Hachette Children's Group
Goodreads Summary
A contemporary teen romance by Irish author, Nicola Doherty, about facing your fears and falling in love. A story with humour and heart, this book is perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Holly Smale and Stephanie Perkins.
Juno is scared of a lot of things. Climate change, urban foxes, zombies - the usual. So when she goes on a skiing holiday with her mum's adrenaline-mad new husband and his tearaway twins, she doesn't hold much hope of surviving. Then she meets Boy. Gruff, hairy and thrill-seeking, he's everything Juno doesn't like. Or is he? Juno's about to discover there's nothing more scary than falling in love.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Love and Other Man-Made Disasters is about Juno, a girl who's scared of just about everything. Now that her mam has remarried, she's on her way to Austria, to spend her Easter holidays skiing with her new step-family. Suffice to say, she's not looking forward to it. Really, she could be spending that time much better by revising for her A-Levels, but no, she's in hell. There's so many dangerous things that could happen on a skiing holiday, so she's snuck some revision into her suitcase, and is planning on getting out of skiing as much as possible. It's only when she meets Boy, one of the ski instructors that she decides it might not all be so bad.
I don't know how I feel about this book, to be honest. I never really felt connected with the story, and it wasn't the most interesting. Juno was a nice character, and I could understand her panic at missing out on prime revision time, because the run up to A-Levels is really stressful, when your whole future basically depends on a few exams. I also could understand that she wasn't too keen on being forced to spend time with her new family, especially when her new twin step-brothers are little rascals.
The romance, though, seemed ridiculous. I understood the connection between Boy and Juno, both everything else just felt rushed, and so unrealistic. Something happens later in the book, and Juno decides to stay in Austria, without her family, for at least a week, to be with Boy, and just completely disregards her upcoming exams. Honestly, it was a complete 180 on how she was in the beginning. That was the nail in the coffin for me, and if I hadn't been close to the end, and had nothing else with me to read on my journey, I wouldn't have finished it.
Yeah, I wouldn't recommend this one, but I do know that some people enjoyed the book, so maybe it was just me.
Dates Read:
May 17-21, 2016
Rating
2 Stars
May 17-21, 2016
Rating
2 Stars
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