Review: Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt
10:00
Series: None
Author: Maggie Harcourt
Published February 1st 2017 by Usborne Publishing Ltd
Goodreads Synopsis
Lexi Angelo has grown up helping her dad with his events business. She likes to stay behind the scenes, planning and organizing...until author Aidan Green - messy haired and annoyingly arrogant - arrives unannounced at the first event of the year. Then Lexi's life is thrown into disarray.
In a flurry of late-night conversations, mixed messages and butterflies, Lexi discovers that some things can't be planned. Things like falling in love...
Goodreads
Review
I've never been to a convention of any kind, but always hope that one day I'll be able to go to YALC. Everyone who read an early copy of this book was so complimentary, and said it was perfect, that I knew I had to get my hand on a copy.
In Unconventional, Lexi has grown up in the convention world. Her dad has owned an events business, and since Lexi was a little girl, she has been involved, and this year is no different. Because of her involvement in the industry, she was sent a debut novel, hoping that the company would promote the author at future events. When she reads the book, she falls in love with the writing, and the world, but, unfortunately, the author doesn't hold up to her expectations when they first meet. He, Aidan, is so rude and arrogant, that Lexi wishes she hadn't loved the book so much. But, once she realises that Aidan is actually Haydn, and he was only like that because of nerves, she begins to fall for him, though it's hard for them to spend any time together.
I did enjoy this book, but I didn't fall for it as much as everyone else seems to have. For me, it felt really cliched, and not in a good way. I didn't exactly connect to the characters, and felt as though the plot line was a bit disjointed. Lexi snapped a lot, which was understandable with her pressures of school and the amount of work she was doing for the business, but there's no reason why she had to put that pressure on herself. Her dad was capable, as were the adult employees, but she seemed to need to take control of everything or she wasn't comfortable. Also, why did she hate her step-mother to be? There was no reason, and if she had got to know Bea, and listen to her dad, it would have been so much easier.
The relationship between Lexi and Aidan/Haydn was alright, but seemed forced at times. She gushed about how much she loved his book, but never really spoke about any other favourites of hers, whether that is books, films, or TV shows. Everything seemed to be about Haydn, which didn't help the plot at all.
Ultimately, I enjoyed reading the book, but nothing is really memorable, and I don't think I'll read the book again. Some people have compared this book with Rainbow Rowell, but I've not read her YAs, so can't say if that's true. I recently read Geekerella, and I would recommend that book over Unconventional, to anyone wanting a good YA fandom book.
Dates Read:
March 5-8, 2017Rating
3 Stars
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