Meet Cute // A Cute Read That Lost Me Along The Way

Meet Cute – Helena Hunting
Published: 9th April 2019
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
My Rating:

Talk about an embarrassing introduction. On her first day of law school, Kailyn ran - quite literally - into the actor she crushed on as a teenager, ending with him sprawled on top of her. Mortified to discover the Daxton Hughes was also a student in her class, her embarrassment over their meet-cute quickly turned into a friendship she never expected. Of course, she never saw his betrayal coming either...

Now, eight years later, Dax is in her office asking for legal advice. Despite her anger, Kailyn can't help feeling sorry for the devastated man who just became sole guardian to his thirteen-year-old sister. But when her boss gets wind of Kailyn's new celebrity client, there's even more at stake than Dax's custody issues: if she gets Dax to work at their firm, she'll be promoted to partner.

The more time Kailyn spends with Dax and his sister, the more she starts to feel like a family, and the more she realizes the chemistry they had all those years ago is as fresh as ever. But will they be able to forgive the mistakes of the past, or will one betrayal lead to another?

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This was an impulsive request on Netgalley I was surprised to be approved for but happy about. The cute cover and the name Helena Hunting made me want to read. I was slightly disappointed before I even picked this up to see a couple of bloggers I follow rating it lower than I hoped so brought my expectations down accordingly. And still, I was a little disappointed by what I read.

The book opened when Kailyn and Dax are at law school and her first meeting with him, and their second. And then there’s a quick rush job of them being friendly rivals and the statement that he screwed her over and then we flash-forward to present day and their meeting whilst she’s holding a grudge. Right of the bat that annoyed me because it was like getting given a quick summary rather than actually putting the work in for the setup. It felt lazy. Either put the work in and have a few chapters dedicated to their time at law school or don’t talk about it at all and have their first meeting be in the present and have it explained why Kailyn is shocked to see him. Don’t infodump their history on me!

I brushed that annoyance off, though, because I did like the voice of Kailyn. She seemed funny and a bit weird and fine sometimes her quirks and humour felt a little forced, but as a whole I liked her. She had the kind of inner voice that instantly makes me interested, the slightly awkward but hardworking woman and I liked her she and her BFF joked about date night because that’s the kind of thing I do with my friend. But then the book continued to bother me with telling me stuff. Like Dax finding out about the death of his parents. It felt like we just get to meet him and it’s dumped right on us his parents have died. I felt no connection or emotional impact from it. Same as when he had to tell his sister. That should be such an emotional moment and nothing. And then we hop right over the funeral. The timeline of events just felt rushed and all over the place. And our ‘villain’ of the book didn’t feel genuine. Either make me hate her or make me sympathise with her, but because we were told too much I think I felt distance from all of the characters.

I will say the tone of the book is spot on. I liked the light humour and I did like Dax’s sister, Emme. She was at that brilliantly awkward teenage age where everything is drama but also where she starts to show a good level of maturity. I liked the moments where she was involved but even when she was there I still didn’t find myself emotionally invested in her struggles.

Meet Cute was a nice read, I enjoyed myself most of the time I was reading it… but I can’t claim it will be memorable. It’s been a few days already since I finished it when I’m writing this review and already I have to glance at small notes I made and look back at the book to refresh myself and that’s not something you want to be doing for a fun romance. It’s not bad and I know this book will hit the spot for a lot of readers, but I had issues, I think.

Have you read this, what did you think? And do you ever find books lose you when they’re telling you too much of the story rather than making you feel invested?