by Jackie Lau
Rating: ⭐3.5/5⭐
Helen Tsang is tired of the pitying looks. From her parents, her friends, and even the bubble tea shop guy, who recognized her from the video. Almost one year ago, some loser couldn’t mind their own damn business and filmed an unsuspecting Helen’s very public break-up during what was supposed to be a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. A video of her ex-boyfriend saying, “It’s not me, it’s you. You’re holding me back” went viral.
Desperate to give everyone something else to talk about and with Valentine’s Day approaching once again, she asks her long-time friend Taylor Li to be her fake boyfriend, just to prove that she’s moved on and hasn’t sworn off love. (Spoiler alert: She’s totally sworn off love.) Taylor is the perfect option—single for once, and for some godforsaken reason, he loves Valentine’s Day.
But Helen didn’t expect was how easy it would be to get Taylor on board, fitting right into the boyfriend-shaped hole in her life. All she wanted was a couple sickeningly sweet dates to fill her social feeds, not corny text messages of silly heart-shaped cakes, and bouquets of flowers that harbor hidden meanings. Wanting to be around his sunshine attitude and delicious forearms all the time? That definitely wasn’t expected.
With February 14 quickly approaching, it’s getting increasingly difficult to ignore her feelings, especially when she starts wishing it wasn’t all an act.
Oh God. What has she done?
Review
If you’re looking for a short, quick romance that’s just the right level of sweet on the lead up to Valentine’s Day, I think you’ll like Not Your Valentine.
This was your typical Grumpy/Sunshine story, with the twist that the female main character was the rainy cloud. Honestly, I related and identified with Helen a little more than I probably would have liked. Her dry sense of humor, personality and delivery resonated with me, and I found her stubborn rejection of everything romance-related very funny. Girl was in denial central for a big chunk of the book, and I couldn’t help thinking the lady doth protest too much: “I don’t want love”, “I don’t want to date”, “I don’t like Taylor like that”… sure, Helen, sure.
Taylor was pretty much a golden retriever in human man form. Super sweet, attentive, considerate and caring. But I appreciated that Jackie gave him a bit of a gloomy backstory and childhood to give more meaning to his upbeat and generally happy disposition. It lent him a quiet strength that suited him well and rounded him out.
Still, I’ll admit I would have liked to see his character further developed. Same with Helen’s group of friends. They felt like little else than plot devices to offer a piece of advice and steer the main character in the right direction when needed—a literary MacGuffin, if you will.
Another element that didn’t sit very well with me were the explicit sex scenes. I’m not quite sure why, but to me they felt a little out of place, as if this book had more of a closed door or fade to black vibe. I don’t know that the steam mixed well with the otherwise playful sweetness of the story, but, let me say, they were super hot.
In any case, I ended up enjoying the book either way, so if you’re in the mood for something cute and adorable, this book for sure fits that description.
**I received an e-copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own**
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