I think there must have been people on social media complaining about dual point of view romances, because I’ve read a few recent releases that were single point of view and they suffer as a result. There are probably good single pov marriage in trouble romances, but I can’t think of any at the moment. Sunk in Love really needed Liam’s pov. Without it, I couldn’t invest in their relationship.
Things aren’t going well in Roslyn’s life. She and her mother were in a car accident and her mother died. Roslyn and Liam are currently separated and going through a divorce. While grieving, she felt like Liam checked out of their marriage. Roslyn considers herself the family disappointment having dropped out of med school and become a romance author. Her husband, a brilliant oncologist, is loved and appreciated by her grandparents and admired by her siblings. Her grandparents have decided to renew their vows on the family vacation and would like Liam to officiate. To avoid upsetting her family, Liam agrees to act like they are still together and go on the family vacation.
I had several problems beyond and exacerbated by getting the story only from Roslyn’s point of view. Liam swings between too perfect and too awful. He’s cartoonish instead of complex. I don’t expect or even want romances to be entirely true to life, but they do need verisimilitude. I struggled to believe that as close as Liam is supposed to be with Roslyn’s grandparents, that she is their only way of communicating with him. There were so many little things that, because I didn’t believe the relationship, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. I think I’m also irritated because there were some lovely moments of connection, particularly between the siblings. It would be easier to write off the book and the author if it were just cartoonish high jinx and glossed over emotions. I see the potential for this to have been a book I enjoyed more.
Update: I went back and reread a section about 70% in to the book and it’s worse than I remembered. We get an info dump of Liam’s trauma and an example of how he tried to save their marriage. The info dump turns the reader’s focus from Roslyn struggling to deal with her grief to poor baby Liam. The attempt to save their marriage is wildly ham handed and causes Roslyn to feel guilty for not meeting her husband’s physical needs while she’s recovering from a traumatic car accident that killed her mother. I’m taking a star off.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Berkley and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.
