I received this book via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.
I got nothing. The first part of this book when Tess and Ryan are in their 20s and meet with their messy/hilarious friends on their way to a wedding was great. And then there was a side story that never really gets resolved. But mostly this book is about how Tess and Ryan fell for each other and then over the course of 10 plus years kept meeting and things never worked out with regards to timing. And I think if the book had stuck to that, I would have loved it. But I am realizing that the book unfortunately just keeps the story on Tess mostly and we hear about her thoughts on Ryan or they email, etc. and there’s nothing there. I wanted there to be. And then the ending was just so odd. We in essence get to what you is a HEA (Happily Ever After) but it has to be dragged out with more conversation and I was baffled that McFarlane did it since it just makes you go so should we be rooting for them or nah?
Hopeless Romantics follows Tess and her best friend Carys as they catch a train to a university friend’s wedding in Scotland. They end up meeting the only two passengers on the train it seems, Spencer and Ryan. Spencer and Carys get on like a house on fire. But Tess feels resentful of the intrusion. And she’s dealing with a fight with her long-term boyfriend Joel too. But despite all of that, Tess and Ryan start to like each other and Tess finds herself ready to move on with her life after a life changing incident. And from there, she’s ready for the next thing, but finds out her being ready for Ryan doesn’t mean the timing is going to work.
Can I say this upfront? I wish the book had focused on Spencer and Carys since they were more exciting to me than Tess and Ryan. I kept wanting to know more about them both instead of the book info dumps we were getting here and there about them. Tess’s life to me felt/read boring. We know she had relationships, but they all apparently are colorless when compared to her time with Ryan. And as I said above, I loved how the foursome met, got along, but I just didn’t buy what came after really. It be different if they hadn’t both moved on with others and with jobs, etc. And Tess’s job as a writer and trying to write a screenplay about what happened in Scotland years earlier was boring. Reading about finding her truth would have met more if maybe there were any lasting lessons about it. I think McFarlane wrote this book one way, but in the end, did a forced HEA that didn’t feel earned or real.
- Right – the right side of your bookshelf; right place, wrong time; everything’s going to be alright. Well I think that Tess and Ryan are definitely in the right place, wrong time situation throughout most of this book.
