Author:  Liz Fichera
Series: (Hooked #1)
Expected publication: January 31st 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Categories: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
 

I received an eARC  from Harlequin Teen via Netgalley. Thank you.

I was giddy, thrilled and all these typical excited emotions when I first found out about the book. I foresee a love and hate relationship between the two main leads. I’m one massive fan of this kind of romantic development. Also, the girl has such kick-ass advantage being the only girl in a men’s team. She’s interesting from the get-go. And golf! Golf, out of all the sports out there. I don’t know how this sassy game is played. I though rich people are the only ones who know how this thing works. But with all the stuff, explanation there in the book I still find myself a bit confused and…bored. The sport is not my cuppa of tea. So was the romance.

The giddy and thrilled emotions I have before I went in had simmered down. And as always my expectations hit me hard in the gut. And it hurts. Because I was expecting a lot from this book. If it wasn’t obvious I’m on a contemporary-high, but I’m getting my dosages from the self-pub side. I was surprised that I found gem in there. I decided to go back to my roots and checked the mainstream, if my craving for chick-lit can be found there, too. This is my first try and I was bit underwhelmed by it. Aside from my expectations, I saw stellar reviews on its belt. This must mean something. But I didn’t saw it. We didn’t click.

But this book has some unique bits which I don’t know how I should approach it. I’m glad that it tried to explore a relationship of two people with different backgrounds. I liked how opposite they are. I thought this is a good foundation of things to come. Some were good, some were nice, and some were not that interesting. I don’t dislike Fred and Ryan but neither do I love them. And that’s a problem, after reading the book I almost forgot about them. They hardly left anything that makes them quite memorable to me.

I know that book has golf theme in it. I’m not particularly against sports theme book but every time I tried, I always ended up completely ‘meh’ about it. I think it was nice of the author to leave some footnotes for readers to understand it better. There’s even a glossary at the end which I totally appreciated since I have nothing as in nada, zilch, zero knowledge about golf.  But the sport like I said didn’t interest me despite the thorough description in there.

So what’s left there to say? Ah the romance. It was ok. I’m happy how it wrapped up. And the development wasn’t forced or unnatural. But I wasn’t swooning when I supposed to swoon. It’s like reading another story and I was like ‘oh, ok. That’s cool.’ Then I moved on. I was completely indifferent about it. Hmm, I was wondering it myself. Since I think the relationship was well-written.

But the book is good, I’m sorry if my review is once again inclined more on the negative side. It wasn’t angsty, usual young adult romance story. And that’s what I liked about it. I liked how it has distinctive twist to it. And overall, the story was nice despite it didn’t hold my attention or my interest longer than expected. But I still let you guys decide.