New Adult...
Arc provided by Entangled Publishing through Netgalley
Release Date: September 15
DNF at 64%
This started out in such a promising way, that I honestly thought I was going to love it!
Women who wore heels all day belonged in a mental institution for heinous self harm. Residency taught us to always look professional, and I envied the female docs who rocked nice shoes every day, but I drew the line with heels.
Hello, plantar fasciitis, anyone?
So imagine my surprise when highly educated twenty four year old Priya, a doctor, starts dishing out phrases such as this:
Tulsi had been raised in America and was borderline skank, and that was putting it nicely. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her like a crazy sister, but she led two distinct lives.
Skank?
With those words, Vicki tried to saunter away, but in those hooker boots, her ambling didn’t look natural.
Say what?
I watched cartoons in bed. Yes, a twenty-four-year-old doctor liked cartoons. Adult cartoons, not the smutty ones, just the ones with adult humor.
Of course!
Also, what smutty cartoons? o_O
Oh....never mind....
Having those intense eyes bore into my soul shook the foundation of my dislike for him.
Because this wouldn't be new adult (or even YA) if there weren't: "eyes boring into souls..." *sigh*
Now all of these gems were thrown in in the first 10 % of the book.
10%!!
One slut shaming quote per se, would be too much in a text. Now all of these?
This would have been enough for me to throw the book out a window... if I weren't reading in a pc... and if this weren't an arc...
So because this was an arc I forced myself to keep reading it!
I really need to stop doing that...
Because unfortunately this never got better, and only ended up being a waste of my time.
The writing
Basic. Plain. Basically it was like reading a grocery list. The dual POV's didn't help things, mainly because Tyler's voice wasn't that differentiated from Priya.
The day faded away.
Adele played in the background.
My sore feet and back unwound.
The characters
No depth to them... besides their passionate nature!
It was said that "what's his name... Tyler" felt attracted to Priya, and after a while she gets attracted to him as well.
And that was it.
I wanted to see their relationship grow! I wanted to see these two people with so very different backgrounds fall in love. I didn't get that. I got their lust... but that's not exactly the same thing...
Then almost everything in this story is told: this went well... we did that...
It becomes monotone.
And then for those of you, who think that slut shaming was only delivered on those first 10% of the story... yeah, think again.
Tulsi: Roped into a wedding?
Priya: Shut up, hooker.
She's such a judgemental person, that honestly after awhile I couldn't care less about Priya:
I didn’t expect Ty’s friends to be so educated, sophisticated. For a bar musician, he had an intellectual inner circle.
They were the ones who were screwing guys in college and wearing ho outfits.
I've decided to start counting some problematic words that should be used in stories as little as possible.
You know? Those words that really get on our nerves?
Like giggles... and blushed... inner goddess...
Score for "Priya In Heels": #14 "giggled"
That's fourteen times "giggled" too much...
What's wrong with using: She laughed?
Drama, drama, drama
I was expecting some drama due to the "clash of cultures" in which the story was founded. That was to be expected.
I wasn't however prepared for the level of soap opera drama that ends up appearing.
That was when I decided to quit reading this because... no.
I draw a line at promises extracted at death beds.
Bottom Line: This had everything to be a successful story, if the characters had been properly developed, if the writing style had been more worked, and if the plot hadn't derailed into the overly dramatic.
*cough, basically all the things that make a new adult title... a new adult title!*
I liked the fact that we were given some background information on Indian costumes, and the fact that the author didn't try to hide the "ugly side" of arranged marriages.
So once again it seems that the "new adult" stories are not for me.
But give it a try. If what I mentioned doesn't bother you, this is bound to be a fast read.
*quotes removed from an Arc.
Buy "Priya In Heels"
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