Love Interest Paperback – April 10, 2018

One of the books I was looking forward to eagerly was this one – The Love Interest. The premise of two spies who were supposed to the rival honeypots, instead falling in love with each other had me excited. As a concept, it is definitely novel and I was excited to see how the story would play out. When I did read through a third of it, though, I was starting to get disappointed. I don’t know if I hyped it in my mind, but it was not the amazing novel I was hoping for.In the world of the Love Interest, a secret organization above the law keeps and brings up orphan or foster kids as Love Interests, spies whose only mission is to integrate themselves into their assigned targets’s lives and pass on information. Now, this of course makes you suspend belief because it assumes that the person has to be a lifelong partner – like they are expecting them to hang on in relationships in this century! (It is explained away in the ending, but I was not wholly convinced) Caden and Dylan are a Nice and a Bad, respectively, a call out to the trope of the nice guy and the bad boy, often found in YA lit. In fact, the novel subtly and sometimes even overtly pokes fun at YA lit tropes, especially those that are usually found in contemporary fiction.Anyway, Caden and Dylan start to bond and form a friendship, and before long Caden starts to realize that he is falling for Dylan. Their being rivals for their target, Juliet, and a death sentence for the one who fails, their relationship is of course the opposite of ideal circumstances. It grows and they sneak around, but neither can deny that there is no future for them. It is kind of a YOLO love plot, and it is cute, but you know what would have been better? If we had a Dylan POV as well! And the whole targeting teenagers for lifelong spy partners was on shaky ground. Aged up characters (like maybe college or post-college) would have probably been more apt for this storyline.Moving onto the world-building, I felt it was very basic and explained away simply as – secret spy organization so secret that even the government does not know. They have all this cool tech and all, and are hiding away these kids in centers all over the world, but nah – NO ONE KNOWS! *sigh* I expected better. Even Juliet and her tech comes across as rudimentary. The girl is a freaking genius, but it is all pushed aside for teenage angst. The science fiction element of the plot felt wasted when Caden had a handler who sometimes could listen to him, but sometimes did not. The whole implant thing itself was barely explained! It is speaking telepathically or reading thoughts? Because it seemed to be both at once!Overall, I was sort of disappointed in the book. Don’t get me wrong – it was enjoyable, and the writing is pretty good, but it felt like the book tried to be many things and just settled on being a gay romance plot, rather than being a genre fiction with gay characters.

This book is capital B Bad.It's as simple as that.It may even be one of the worst books I've ever read.Mainly, it's the writing. As I've mentioned in a few updates, it comes off as wholly generic, amateurish, and seeming as if written by a horny teenager on Tumblr trying their hand at some sort of fanfiction. There is nothing that makes it spark, leaving it a lifeless husk of empty words and pages that may as well have been blank with stick figure drawings in place of plot points. It's a fine example, too, of 'telling-not-showing'. I cringed the whole way through, but mostly that's due to the fact that the author could get something this bland published. The world ain't fair, you see.*Instead of opting for coherency and structure in the latter half of this review, I'll just copy & paste the observations I jotted down in my notebook while reading:-"...the world's most covert and powerful spy organization" had me laughing. Seriously, it's handled like Kindergarten. None of these people exude any sort of professional demeanor or competence. Caden is given his "backstory" for his mission role, but it's settled in a crash-course style only a few hours before meeting his mark. That would not happen. Kaylee, his handler explaining all of this, is just a tool for exposition, and nothing more. Although her character is present throughout (in a way), she completely vanishes towards the end with no explanation. That's poor plotting.-The Love Interests have no credibility as "spies" at a prestigious private school, because they are all basic and stupid.-The attempts at humor are mediocre and flat. To put it simply: not funny.-Nicki Minaj: The MC is obsessed with her, which actually did make me laugh, but because he talks about her and Beyoncé like many of my gay friends do. So, ya know, it was blatantly obvious within the first few chapters where this was going. Also, nothing against liking her or her music, but it felt out of place in a novel such as this.-All the post-millennial bs is so utterly juvenile and distracting.-I can't deal with all these plot holes. It's excruciating how poorly executed this story is in terms of writing, character, plot progression, etc.-- it fails on every level.-I find it funny just how unimpressive the "LIC" is, as well as those that come from it. Caden and Dylan, especially. I mean, you were raised in a covert spy school, and yet you have absolutely nothing to show for it. The "Love Interests" might as well have been average Joe's and Jane's plucked off the streets for the amount of knowledge and expertise they presented themselves with.-I'd give examples to support all my criticisms, that is, if I weren't too busy trying to move on with my life, and as far away from Cale Dietrich's 'The Love Interest' as I can humanly get.Maybe I'll take this book to my local mall, chuck the blasted thing into Claire's or Forever 21 like it's on fire, and run like Hell...Maybe I'll steal a boat, jettison across the great wide blue, wrap the book in chains and drop it in the middle of the Atlantic...Maybe I'll just stop talking about it and never mention it again...These daydreams entertain me more than the book I just read.

Well… What can I say? I really really loved the romance in this book. But the world building was a mess. If it was supposed to be proper dystopian YA it wasn’t thought throw enough. Too many plot holes, even if I know quite a few popular, award winning even, dystopias with a lot less sense behind the premise. But if the book was intended as parody on the genre, which I quite sure it was, the stuff was not enough ridiculous or exaggerated. For instance if the bad guys were aliens it would have be perfect. I mean life is so much more complicated than Nice vs Bad love interest. But evil alien plot could make the use of the stereotype so much more logical… Just saying. Also I wish the side characters were developed a bit more, the girls in particular.On other hand there is the love story. Perfect, tender, charming romance; totally realistic and adorable. I swallowed the book in 2 days, because the romance outshined the plot holes by far. Especially because I really liked Caden as narrator. And I loved Dyl as the True love interest.And then there was the epilogue. Little brilliant piece of romantic writing. This epilogue along deserves the 4 star rating!

The Love Interest is fantastic! I think the concept is original and fantastic, it gave me sort of sci-fi vibes too which was really interesting.The characters are likeable and somehow relatable even despite their unusual circumstances. I loved Caden and Dyl so much!! Every interaction made me smile and swoon just a little bit more.I think the author does a fantastic job in providing a fantastical plot that’s filled with relatable characters who you can’t help but care about whilst also featuring a really strong LGBT message, as well as being a strong advocate for self-acceptance."I didn't exist to teach her a lesson, and it irks me that she thinks labelling me is okay now. Like, by liking guys I automatically take on that role in her life. That I'm suddenly a supporting character in her story rather than the hero of my own."I was asked in another post if this story features a love triangle, and without giving too much away, whilst it does feature certain elements of a love triangle, it certainly doesn’t follow the usual stereotypes.The pace is great, I never once found myself drifting off or getting bored, I was fully invested in the story from the very beginning. The characters are compelling, the ‘antagonists’ are menacing and, in some cases, downright creepy!The slow burn romance was perfection, it was so sweet (even with the slight confusion towards the end) and features probably my favourite romance trope of all time! It was light-hearted, sweet and so much fun to read.There were a couple of plot points I was unsure of and have a few questions about, like, why Dyl lied, and why the LIC feel the need to incinerate EVERYONE, but it was nothing major and certainly didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story.Overall, I’d highly recommend this fast-paced, action-packed, diverse YA to anyone looking for a new take on the traditional ‘spy’ storyline. It actually reminded me a little bit of the film ‘This Means War’ (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it) but with more creepy robots, cool inventions and teenage angst.

I went into this book with an open mind and not expecting anything, as it's not my usual style as I tend to stay away from spy novels, but this isn't your typical spy novel. I loved the idea of the ILC as for me it's a new and refreshing concept. I loved Cayden and his relation with Dyl and Juliette. I loved how the story played out and the way it was written. It was funny in parts and I really resonated with how the characters were feeling. Some of the twists kept me on my toes and I honestly did not see how this story was going to end. 12\10 would read again and I look forward to reading more by Cale Dietrich! Honestly I find it a struggle to find a good novel with a gay protagonist and this novel filled that void and more!!

This book was such a big disappointment to me. When I learnt that this book was about two spies trying to seduce the same girl and ultimately falling for each other, I was sold! How amazing does this book sound?!! Espionage! Romance! Sounds action packed to me.Well, it's not.There is no spying. The main character is just a teenage boy who has been picked as one of two ideal Love Interests for super smart Juliet. Neither boy has any real skill. They aren't the James Bond style spy I was sort of expecting. They are just the observe and report kind. It's boring. It's basically just a high school love triangle with some action thrown in at the end.And then there are the characters. MC Caden is seemingly obsessed with ab's (his own and those of others), Juliet is a bit of a doormat, and Trevor and Nathalie feel like the obligatory best friend characters. Honestly, all the characters are so flat and I didn't find myself caring about any of the distress they felt, not that any of the conflict they face ever carries on for more than a few pages.And then there's the writing. I feel like it could have done with another round of editing, if only to make the characters a bit more substantial. It wasn't the worst I've read for a debut novel, but it just adds to my disappointment.I considered giving The Love Interest 2 stars, but rather than dislike it, I just feel kind of 'meh' and sad about it. So 3 stars it is.

I was so excited about the premise, but I was disappointed after reading it. The book read slightly like a Fanfic and at one point I was curious if the two main characters had stepped out of a certain fandom and had their names changed (the similarities were getting quite funny part way through). It started so well and then completely ran out of steam. Like I said, the premise was pretty cool and it could have been amazing, but it just wasn't. The ending was just flat and a little unbelievable. I felt if the story had been given more time to breathe and develop it could have been amazing. I also think the author could have been braver with the romance between the two main characters, it felt too tame and by the end I wanted to cheer for them (like I had most of the book) - but I just couldn't. I just didn't care enough about any of the characters any more.A good read if you want to switch off, but just could have been so much better.

I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed the internal conflict of the main character between what is right, what he wants to do and what is expected of him.

The Love Interest plays with well-known tropes in the world of YA, particularly the love-triangle relationship of one girl and two guys, one of which is the best childhood friend next door, the other the mysterious bad boy with a tortured past.The idea of a spy organisation that trains boys to be either a Nice (boy next door) or Bad (bad boy) who are meant to compete for a Chosen girl's love, get together with her and spy on her for the rest of their lives while the one not chosen gets executed, is WILD - but I was willing to accept it and the surrounding circumstances, since the book is honest about it from the start. I think it's awesome to explore this concept, particularly under the premise of the Nice boy and the Bad boy falling in love with each other rather than the Chosen girl.Another nice touch was the girl being the genius scientist with world altering inventions while the two boys are literal eye candy to the point of being so obsessed with their appearance that they have to keep their muscle circumference within a certain range for maximum appeal, having all their interactions scripted, and there being key events like taking-of-your-shirt-in-front-of-the-girl, all painstakingly organised for the best effect.This has so much potential, and it's fun to read about for the most part... except the execution leaves much to be desired. I would have expected the book to not take itself too seriously, but I couldn't figure out if that was the case or not. Explanations were lacking, contradictory, confusing or too simplyfied, which made many of the things not work. An example for this is how the Bad Boy stereotype often treats the girl badly, which somehow is supposed to signal his interest and make her want to "save" him from himself or something - but here it is taken too far in the sense that the Bad, Dylan, is instructed to literally hurt the girl, Juliet. His interactions with her are absurd and just plain mean.Generally the dialogue and many interactions within the book just doesn't work. It often felt awkward and stilted, and much of it broke my suspension of disbelief.Another thing that broke that suspension was Juliet herself. She is literally a genius, yet she just accepts the absurd circumstances around Cayden and Dylan inserting themselves into her life and how they go about it. Especially how she considers Dylan, who physically hurts her and pushes her around, a valid romantic option was a mystery to me.There were also other details around Cayden's being a spy that didn't make sense or didn't tie into the rest of the plot that ended up feeling unfitting and unecessary, like his fake parents being super mean, the mention of soul mates that was never brought up again, or the random evil scientist towards the end.What really threw me off was the ending. It feels like an entire chapter before the epilogue is missing, with key details and mentions of if they even really achieved their goal simply missing. This not just affects the plot but also the romance.Generall the romance was kind of luke-warm. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't as if Cayden really fell head-over-heels in love, and the love interest's (no pun intended) feelings remain largely unclear. There was however an unexpected element to it which would have been cool, except it was also mostly unresolved and not explained.I did like Cayden as protagonist however. Him being a good liar and actor was exciting, especially in contrast to how he really feels. But even there were some inconsistencies, with him going on about how he's not a Nice at the beginning with no explanation which is just forgotten at the end, even though it would have been easy to bring back and tie up neatly.I did have a pleasant enough time reading The Love Interest but it just didn't live up to what it could have been, especially since there were several lines that are truly great and meaningful. To me it seems like it was a bad choice for a debut novel, with a subject matter too complex for the writing at this point.Content warnings include: child abuse, violence and death.

The Love Interest is about two people fighting for the affection of Juliet, only to fall in love with each other. I only wish it was as good as it sounded. Love Interests are people, usually teenagers, trained from a young age to become either Nice Guys or Bad Boys; they're sent to infiltrate the life of very important people or people who will be important in future as their romantic partner. Whomever doesn't gain the affection of the 'Chosen One' is killed. Which is… kind of a waste, don't you think?The book pokes fun at a variety of YA and romance tropes (creepy staring, Nice Guy vs Bad Boy, meeting the love of your life in high school), but a lot of the time it comes off as awkward. It doesn't help that there really isn't much to the characters in the novel including Caden who's our narrator.Caden's characterisation is a bit all over the place; he's sometimes decent, mostly bland, and attempts to be snarky and then immediately feels bad about it. There were times where I liked him, and times where I just didn't care, but he did have some fun moments. I quite liked some of his moments with Dylan, but after finishing the book they've kind of been put in a negative light for me.Dylan is adaptable, and that's all I can really think to say about him. That's all I really know about him from this book, to be honest. This book would have really benefitted from multiple points of view, or alternating points of view between Dylan and Caden. While it would have ruined a particularly awful (and not in a good way) twist that comes up later in the book it would have really helped with justifying some of the ending.Our other characters, Juliet, Tyson, and Natalie, could have definitely been fleshed out more. Juliet in particular considering she's the 'Chosen One' and the two of them were there to woo her. There are some instances where what she says or how she acts are just awkward as hell, and I really don't know how I feel about her as a character at all. Natalie and Tyson don't really have much characterisation outside of each other, and there are aspects of their relationship I don't like that were pretty brushed over.It was a quick read and kind of fun in places, but the ending requires a huge suspension of disbelief. The twist nearing the end, as well, about the relationship between Caden and Dylan was definitely not great, and the fact that we're told things that contradict it rather than shown didn't help. I don't believe the ending, and I don't think I ever will because we're not shown anything to make it seem sincere.I'm just really disappointed in this book, I wish it had been better.

“The Love Interest” is a slightly sci-fi young adult contemporary romance novel. Sounds confusing? Well, how about the plot. There is a nefarious secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. They are taken from their families and raised and trained to be perfect love interests for people who are destined for great power or influence. Those “love interests” are split into Nice and Bad, depending on their personality fit, and are constantly evaluated for various skills. Once they are deemed to be fit and are matched to their “chosen one”, they are then given the directives and are implanted into lives of those “chosen” to spy on them for the rest of their lives.Caden is a Nice, Dylan is a Bad. They are give the same target and the ultimate incentive to win this dangerous game: be chosen or be killed. But, unexpectedly, they start to develop feelings for each other.The plot summary was what attracted me to this book. I am not a huge fan of YA contemporary romance, but I love queer books and dystopian/sci-fi elements, so I was very excited to read it. Good thing that I purchased the book before I checked its rating on GoodReads or I might have never picked it up. As I am typing this, “Love Interest” has the rating of 3.18 on GR, and I try to never go for books which are under 3.5, because I get mostly disappointed (the only exception besides “Love Interest” was “Wink Poppy Midnight” which I adored).Let’s be fair here, “The Love Interest” is far from a strong debut novel. There are a lot of plot holes surrounding the secret organization and how it was dealt with. Especially, in the last third of the novel – I had an impression as if the author was rushing through the ending or didn’t have it fully outlined, because everything that was happening was just too fantastical to be real. Some of the characters were too two dimensional for my taste and some of their actions were just implausible.The good thing about this book is that it is just pure fun. The first half or even two thirds of the book is just a pure satire and parody on a typical young adult romance. And it is intended to be such. I found the narration overall pleasant enough and the action was fun.I think that this book would have benefited from more editing and perhaps another round of revisions. I liked the idea of love interests/spies, I liked both Caden and Dylan. But the book lacked depth and even the moments that were supposed to move me felt a bit shallow as they were so brief. Not to mention the fact that the ending was extremely weak.Is it a great book? No, but it IS a fun book which I might even re-read if I need a good laugh (because some of those romance tropes were just hilarious). But most importantly – the book gave me exactly what I wanted to read: a queer love story. We don’t have enough of those in YA, even nowadays.I will definitely keep an eye on Cale’s books and hope to read more by him.

"Wouldn't it be better to send us in when we're a bit older? No one finds the love of their life while they're a teenager.""You haven't read any YA novels recently, have you?"So say the characters in this deliciously meta book that pokes fun at so many YA tropes, while somehow still making you swoon over them.Caden, a Nice, has to compete against Dyl, a Bad (complete with leather jacket and sob story to account for his jerky behaviour), to win the affections of their Chosen. The winner gets to spend the rest of his life at her side, spying on her. The loser gets incinerated.To makes things worse, Caden is falling in love with his competition.THE LOVE INTEREST is fast-paced and action-packed. It's sexy. It regularly says, "Oh by the way, I'm using Trope X right now" and makes you laugh because yeah, it totally is using that trope and you're totally swooning over it. I read most of it in a day because I couldn't put it down. This is definitely one you want to pick up.

Quando descobri que esse livro seria lançado, fiquei extremamente animado por causa da sinopse, parecia ser algo que eu morreria de amores, porém quando as resenhas começaram a aparecer a maioria era negativa e acabei me desanimando e até desistindo do livro por um tempo.O que me fez mudar de ideia foi um conselho que me deram, que basicamente diz que è bom saber a opinião dos outros, mas è ainda melhor ter a sua.No final gostei do livro, não foi melhor que já li, mas me diverti muito e consegui me importar com os personagens, portando o que queria dizer depois disso tudo è: Leia o que você quiser, cada livro è diferente para cada pessoa, então se arrisque!

The premise of this was great. A love triangle where it's the two guys who fall in love with each other? It's pretty neat, and that was only one of the great ideas that the author put in this book. A lot of it is a critique of modern YA fiction, and in that sense it definitely hit its mark. However, the execution wasn't as satisfying as the ideas behind it. The plot was all over the place and the dialogue didn't always feel natural, it was even often very cringy and forced. I would still give it 3 stars despite everything because I see all the effort that went into it and I can appreciate it as a piece of meta-literature if not as a novel per se.

Okay, I've been waiting for this book to be released for MONTHS because I read a really good early review. And I cannot express how much I loved it. Every part of it. Caden and Dyls' story is beautiful, heartbreaking, and rewarding. Juliet grows, even if it's not in the forefront of the story, you can see her character developement. Natalie and Trevor...I want a love like that, y'know? Just pure.This book was seriously good. Just read it. You won't regret it. It's funny, charming, serious, and full of uncertainty. It keeps you on your toes. But you just know that you can't stop rooting for the group of friends, because you're right there with them.I look forward to reading more books by Cale Dietrich.

Il libro è interessante. Stravolge molti degli stereotipi e dei cliché tipici degli young adult. Allo stesso tempo, si vede che è il primo libro pubblicato dell'autore: i personaggi secondari tendono ad essere abbastanza piatti, la narrazione non è fluida, e molti elementi si concentrano nella seconda parte del testo, lasciando la prima quasi vuota.Ma è una lettura che consiglio? Sì. Perché il libro parla di un personaggio che solitamente è relegato ad essere il "migliore amico" oppure il "braccio destro". In questo caso, lui è il protagonista - e la sua storia non si limita a quella di un coming out, ma è più grande.Quindi... il libro ha delle pecche? Sì. Ne vale comunque la pena? Al 101%.

Me parece un buen libro, definitivamente esperaba más de el y consideró que el final fue muy abrupto. Me hubiera gustado que se aclarará más la relación entre Caden y Dyl, pero en general lo disfruté mucho.

Sadly, this book gets messier than what it deserved. A waste of idea. I'll check Cale Dietrich's future work, because it was fun to read, though.