Well, Actually
A Novel
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3.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An utterly delightful and sexy second-chance romance between a black cat and golden retriever with Mazey Edding's signature sparkling voice!
Eva Kitt never expected to be the host of Sausage Talk, interviewing B-list celebrities over lukewarm hot dogs, instead of pursuing the journalism career she dreamed of. But when Eva’s impromptu public call out of her college ex goes viral, she’s thrust into the spotlight. It doesn’t help said ex is Rylie Cooper, a beloved social media personality that has built a platform on deconstructing toxic masculinity and teaching men how to be good partners.
Forced to confront Rylie on a live episode of Sausage Talk, he offers Eva a deal: allow him to take her on a series of dates to make up for his toxic behavior, then debrief them on his channel to show he’s changed. Eva refuses to play nice, but agrees to the scheme to advance her own career and continue defaming Rylie’s good name. When these manufactured dates start to feel real, Eva has to wonder if the boy that broke her heart has become the man that might heal it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eddings (Late Bloomer) takes clear inspiration from Chicken Shop Date in this witty contemporary. Sharp-tongued Eva Kitt, 27, aspires to be a serious journalist. For now, however, she's the host of Sausage Talk, a social media video series in which she interviews lesser-known celebrities while eating and opining about hot dog preferences. Meanwhile, her college ex Rylie Cooper, a frat bro who ghosted her, has made a name for himself as a well-respected podcaster focused on unlearning toxic masculinity. When Eva makes a drunken post detailing their history and calling out his hypocrisy, her rant goes viral and her boss forces her to bring Rylie onto the show. During the interview, ever-charming Rylie gets Eva to agree to go on six dates with him so he can prove he has changed. This project gets off to a bumpy start, but even as awkward and tense moments abound, Eva can't shake her attraction to Rylie—especially when he opens up to her about the traumatic reason why he stopped answering her calls. Eddings's unflinching depiction of toxic social media comments adds authenticity and depth to the proceedings. The setup is clever and the eventual love scenes are sensuous. The author's fans will not be disappointed.
Customer Reviews
Ugh
Would recommend if you like a preachy narrative with an entire ensemble of unlikable characters. I get that straight people need to learn about queer things but if I was 1. not queer and 2. a homophobe, the preachy tone of this book would not make me more understanding or accepting. I mean I literally am queer and the queer subplot just felt self indulgent and poorly done, like everyone had no discerning personality traits besides being LGBTQ+ which representation is important but not when it’s reductive—like the author was checking off the diversity boxes. Adding reference to memes like the Paul Rudd hot ones meme and things of the like will make this book topical and relevant for all of zero seconds considering this book came out today and that meme died like a year ago? Maybe I’ll revisit this review when I’m not on my period and don’t feel like I’ve spent 11 dollars to get about 3 dollars worth of entertainment in banter. The entire relationship felt coercive, even the resolution. Honestly this book makes me want to rag on the author more than it makes me want to rag on the book simply because it’s their fault for writing this stupid thing. Definitely turned into a hate read around the 30% mark.
Oh my god I just went to read the end again and talk about tonal whiplash. Seriously this book sucked. When I read a romance I want to feel good and this only made me feel patronized, irritated, frustrated and a veritable maelstrom of other negative emotions.
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Mean girl story. Shes just not kind which mad me sad