Insta-Hate
by C.L. Bond
Released: May 2016
Review by Rachel
*Synopsis*
When Alexandria Ray’s romance series becomes an overnight sensation, the world and its demands close in on her. After years of struggling to maintain the pace her publisher, agent and the world expects, she needs a break. Enrolling as a student at Columbia University is step one to finding herself again. Finding Arsen Daniel was not on her list.
Arsen Daniel, along with his best friend, built an empire in the form of an exclusive, psychology-based dating service. When an old friend invites him to teach a course at Columbia, he accepts. The course? The Psychology of Love. Sounds simple enough and the publicity alone will make it worth his time.
Arsen didn’t expect to meet his match in the form of a sarcastic blonde, hell bent on holding to her belief that true love doesn’t actually exist. After all, what woman, especially a world-renowned romance writer, doesn’t believe in happily ever after?
Something in Alexandria’s eyes tortures him. She reminds him of someone from his past and that is a very bad thing.
Arsen Daniel, along with his best friend, built an empire in the form of an exclusive, psychology-based dating service. When an old friend invites him to teach a course at Columbia, he accepts. The course? The Psychology of Love. Sounds simple enough and the publicity alone will make it worth his time.
Arsen didn’t expect to meet his match in the form of a sarcastic blonde, hell bent on holding to her belief that true love doesn’t actually exist. After all, what woman, especially a world-renowned romance writer, doesn’t believe in happily ever after?
Something in Alexandria’s eyes tortures him. She reminds him of someone from his past and that is a very bad thing.
~Review~
First, let me say that I LOVE this cover. It's beautiful. It drew me in and made me excited for what was held inside. With that said, and I feel terrible for saying this, but Insta-Hate.....I kinda hated you.
That hurts me to type, because I know how much work authors pour into their babies/books, but...it is what it is. There was so much potential here, but it completely fell flat for me.
After I finished reading the book I went back to the blurb, scratching my head a little bit because it didn't really mesh. It states that Alexandria is a world renowned, over night sensation, but it never really conveyed that depth of success to me. Also, it says she enrolls at Colombia after deciding to take a break from her agent/publisher, but in actuality she just takes one class. That one isn't really a big deal, more of an observation.
There is a lot more to this story that I won't come out and state at this point because I don't want to completely spoil it up front. A lot of people seemed to love this book. The reviews I came across before reading it were mostly on the positive side.
For me, Insta-hate was all over the place. There always seemed to be a new secret, big "thing", or revealing information that would come out of nowhere and it just didn't work for me.
It was one huge sh*t storm after another and it felt so chaotic that I didn’t have time to process it, or even really care. Nothing was said to explain how Alexandria/Lexie got from the incident in high school to where she is now, and that seems like it should've been an imperative aspect to the story.
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| How I felt about the characters! |
*SPOILERS ahead for the next paragraph*
Regarding Lexie and Arsen....
Why would they (her mom/sister) keep Lexie and Arsen apart? I did not understand that at all.
Why did they keep the child from him?
It seemed like they never gave her a chance to even attempt to recover.
And WHY is Lexie always pissy towards her mom and then it's suddenly...*Oh, mom’s dying, and you haven’t been calling her."
Her sister yells at her, “I’m through with you!”….after they fight about what's going on with their mom. That felt like it came out of nowhere, seeing that Lexie's adult life thus far has been a lie, in a way, because of her memory loss/brain injury ordeal.
I know this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but...that's exactly how it felt while reading it.
A big load of *umm, what?!?!*
And Arsen, you are so dumb. Completely childish decisions made by someone that was smart enough to build this mega empire/high tech dating software. It didn't make any sense that he did what he did. Absolutely none.
The whole character of Catherine was completely unnecessary. I was irritated more than anything with that whole situation.
When they finally get their heads out of their asses, Lexie starts remembering things from her past and while they're reminiscing Arsen tells Lexie that they called her Sexy Lexie in high school….
Well, here's my problem with that...she wasn’t even Lexie back then! Her mom had moved and changed her name to Alexandria after the "accident".
When they finally get their heads out of their asses, Lexie starts remembering things from her past and while they're reminiscing Arsen tells Lexie that they called her Sexy Lexie in high school….
Well, here's my problem with that...she wasn’t even Lexie back then! Her mom had moved and changed her name to Alexandria after the "accident".
*SPOILERS OVER*
******
I wanted to like this book so badly. I'm truly sad that it ended up being a huge bust for me with that beautiful cover. I may not have cared for it, but Insta-Hate has quite a few positive reviews on Amazon so maybe you'll enjoy it if you want to give it a shot.
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