Allison Avery is ready to start her dream Ph.D. program at Claymore University until she sees her ex-boyfriend Colin Benjamin sitting across from her. Not only did Colin steal a prestigious award out from under Allison in undergrad, but broke her heart just days after. When they are both chosen to TA for the same professor, who can only take one of them on as an advisee, their competitive sides come out again and this time Allison is going to win.
This is a second-chance romance/rivals to lovers that takes place in academia with a plus-size heroine. Additionally, Allison has a corgi named Monterey Jack and I just wanted to read all about him. I felt like the description of this book has so many buzzwords that I am here for.
I really wanted to like this book but I disliked Allison’s character so much. It took me a long time to finish the book because there were times I had to force myself to continue reading. My main problem with the book was that the author sets up this storyline where the justification for Allison’s hatred of Colin is due to some incident in the past when they were in undergrad together but then doesn’t tell us what that incident was until like 100 pages in. I spent so much time wondering what Colin did. Personally, I felt present Colin was not so bad, but Allison kept taking everything he said to her as an insult and I could not understand why. She came off as rude and very antagonizing without reason.
And then we find out that the reason for Allison’s hatred was because Colin stole the Rising Star award from Allison in undergrad. I had a bit of an issue with Allison’s reasoning here. I mean Allison is free to feel what she thinks, but in my opinion, Colin didn’t steal anything from her. Allison was applying for this award and then Colin changed his mind and also applied at the last minute and he won. There was no stealing. His application/essay/whatever they had to do to apply was obviously better and for Allison to claim that he stole it, really isn’t true. I would be super interested to hear Allison’s thought process if anyone other than her or Colin had won the award. Would she have thought the award was stolen then? Or was it just because it was Colin, her boyfriend who had watched her plan and apply for the award? It also bothered me that if Allison was so incensed that she didn’t win the award, why didn’t she apply for it the next year? Allison was a sophomore and Colin a senior when they applied so Allison had two more chances to win the award. The fact that she doesn’t apply her junior or senior year makes me think she is a sore loser.
I found both of these characters to be incredibly immature. For instance, Allison kept throwing things at Colin. I counted at least three times where she threw something like either a donut or a scrabble tile or piece of dough and I guess we were supposed to think this was cute? But all I thought was that she was throwing things at him and it was borderline abusive. Colin seemed to swing from charming to offensive and I’m not sure he had changed at all from undergrad. Add in the drinking seven cans of beer or five martinis at a party and all I could think was that maybe Allison had a binge drinking problem.
Perhaps I am too old and too far removed from academia to fully grasp the horrible things that Colin did but I don’t get the hatred for him that I read about in other reviews. Allison also seemed way too immature and insecure to be in a Ph.D. program. This book obviously was not for me.
I do wish there were more scenes with the corgi.
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