My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Received: ARC
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
Publisher: Atria Books
Point of View: First Person (Rosie & Luca)
Genres & Themes: Romance, Contemporary
BLURB:
From the author of the Goodreads Choice Award winner The Spanish Love Deception, the eagerly anticipated follow-up featuring Rosie Graham and Lucas Martín, who are forced to share a New York apartment.
Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well-paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks.
Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline.
REVIEW:
it’s me, I’m the drama
I shouldn’t be writing this review. I don’t even know how to write this review. Recently, I sat talking about this book and the way I’m feeling so ambivalent about it all. I commented how it’d be hard to write a review since I didn’t hate it. Which prompted the question if I only write reviews when I hate a book…which I don’t. In the latest years, to not completely burn out of writing reviews, I tend to only write them when I either really like a book or I hate it. This book fits neither of those criteria. The thing is that with Elena Armas’ debut novel, The Spanish Love Deception (TSLD), I had quite a bit to say and that was far easier. If there were a way to rate with a word, I’d affirm it with a “fine.” It was fine, just fine, as a romance novel. Fine in the way that painting a wall makes you feel. It’s not a particularly enjoyable task. You might even find it calming in the way that any monotonous task induces you into a trance-like state. Fine in that way that makes you think it was alright, and though you didn’t hate it or love it, you’ll soon forget it.
In The American Roommate Experiment (TARE), we follow Rosie, Lina’s best friend, and Luca, Lina’s cousin, as they finally meet each other. Rosie, who had hoped she’d meet Luca at Lina and Aaron’s wedding, especially after following his posts (but not actually following his account) and developing a small crush on the guy. Except he never showed up. Flashforward to TARE and Rosie is essentially homeless as her roof literally caves into her room and her only option is Lina’s deserted apartment. Except, unbeknownst to her, the apartment has been compromised and promised to Luca. Soon, they’re agreeing to share the one-bed, open-plan apartment (without Lina knowing this, by the way). As one thing leads to another, they’re soon agreeing to not only be roommates but partners in the experiment of romance. See, Rosie has quit her job as an engineer to pursue her dreams of being a romance writer. Except she has major writer’s block. In comes, Luca to the rescue, and four dates are secured.
But Luca promised not to fall for Rosie. He’s not in the market for a relationship, and the reason why he’s in the United States might be more serious than the family knows. Not only does Rosie have a deadline, but so does Luca. He’s due back in Spain as his vacation and visa are coming to an end.
If I asked you right now, as you’ve finished reading that synopsis, and asked you to plot out the rest. The conflict, the romance development, and the ending, I can guarantee you’d figure it out.
Some things that I liked:
- Luca is often described by blurbs and reviewers as “sunshine,” and I think he’s sunshine in a different way that sunshine characters are typically ascribed to be—I think that makes sense only to me. But I’m a big lover of sunshine characters, and I don’t think he fits the bill.
- He is, though, a genuinely good guy. Constantly making sure Rosie feels comfortable in any situation, from the get-go, being a pillar for her, helping her out in any way and those around him.
- In a way, they did communicate.
- The dates, although kind of generic, were fun. In that they dated.
- They sounded and acted grown, unlike Lina and Aaron.
Some things that were “ehh”:
- The Spanish. Why must we italicize Spanish? You see what I just did there with the ‘why’? And the way I just emphasize that word and make sure stress it in your head? Whenever Luca used Spanish— a word at the end of a sentence, on a whole sentence, or when he called Rosie Ángel, it would just take me out of reading and make the Spanish just sound stressed out and emphasized and so not natural. I get that publishers say that it would take non-Spanish speakers out of their reading, but it makes the Spanish inauthentic for a Spanish speaker. Especially when it’s supposed to be a Spanish-speaking character.
- The dates. They were just kind of eh. I get that they were planned out, but all of them were a bit generic and I could just imagine Lina waiting all day for this small portion of a date. I’m sorry but just not that impressed.
- So. You mean to tell me Miss Rosie wrote one book, got offered a publishing deal and she quit her job to be a full-time writer? Was the deal a five-book deal? Set for life? Advance so big you’re set for life?
- So. Imagine your brother has been avoiding you for months now. Being evasive. Suddenly, he tells you he’s working at a nightclub, though he’s done that and quit before, didn’t like being a waitress. Yet, now he’s doing hella good money. Like super well off, but he’s not being a waitress or a bartender, but he’s being super sus about it—what’s your first thought?
- Do not tell me your mind doesn’t jump to a stripper.
- First thought, best thought.
- Why does it take being spelled out for Rosie to catch on…
- 400 pages. Where is the plot? Why were 400 pages needed?
- Why did the conflict (third act ______ up) happen until we’re at the 90 percent mark?
- I think we didn’t need Luca’s POV. A little bit of mystery goes a long way.
I honestly think a lot will like this novel, and that’s totally fine. I think my issue is that I wanted a hella good romance. One that would have me giggling and smiling at the banter, loving the chemistry, eating up the dating. Unfortunately, I think this is a romance that’s generic at best, lukewarm in its romance.
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