Review: Love at First Set

Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

She looks miserable and not a single person here seems to notice but me. 

Lizzie has worked at James' family gym for the last five years, moving up to front desk manager. With the family business expanding, Lizzie has her eye on a promotion and becoming manager of the new gym opening up and hopefully, getting her own gym someday. But Lizzie hasn't worked up the nerve to even apply for the promotion yet, so when James begs her to be his plus one at his sister's wedding, enticing Lizzie with one-on-one time with his parents to impress them, she begrudgingly agrees. And then has a drunken conversation with James' sister Cara where she convinces Cara to ditch her fiance and wedding. 

I stop and wait for her to look up. Her eyes are already blissed out and unfocused, her lips parted in the most devious of smiles. 

And oh, this is gonna be fun. 

As soon as Lizzie saw and talked with Cara, she was in instant lust but tried to stay away because of “bro code”, not wanting to hurt her friendship with James. Along with this, Lizzie had some self-worth issues, her mother is an alcoholic who depends on Lizzie for money and therefore Lizzie can't save up money to do the things she wants to do in life. Cara is a lawyer who has been the golden child and Lizzie can't see why Cara would ever want to be with her. This was all told in Lizzie's pov, present tense, so readers don't really get insights to other characters. There were a couple times it felt clear that Cara was trying to hit on Lizzie but mostly, we are getting everything from Lizzie's stream of conscious. I have some trouble with first person pov, present tense (ex. I jerk my head and am met with the biggest pair of brown eyes I've ever seen. I instantly think of cows. Wait. I don't mean... Like she doesn't look like a cow, just her eyes are big and soulful and tender like cows'. In a good way. Hot cow eyes. Wait, that's weird. ) but if that narrative style doesn't bother you, your mileage would vary. 

“I love her.” And I hate so much that the first time I say it out loud, Cara isn't around to hear it. 

Lizzie and James have a friendship that is touted as close brother sister but mostly seemed to consist of getting together to watch The Bachelor and bemoan James' love life and Lizzie's inability to take any steps forward for her dream of owning a gym. It was a little hard to cheer for Lizzie to get her dream when she couldn't even get herself to apply for a promotion that she talked about throughout the whole book. The only action she seems to take towards owning her own gym is scribbling drawings/notes on napkins. There were a couple scenes of her in the gym and a long yoga scene with Cara but it felt more like an idea to have the gym as a setting than having it part of the story. I had kind of the same thoughts with the characters, I could almost see the character names on a tag board with James – bff to Lizzie, gay, trainer, competitive with sister and Cara – Lizzie love interest, lawyer. The characters had defining components but like the setting, it didn't fill them out, they were pretty cardboard. James and Cara's mom played the villain but a tad too cartoon mustache twirling. 

What would happen if I leaned into the people I love, instead of racing away as far as I could get? What would happen if I trusted someone, well and truly trusted them? It could be fucking awful...but what if it wasn't? 

The first half was a little difficult for me to get into, while the second had more of what I thought worked well, Lizzie and Cara talking, interacting more. Lizzie and Cara did have good byplay and the dialogue between them felt natural and calmed the story down focusing on the growing getting to know someone attraction between two people. This did have an open door intimate scene but then more close the door, fade to black. Lizzie's mother's issues and how they affected her was introduced early but then the mom didn't really show up until the latter second half and was never really resolved. Instead, the ending deals more with James and Cara's mom and then resolving issues and blowups between Lizzie and James and Cara. The ending had harsh words spoken by all and for a more dramatic blowup it was resolved all too soon and quickly, giving a very rushed feeling ending. 

“Only for you,” I say, as she leans in for a kiss. 

The beginning was tough for me to get into, the first person pov, present tense along with Lizzie being glum because she wants her own gym, even though she won't even apply for a promotion she wants and the setting and characters with just tags instead of flushed, developed out feeling (also, Lizzie is twenty-four and thought this “We make quite the pair, a couple of queers, inching our way toward the wrong side of thirty”. Wrong side of thirty?? Skipping right past dreading thirty to WRONG SIDE, bleh). Lizzie and Cara's interactions did hit nicely at times and I could see them developing some feelings but the underdeveloped noise of everything else didn't deliver a supportive setting for them as much as I would have liked.

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