ARC Review: Not Looking by Alaina Rose

Thank you to Love Notes PR and Alaina Rose for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

My thoughts:

I am an absolute sucker for two people chatting online while also unknowingly knowing each other in real life - it's at the very top of my favorite trope list. I like when one character is torn between this online person that they know they get along really well with and this person in real life that they've just met but have a connection with. I like the moment of realization that it's been the same person the entire time. I think over all, I just love the idea that two people are so meant to be that they met on the great big internet and in real life. Alaina Rose nails this trope in Not Looking. It's made even better by Susan not wanting to like Dillon - she's set in her ways as a 39 year old single mom and Dillon throws her for a loop with his cheery fun uncle ways. I liked how much they had in common and how easily they fit into each others lives - they have a shared love for a podcast (which is how they meet online), they both love DnD and they both have teenage girls that they are trying to do their best to raise. When it came to the smut, I love how Dillon and Susan communicated because nothing is sexier than consent.

This book also felt like a major love letter to Michigan - my state. I knew that Alaina Rose was local but, in her writing, I could tell that she loves the state even in the fictional city that she created.

I think my biggest issue was with how Susan was acting like she is ancient - like she's only 39 but I would have guessed she was going on 50 with the way she spoke about herself. This may just be a personal issue as I don't view being in your late 30's as old but I am only 27 so maybe my mind will be changed by the time I am in my late 30's. There is also a part where they play DnD which I loved but I think the story would have benefited without the detailed description of the one shot they run, it didn't add to anything and just made the book longer. 

Synopsis:

A dislike to lovers, secret identity, match made in banter & bed.

Susan Merriman has her hands full. Single-mothering fourteen-year-old twin girls, she just wants to shuttle them to Starling Hills High School with minimum psychological damage. Without her planner and Dungeons and Dragons party to bolster her up, she’s not sure she could keep her whirlwind day-to-day in check.

Enter Dillon Weaver, Fun Uncle extraordinaire and new in Starling Hills after his job was “eliminated.” For the next few weeks, Dillon is in charge of his thirteen-year-old niece while her parents travel Europe. Talk about being thrown into a cave of trolls!

Both are fans of the same D&D podcast, chatting to each other in an online server. After they unknowingly meet at their girls’ soccer game, Dillon’s golden retriever energy couldn’t antagonize black cat Susan more. They run into each other at school pick-up and parent teacher conferences, with the final blow being when Dillon scores an invite to Susan’s D&D group.

Neither are looking for love, but they can’t deny the sparks. After all, they say the best things show up when you’re not looking.

GoodReads | Amazon 





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