Review: Loving Jake

Loving Jake by Lisa Lanay
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Lisa Lanay's "Loving Jake" as much as I hoped I would. The main characters, Kimberly and Jake, weren't very well-developed, so I was left with a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the book. For example, what happened to Jake's parents that led to his grandfather raising him and his brother? What prompted their move from Texas to California, especially considering that his grandfather loved Texas so much?

Neither Jake nor Kimberly was particularly likeable, either. Kimberly seemed painfully naive and immature to me. She was convinced she loved Jake from the very beginning of the book based solely on memories she had of him from years before, but she didn't really know him and never mentioned anything specific that she even liked about him, other than perhaps his long hair. She also seemed to think that she could convince him they belonged together just by parading around in skimpy clothing and luring him into bed with her. Sex doesn't automatically equal love, and it was ridiculous for Kimberly to think that sleeping with Jake would be enough to convince him to give up his beloved career to stay in California with her forever.

However improbably, something about Kimberly's harebrained scheme must have actually worked because Jake had to try and talk himself out of being in love with her about a third of the way through the story. There was basically no relationship development up to that point, so it felt very much like insta-love to me. What really bothered me about their relationship, however, was their complete lack of ability to communicate. Instead of talking to each other, they both kept assuming that they already knew what the other one wanted, so they didn't give their partner agency over choices that directly affected them.

In addition to my issues with the characters and their relationship development, I was not a fan of certain aspects of the author's writing style. For example, phone calls were narrated only from one side (kind of like when a comedian is trying to tell a joke), which led to a lot of awkward repetition that wouldn't happen in real life. The narrative would have had a better flow if both sides of the conversation had been included. Also, there was no indication of how much time passed as the story progressed, which led to some confusion since there were apparently time jumps of several days/weeks between some of the chapters. A simple header saying something like "3 days later" inserted at the beginning of the chapter would provide some much-needed clarity.

Overall, while this wasn't the worst book I've ever read, I really can't recommend it. I will give the author another shot, however.

*ARC provided by the author/publisher via Hidden Gems Books. All opinions expressed are my own.

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