"But the real you wants to take the plunge, drown with me. Come on."

Honestly, this book was what I needed to give me a quick break from all the fantasy I’ve been reading lately. Maybe I would rate it lower if I was in a romance mood and felt like being judgy, but whatever. It was by no means a literary masterpiece, but L. J. Shen’s books are always quick reads and this one was no different.

⇢Mad and Chase
So, you know how L. J. Shen has a lot of similar protagonists? This book sort of made that clear, because the main characters Maddie and Chase reminded me a lot of her other characters.

Specifically, Maddie gave me Sailor vibes (Not even sure why, because they have pretty different hobbies), and Chase gave me Vicious and Hunter and Cillian all mixed into one vibes. That isn’t to say that they weren’t interesting to read about, but that’s just something I wanted to mention.

Similarities aside, I liked Maddie a lot more than Chase, which is usually what happens with L. J. Shen’s books anyway, so nothing out of the ordinary. I liked how her mother’s death shaped the person that she became and while I get why some people were annoyed by her personality, I sort of found it endearing.

“When did you become so”—he searched for the right word—“fierce?” I smiled. “Since I found out being a pushover doesn’t equal being nice. Being strong is not only kind on myself—but on other people too.”

As for their romance, it was pretty fun. Sometimes the lack of communication made me a little angry, but I enjoyed seeing them pretend to be engaged and slowly open back up to each other. Side note: I always say that I’m over the fake dating/engagement/marriage trope but then I usually enjoy it? I can’t make up my mind at all.

“Everyone else tries to be someone else around you. To fit into your neat, all-Black universe. I live in color. I guess that’s a challenge for you.”

⇢The Plot

A lot of random mini-plots happened in this book, especially considering the genre, from the fake engagement to the not-really love triangle to the engagement events to the workplace scandals to the CEO drama to the family issues to Ronan’s sickness. Yeah, a lot.

So while it made things more enjoyable in the moment, I wish that L. J. Shen had taken the time to delve more into a few of the aspects rather than fitting so much into this book and not expanding on those ideas. But maybe that’s too much criticism for something that’s supposed to be a light romance lol.

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