This is the first Mason Deaver book I’ve ever DNF’d. There had to be one that didn’t hit for me I guess.

I originally got this as an eARC, gave it a shot, couldn’t get past how the first 5% of the book was just Eli lamenting about his ex (who was a really crappy boyfriend actually) and how he’s pretty sure he’s still in love with him. If This had been a second chance romance, I could see why were spending all this time doing that. But it’s not.

I recently read Mason’s newest release (which I loved) so I decided to give Build-a-Boyfriend another shot. And this is just not for me. I pushed through the Ex talk and day dreaming all to make it to maybe 10%. Eli hates where he works but he also wants to be a Staff Writer and ya know what that’s fine babe, have dreams. But he doesn’t even like the content and media the company makes, he likes what they used to do. And for some reason, even after years of being told his submissions aren’t the direction the company is going anymore (they want fluffier pieces not “hard hitting” pieces), Eli is determined that if he can get on as a staff writer he can turn the company around and back to the real would journalism they used to focus on. By himself. Sir, what do you mean. Just find a different company that aligns with your style. I’m begging.

Anyway. This one just isn’t for me. I can’t make it through a whole book of this.

this could have been 100 pages shorter and I might have loved it.

the character work was great. I loved the cast and all of their personalities felt full and different. I also loved the sentient house/shop aspect. but there were quite a few points where I felt like I was just slogging through overly explained or repetitive moments. while some of the over explanation was part of Mael's character traits most of it went to the repetitive moments and really took me out of the story. one of my biggest pet peeves in writing is breaking up the dialogue with long expanses of internal thoughts and this happened constantly. there isn't a single conversation that I can remember that was smooth or flowing. there was also zero sense of urgency in finding the dragon egg which really should have been an urgent thing.

as much as I enjoyed the characters, I don't think this series is one I will continue