This book was painful to read. I would say it reads like fanfiction, but that would be an insult to fanfiction.

The writing is probably among the worst I’ve ever seen in a traditionally published book. I cannot believe someone edited this and gave their okay. I get it’s supposed to be YA, but it’s the most childish, atrocious thing I’ve read in a long time. There’s of course only telling and no showing, all the insights we get to the characters are explained as if the reader is a 5-year old, I can’t even count how many times I rolled my eyes at this. The dialogue too is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know if the author actually talks to other people? Who talks liked that?! The conversations between the MCs are so incredibly cringy, this was me any time they talked:

Don’t get me started with the FMC Evie, who is probably the most insufferable character I’ve ever witnessed in a book (or at least very high up there). She’s the embodiment of the manic pixie dream girl, who is also sooooo clumsy and can’t do anything right, but also apparently the whole company only functions when she’s around, because she’s just so incredible at her job. The amount of times she injures herself and falls into the MMCs arms or she says something stupid about him and he just happens to be standing behind her. It’s literally the same scene regurgitated again and again throughout the whole damn book. The MMC is only minimally more bearable than she is. He simply can’t get his story straight, because he’s supposed to be so evil, but it’s clear from the start that he really isn’t. The “real” villains of the story (which from the beginning it’s extremely obvious it’s gonna be the King and his Guards) are so comically evil, that it’s impossible to take anything they say seriously.

Also, the “slow burn” is not an actual slow burn! It’s just two adults that are so clearly in love with each other, but are incapable of reading body language and communicating with each other. Literally everyone knows they are in love and repeatedly mention this in front of the MCs and they are still apparently absolutely clueless. It’s incredibly annoying. The fact that the author did a time jump of 5 months from the prologue (where Evie got hired) to the start of the book also just shows that she’s incapable of writing good character development, since the book starts with them already having feelings. We don’t get told why, we don’t get shown the beginning of their work relationship, we don’t to witness the developing feelings. We just get thrown into an extremely inappropriate work setting with two fucking idiots who need to open their eyes and talk. If I was a co-worker I would honestly go to HR and ask for them to be reprimanded, because tell me why he (the boss) calls her (his assistant) little tornado AT WORK. What the actual fuck.

I understand this is a book, that doesn’t take itself seriously, but it’s simply not well executed. There are a ton of other books that are tropey in an unserious way, but it’s fun, because the characters are fleshed out and the writing is actually immersive and readable without developing an aneurysm.

Edit: 1 star for characters, because I liked the frog (who coincidentally can’t talk)