"The Love Interest" by Cale Dietrich

Love Interest came in one of my Book of the Month boxes back in 2017. It is Dietrich's debut novel. For a while, I actually was not sure if I'd read it and was seriously considering donating it to the library. However, I am glad I decided to give it a go. It was a solid 3-star read.

It is hard to pinpoint the genre exactly. It is speculative fiction set in the present-day US. There is a secret organization that raises and trains orphans to become future love interests of the famous and powerful. Basically, once a kid gets older and is deemed ready, he or she is assigned to a potentially powerful or famous person (think movie stars, athletes, scientists, etc). The idea is to do everything possible to get the celebrity to fall in love with the love interest and then spy on them. The organization thus trades in secrets and rules the world behind the scenes.

Our main protagonist Caden is a love interest, who is about to be released into the world to meet his Chosen one: Juliet is a young high school progeny who will clearly become a very talented scientist. One other thing worth mentioning is that the love interests are divided into the Nice and the Bad. So each potential target gets two love interests assigned to him or her: a Nice one and a Bad one. The love interests basically compete for the Chosen's heart, and whoever loses, dies.

Overall, I thought the premise was mildly interesting. I also liked the twist in the story. Caden is the Nice and his opposite - the Bad - is Dylan. They both begin vying for Juliet's attention (this was a great spoof on an overused YA trope), but then instead fall for each other.

I enjoyed the story for about two thirds of the book. The end in my opinion was a bit too good to be true. Everything was just too easy and unrealistic. Other than that. a great beach/vacation read. The author should definitely keep writing.