"All the Feels" by Olivia Dade

Last year I read Spoiler Alert by this author, and All the Feels is set in the same world but follows different characters who had only episodic appearances in book 1. I have to be frank and state up front that I did not like the first book. In fact, I DNF’ed about half way through. My main problem with it was the insta-love and I just hated all the sex scenes. Something about Dade’s writing just did not agree with me.

Now on to book two. In All the Feels, we follow Alex and Lauren’s story. Alex is an actor on the same TV show that we learned about in book one. Lauren was hired by the studio to be his minder and keep him out of trouble. I enjoyed this book much more than the first one. Largely, I would say it is because the romance between Alex and Lauren develops gradually over a span of several months. They get to know each other’s backgrounds and become friends before any romantic feelings emerge. 

That being said, I do still have some issues with Dade’s writing and I think I can now put my finger on what it is. As in book one, we have the heroine who has a larger body and does not fit what would be normally considered the standard notion of beauty. The hero on the other hand, is unbelievably fit and sexy. In addition, in both books the hero has a minor learning/medical disorder. Marcus had dyslexia and Alex has ADHD. What I find a bit uncomfortable is that on the one hand the author seems to want to challenge the established standards of beauty that in romance novels would be exemplified by a gorgeous, fit, slender heroine. On the other hand, her heroes tend to be unrealistically (think, literally movie star quality) beautiful and sexy. The narrative repeatedly emphasizes the hero’s “lean limbs” and “fit body”. So I am not sure why she literally applies this double standard to female and male characters. Also, I was not sure why she needed to endow both of them with learning/mental health disorders. Was that to balance out their gorgeous bodies? 

The other thing that grated on me was the fact the author repeatedly called the main heroine “ugly”. Now, Lauren might have irregular features, or be plain, or unremarkable looking. But ugly? I do think this author needs to tone down her descriptions a bit. 

Finally, I find some of the dialogue between friends incredibly jarring: lots of profanity and sass to the point of rudeness. Yes, I get it, they are close. It does not mean they should be constantly calling each other names. Maybe I live under a rock, but it reads very unrealistic and frankly, makes me cringe. 

Many romance novels have unrealistic plots and situations, but in Dade’s writing they seem especially contrived and over the top. I did like this book better than book 1. My rating is 2.5 out of 5 stars and I think I am done with this author.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com