Sweet Home (Sweet Home #1) by Tillie Cole
Sweet Home (Sweet Home Series Book 1)
Synopsis:
At age twenty, Molly Shakespeare knows a lot.
She knows Descartes and Kant.
She knows academia and Oxford.
She knows that the people who love you leave you.
She knows how to be alone.
But when Molly leaves England's grey skies behind to start a new life at the University of Alabama, she finds that she has a lot to learn — she didn't know a summer could be so hot, she didn't know students could be so intimidating, and she certainly didn't know just how much the folks of Alabama love their football.
When a chance encounter with notorious star quarterback, Romeo Prince, leaves her unable to think of anything but his chocolate-brown eyes, dirty-blond hair and perfect physique, Molly soon realises that her quiet, solitary life is about to dramatically change forever...
Mature New Adult novel — contains adult content, highly sexual situations and mature topics. Suited for ages 18 and up*
Review:
I was really excited to start reading Sweet Home. It sounded like it would be amazing! I couldn't wait to get to know Molly and Rome. Unfortunately I really did not care for this story. Molly annoyed the heck out of me and made me very angry at times. And Rome? He was just not cool. I know he is supposed to be an alpha male, which I love, but he is not really. He came across as creepy and not someone I would want to be in a relationship with. This is one of those books where as I was reading I had to stop a few times to vent my frustrations before I could continue. It has taken me a while to be able to write this and hopefully have it not be too ranty. We shall see how it goes. **Some potential spoilers ahead**
So our story is one of Molly and her Romeo. The Romeo & Juliet references were abundant and got to be a bit much for me at times. I got it, I just didn't need to be hit over the head with it. So Molly is from England. She grew up in a poorer part of town and she doesn't have any family left. She is at the University of Arizona as a research assistant for a professor she is close with. On her first day of class she has a run in with the resident mean girl, Shelly, and meets Rome. Rome who she is just drawn to.
From that first moment Rome and Molly are just meant to be I guess, just like Romeo and Juliet. So where to start on my thoughts on this book. How about we start with Molly since she annoyed the bejeezus out of me. Molly is the type of character I hate reading. She is so stupid people wise, she is so poor me, she is just so annoying! So she wants to be with Rome, he wants to be with her, he keeps telling her he doesn't want to be with Shelly, how his parents want him to marry her but he wants nothing to do with that. So when Molly sees Shelly trying to throw herself at Rome does she think man why doesn't she get the hint already we are together? Something along those lines? No. Time and time again Molly freaks out that Rome wants to be with Shelly, he is cheating on her with Shelly, etc. It was just like what is wrong with you?!? Especially once they are a couple, once Rome makes sure everyone knows they are together, why is she still so poor me he wants to be with her? I mean Rome has never had a girlfriend. Ever. So this is a big deal and he wants to make sure everyone knows. Plus he tells her all the time how he cannot stand Shelly, how he wants nothing to do with her, etc. I hated her insecurities that just caused stupid drama for no reason all the time. Annoying.
She also can be kind of all over the place with Rome and how she feels. For example she gets super angry one day when they run into someone he once slept with. Why? I am not sure since he didn't pay any attention to the girl. She knows he was a player so...why does this only sometimes bother you and sometimes you are fine with it? It just didn't make a lot of sense to me when it would come up. That and the time she gets really angry he tries to explain to her that yes he slept with a lot of girls, but they only ever slept with his football star persona, not the real him that she gets to see. So what does she do? Flips out that that is what he must be doing, just waiting until he can sleep with her as his persona then is going to dump her. Um...yeah. Cause that makes sense. I mean when he could be sleeping with girls all the time if he wanted would he really put the time and effort into waiting to sleep with you, making sure everyone knew you are a couple, be with you, only to drop you once he gets in your pants. Yep, makes sense. She was like this a lot. I just didn't understand her. Argh. She was really good at being all poor me for no reason because she would freak out about nothing.
Now Rome/Romeo. How was he? Well he was creepy. There is a difference between an alpha male and an abusive jerk and Rome is more an abusive jerk. He is very emotionally manipulative which was horrible. Their relationship is not anything I would ever want anyone to be in. It is not a good thing. Molly, right from the beginning, always worries about Rome and what she does in regard to him. She thinks at one time how well she has been doing keeping him happy, but she just messed up and he was annoyed when he left. It was...not cool. She gives up most of herself trying to keep Rome happy. One example of his emotional manipulation bs? When he asks her to come to his football game. She says sorry, I have to study and he is upset. He really tries to change her mind, but she doesn't want to go. So then he is all oh no problem, no one ever comes to support me so no big deal. This is nothing new. No one cares about me...which is total bs! It pissed me off so much every time he pulled this stuff. In this instant, for one, he is the star freaking quarterback in the town where football is king. Star quarterback! EVERYONE is there to see him play! Everyone is there to support him! His cousin always comes to the games as well so he cannot even say well he doesn't know all of his fan so it is different or something. No, he has support. He even has family support. He has tons of support so don't pull this bs no one care boo hoo me I am so alone bs. That is just being super manipulative in a really bad way. Seriously is pissed me off so much. And what does Molly do? She ends up going to the game because she feels so guilty about disappointing him like that. BS. He is not a good romantic partner. That is abusive bs. Do not like him at all.
So out of the two main characters I didn't like either of them. Molly was so annoying and Rome was scary how manipulative and controlling he was. So what of the secondary characters? Yeah they were somehow almost worse. All of them were these crazy caricatures of who they were supposed to be which made them very strange to read. The parents? Crazy strange bad guys. Okay one note with the parents and Rome. **Slight spoiler ahead** So they hate Rome because he is not his mom's son. He is the son of a lady his dad had an affair with. They don't want this getting out so they pretend he is their son. Okay so when they are all trying to be manipulative and make him marry Shelly, break him up with Molly, why do neither of them think that they could totally threaten the parents with exposing the truth? Why wouldn't they be like look back off or we will tell everyone who I really am? That is the first thing I thought of when I found out, but apparently no one else had that idea ever. But anyways, they were this strange horrible/not as bad as I thought at times people. The dinner with the parents? Not that bad, but Rome and Molly treat it like it was the worst thing ever. I expected much worse, which we do see later, but in a strange not realistic way. They just didn't read as real. Molly's friends? They were the same way. Way too over the top and they just didn't feel like real people. Shelly? Yep, same thing. All the side characters were just strange to read.
So I had such high hopes for this book, but unfortunately it was just not good. It just didn't work for me.
Rating: ★
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