Published: March 30th 2020
Publisher: CAH LLC
Format: eArc
Source: Netgalley
From Goodreads
Two practical strangers. One fateful night. Two pink lines.
College senior and obsessive romantic Kayla Cummings’ dreams of a storybook life are spun off course by an unplanned pregnancy after a one-night stand with her secret crush. Devastated, Kayla turns to her roommates and best friends for advice. No matter what she decides, no matter how deeply embarrassed, she has to tell the father.
Ben Strickland’s future is written in stone—as long as he gets a decent score on the Law School Admission Test. Feeling pressure from all sides, Ben struggles to juggle his upcoming finals, another shot at the LSAT, and his needy girlfriend Darcy. When the girl he spent a memorable night with weeks ago shows up at his doorstep pregnant, his already chaotic life spins out of control.
With the clock ticking, decisions to make, and a boatload of people to disappoint, Ben and Kayla embark on a journey neither anticipated—a journey where falling in love might be the biggest surprise of all. But when old hurts and buried secrets pose a greater threat to their future than impending parenthood, will Ben and Kayla go their separate ways or forge a new path to happy ever after?
My Review
I started this book with no expectations whatsoever and therefore, I was not disappointed. I'm not a big fan of romantic novels, because I usually find it difficult to get involved into the love story, due to the fact that they are mostly not relatable, and unfortunately, I have to put this one into that category.
I don't want to get into the plot, because Goodreads' synopsis basically sums it all, but I will say it was all pretty predictable. The story developed exacty like I thought it would, with no big events and no twists. For a lack of a complex narration, I would have expected though to have a major focus on the characters' feelings and their growth, but I found that, as well, missing. I did not like the superficiality with which the falling in love act is explored because if there is a lack of credibility in the characters' feelings, I feel like everything they say and do is incredibly out of place. And that gets me really annoyed. It looks as though the fact that they're expecting a baby is reason enough for them to have a relationship at all costs, or at least, that's what I got from the story, considering the absolute lack of emotional involvement I felt. In this book, the author could have inserted a lot more scenes about Ben and Kayla, more shared moments, more displays of affections to arrive then, to them establishing a serious relationship. This is what makes a difference in a Romantic novel, considering that narrative choices have all been explored: the capacity to attract the reader into the characters' love story... and this did not happen to me with these two. Everything felt incredibly commonplace, expected, and not at all spontaneous. We have a man (?) who did not re-call this girl after they had sex, and then falls head over heels for her when he knows she's expecting. We have two characters that, apparently, already liked each other in the past, but also this aspect is not explored enough to justify then a sudden blossoming of a life-lasting love. We have two teens that during the book shared two meals at best, but then decide to be together for the rest of their life. I don't know about you, but I believe love to be way more complicated than this.
Another aspect that was a turn-off for me, was the subtle but constant reference to religion, that in my opinion, strongly collides with a story that starts with a one-time thing ending up with an unwanted pregnancy. Maybe this is why there was no real romance in the book, no hot scenes, no peaks of strong affection.. might be. But I did not like the constant mentioning of God and God's will and God's path and so on - and not because I am not a believer. Bu the fact that the author might be, could explain the narrative choice of such an ending, that again, felt a little too much rushed up and out of context.
However, I also have to say that in the end, Formula For A Perfect Life was a really light read, one of those books that you can easily read in a day because the author's style is quite fluent, the dialogues are easy to follow and the story is not so demanding. I would recommend it maybe as a "beach read", something that you can easily read while sun-bathing and when you do not want to read challenging books.
Unfortunately, though, I cannot give this book more than 2.5 stars.
Rated 2.5
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