The Book:
I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson
Published February 22nd 2022 by Berkley Books
Date read: February 8, 2022
The Characters:
Kian
Hudson
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
It’s been months since aspiring journalist Kian Andrews has heard from his ex-boyfriend, Hudson Rivers, but an urgent text has them meeting at a café. Maybe Hudson wants to profusely apologize for the breakup. Or confess his undying love. . . But no, Hudson has a favor to ask–he wants Kian to pretend to be his boyfriend while his parents are in town, and Kian reluctantly agrees.
The dinner doesn’t go exactly as planned, and suddenly Kian is Hudson’s plus one to Georgia’s wedding of the season. Hudson comes from a wealthy family where reputation is everything, and he really can’t afford another mistake. If Kian goes, he’ll help Hudson preserve appearances and get the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in media. This could be the big career break Kian needs.
But their fake relationship is starting to feel like it might be more than a means to an end, and it’s time for both men to fact-check their feelings.
The Review:
It took me forever to get through this one. My (3-week) library loan expired twice before I could get through it. I didn’t like Kian, so I wasn’t interested in the story. I’m just too stubborn to DNF a NetGalley book! It would have taken me even longer if my library didn’t have the audio.
Even if you read no further, it’s important to note that this is a second-chance romance and we never find out what happened to end Hudson and Kian’s first chance.
In general, second-chance romance isn’t my favorite, so this book was somewhat doomed from the start for me. I didn’t see what Kian saw in Hudson. It takes a lot for me to read a second-chance romance and say “okay, I can see why he forgave you”, and even then, the miscommunication trope doesn’t do it for me either. Hudson never really redeemed himself in my opinion: he just wooed Kian with his magic penis and all was forgiven. (Note: if “magic penis” makes you uncomfortable, this book is definitely not for you. There is a LOT of talk about how big Hudson’s dick is. We get it, he has a hose. You don’t have to beat us to death with it.).
As mentioned, we never found out what happened to end Kian and Hudson’s relationship initially. What did Hudson change to make a second chance okay? They probably broke up for a reason, and I saw nothing to make me think things would be different this time around.
What I liked: the characters had a lot of cultural depth instead of just seeming like the token Black or token gay. The representation here was great (just check out the long list of tags attached to this post). I loved the commentary on classism, racism, and being queer, both in Boston and in the south. I honestly liked everything about this book except for the characters, but obviously that’s a pretty big thing in a romance.
This book may have been intended for an audience that’s a little younger than me. There were a lot of pop culture references that I vaguely recognized but didn’t totally “get”, like things from TikTok. A lot of Kian’s jokes felt juvenile, and the YA feel of the book clashed with the very steamy sex scenes. I suppose this is what you’d consider a “new adult” book? This is the second “new adult” book I’ve read, and I didn’t love that one either.
I think there was a lot of potential here and would be willing to read something else by this author in the future, but a lot of plot holes and unlikeable MCs made this fall flat.
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