Spoilery Book Reviews

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

Back of the book

Two Spies. One Girl. Whoever gets her to fall in love with him...lives.

There is a secret organisation that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close with people destined for great power means obtaining valuable secrets.

Caden is a Nice: the boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: the brooding, dark-souled guy who is dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organisation, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose the Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their game. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn't choose will die.

What the boys don't expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

My thoughts

This isn't important but how I came across this book was at the end of the summer camp I attended in America there was a pile of things people weren't taking with them, mostly clothes, there was also one huge teddy bear. And this book. I picked it up and it seemed interesting enough. I was very pleasantly surprised. (PS the author is Australian I feel they are so rare, shoutout to my home country)

Firstly, plot. The secret organisation vibe was cool, a bit dystopian with the description of the facility and cells, then they are released into the real world. The consequence for failing is of course, death, but the melodrama of this works well in the story, not too overdone that it's cringey, but a constant real threat. The concept of coercing a girl to fall in love with a boy could be dangerous and controversial territory, but I feel it did this well. The girl, Juliet, was always her own person, despite also falling into the manipulations both boys set up for her. There was a lot of action in the last third of the book, and despite death being the consequence, this book still felt fun.

I was happily surprised in the best of ways that it was a gay love story. My mind instantly latched on to the idea, but I couldn't be too sure that's where the book was trying to lead me, because I was just thinking of where I wanted the book to go. Then for it to be confirmed CADEN IS IN LOVE and gay, was beautiful. I love how it takes a hetero-normative plot line (guys making girls fall for them) then throws this gay curve-ball into it. There is a comment about gay people needing Love Interests too, however I didn't mind imagining the evil society that collects information to sell for money was also homophobic.

I didn't like the seesaw of Dylan saying everything with Caden was a part of the game, then going back again to saying he was in love. I know the book needed a happy ending, but the author ripped it away and then handed it right back. As much as the betrayal hurt that Dylan was just playing Caden, that storyline is okay with me. The way Dylan was flipped around to 'actually it was real' was rushed and executed poorly. It made both their emotions not very believable and lessened the earlier betrayal, being a plot twist for the sake of it that had no real consequences. One way the relationship betrayal could have been done well, is if Dylan admitted their time together was planned, then didn't finish giving Caden all the information. Caden would feel his betrayal, then the whole truth can come out later that somewhere along the line Dylan did develop real feelings. Perhaps a bit like how Katniss and Peeta's relationship develops over The Hunger Games, starting as a ploy then getting blurry as what felt real and what was survival.

The other parts I had an issue with were Juliet being too forgiving, and Trevor's death. Juliet got over Caden telling her the truth that he was placed as a purposeful set-up much too quickly. She never appeared to go through any feelings of betrayal, hurt, anger or sadness. Juliet is a chill character, but this was way too blasé. Any normal person is going to have some measure of feelings about the person they start liking, telling them it's a set-up and they've been acting/lying the entire time. Trevor's death was just oddly glossed over and I'm not sure why it was included, or what purpose it served.

The epilogue is beautiful just for the fact they both lose their abs and have a little bit of fat. There is a constant emphasis throughout the story on how the boys look perfect and attractive all the time, which is frustrating. I have noticed in a few books I've read recently that there are no unattractive characters and that really bothers me. However, The Love Interest redeemed itself with the epilogue that acknowledged real boys don't have killer abs all the time, and it was just part of their role as Love Interests.

Overall, The Love Interest is a fun and interesting read that had me entirely engaged the whole time. From a dystopian almost sci-fi start, being thrown into forced flirting and unconscious flirting, to fast driven action where it's do or die. Other than a few rushed blips at the end of the book, I can barely fault it, therefore recommend a read for those interested in young adult LBGT+ stories.

TL:DR

Fun, secret-evil-society concept read. SURPRISE: the two boys fall for each other instead of the girl.