The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

 The Love Interest 

by Cale Dietrich

Source: ARC provided for review, thank you!

My Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

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

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

****

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich was such a fun and fast paced read. And what a surprise it was. 

You might read the plot superficially and think "Ugh! Triangles!" Yes! This is a book about love triangles without a love triangle. 

The Love Interest takes all the love triangle tropes and turns them into something really fun to read. 

Caden and Dylan are love interests, but while Caden is a Nice (you know, the cute good boy), Dylan is a Bad (the tortured soul), except Dylan is not as bad as it seems. 

When they're chosen to be Love Interests of a young scientist, Juliet, Caden and Dylan have to try their best to win her heart, because the one she doesn't pick, die. 

I don't think this is a spoiler anymore, but if you haven't figured it out yet, Caden and Dylan fall for each other. And since the moment they met, we know this romance is doomed. 

I loved how fun was this book. I hate love triangles and this book made me remember why. In The Love Interest every encounter between the Chosen and the Love Interests was staged but it also every YA love triangle I've read. It was like a good joke.

This was a light and fresh read so I didn't mind that the characters weren't deep or have strong personalities. They felt a little flat, but it was understandable because they were "trained" to be who they were. 

I loved the characters anyway, I liked the plot and some of the twists made it a page turner.

But I have to admit that I hated the ending. Everything about this book was amazing until "the last battle" 

The ending felt rushed and incredibly unrealistic. The epilogue takes place 5 years in the future, so I was left with a lot of unanswered questions and not satisfied at all.

Anyway, this was a lovely read and I would recommend it if you're looking for a fresh and cute read, or a contemporary with some sci-fic in it.