The plot of many romances revolves around a poor but virtuous heroine reforming a rich, handsome cad who never intended to settle down. In modern romance The Love Plot, writer Samantha Young turns this trope sideways. Heroine Star is far from a cad -- she is all about spreading good cheer like a Christmas elf. She is virtuous, loves children and animals, etc.. But she has no desire to make a monogamous commitment to anyone.
Hero Rafe is a hot, rich serial monogamist. Yeah, he comes off as a bit of a jerk at first, but that's only because he's shy.
Star and Rafe begin a fake dating relationship to get Rafe's family off his back. Soon they fall in love for real.
Pretty standard plot, but Young does a lot with it. Star has an intriguing back story. She was raised by parents who did not believe in monogamy, or in parenting. She absorbed their drifter ways and strings together a couple of part time jobs as a character actor at kids' birthday parties and as a line sitter for people who don't want to wait in long lines.
Through the course of the book, mere proximity to Rafe and his rich and traditional but kind family is enough to make Star want to change. Maybe monogamy isn't so bad. Maybe she should get serious about a career. She goes a little overboard in trying to fit in with Rafe's family's expectations, but she course-corrects.
I liked Star's character growth, but I also really, really wanted her to go to therapy. I say this as someone who is therapy-neutral at best. But I don't think that someone who has grown up with the type of trauma Star has grown up with can just get over it and completely change her life without more help than a guy who accepts her and all her glorious quirkiness.
Rafe is far less interesting than Star. His only character traits are that he is a hot veterinarian who, as I said, accepts Star just the way she is.
The other quibble I have with this book is that Star has exactly three friends and they are in a poly relationship with each other. Star and they consider each other family. But how is she not a fourth wheel? It's just not a dynamic that makes any sense to me.
Minor complaints aside, this book was overall a well-written charmer and a good read.
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