2 Stars
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, Loveswept
Date of publication: May 15th, 2018
Genre: Humor, Romance
Series: Real Love
Eye Candy – Book 1 (review here)
Arm Candy – Book 2 (review here)
Man Candy – Book 3 (review here)
Rumor Has It – Book 4
America’s Sweetheart – Book 5 (expected publication date: October 2nd, 2018)
Where you can find Rumor Has It: Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Book synopsis (from Goodreads):
This is one bad boy who’s fit to print. A notorious jock tackles life—and love—after football with a type-A journalist in this sexy standalone from the author of Eye Candy.
Barrett: As a former pro football star, I’m used to playing the field. After injuries cut my NFL career short, my second act as a broadcaster ended on live television when a hot mic picked up a little verbal . . . indiscretion. But this latest publicity stunt might just land me back on top—much to the chagrin of Catarina Everhart, the prissy, beautiful journalist who’s been assigned to date a bad boy (i.e., me) and write about it. Catarina swears I’ll never touch her, let alone kiss those full lips of hers. Based on our chemistry, I’m not buying it. . . .
Catarina: Barrett Fox seems to be doing everything in his power to make me hate him. The cocky egomaniac is infamous for his bad behavior, and now, thanks to my boss’s harebrained schemes, he’s apparently my problem. As one fake date leads to another, I start to see a different side of Barrett. He’s close with his family. He does volunteer work. And, okay, he kisses like a dream. Am I really dating Barrett Fox? Or is he playing me? Because suddenly I’m risking my reputation—and my heart.
My review:
Before I say what I am going to say, I like the series…a lot. Even the first book, where the female main character drove me nuts, I liked. This one….not so much. Both of the main characters were unlikable. The romance seemed forced and flat. Their interactions with each other were either hot and heavy or cold and icy….no in between. I did like the storyline. I love a storyline with a good girl falling for a bad boy.
Rumor Has It is a sporty take on the old and often used storyline where a good girl falls in love with a bad boy. Except the good girl is a journalist who is roped into pretend dating the bad boy. Only the pretend dating soon turns real. But the good girl doesn’t believe that the bad boy can change. Or can he?
I couldn’t stand Catarina. I thought that she was the most stuck up, self-absorbed character that I have ever read. I didn’t blame her for her reaction to working with Barrett but she took it to the extreme. She couldn’t even pick up on the hint that her ex-boyfriend wasn’t interested in her. I couldn’t even tell that she was having feelings for Barrett until almost the end of the book. Even then, I doubted it.
I didn’t like Barrett either. But not as much as Catarina. Barrett made some crappy decisions that influenced everything he did in the book. Like yelling at the female ref and then trying to say “Well, if it was a guy it would be OK.” No, no it wouldn’t be. My dislike did temper when I realized that he was sorry for what he did. It also lessened when his childhood was discussed.
I did not like Barrett or Catarina together. I felt that their interactions were forced. They did not come across as genuine to me. For characters to run hot/cold as much as they did was a turn off for me. As was Catarina’s blatant disdain for Barrett. Which in turn caused Barrett to treat her badly. It was like a freaking merry-go-round and I couldn’t get off.
The romance part of Rumor Has It came across as forced and fake. In turn, the sex was the same way. Forced with no emotions. Don’t get me wrong, I thought that the sex scenes were hot. But because of how I felt about Barrett and Catarina, it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Like I mentioned above, I liked the storyline. I wish that I had a connection with either of the main characters.
The end of Rumor Has It was your typical romance ending. All hearts and rainbows.
While I didn’t like this book, I am looking forward to reading book 5. Like I said above, I enjoyed reading the series.
What I liked about Rumor Has It:
A) Good storyline
B) Hot sex scenes
C) Ummm…that’s it??
What I disliked about Rumor Has It:
A) Unlikable main characters
B) Forced and flat romance/relationship
C) No connection to characters
I would give Rumor Has It an Adult rating. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book. There is explicit sex, language, and mild violence
There are no trigger warnings for Rumor Has It.
I would not recommend Rumor Has It to family and friends. I would recommend the other books in the series, but not this one. I would not read this book again but I would read other books in the series.
I would like to thank Loveswept, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Rumor Has It.
All opinions stated in this review of Rumor Has It are mine.
**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**