The Reel Deal Review

If I can't binge read my romance manhwa, I'm going to find a romance novel to try to binge instead. This time around, I found a really cute one on NetGalley! 

So it's time for another review! Warning there will be some minor spoilers about the ex-friend, but you can skip that if you want. 

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. 

I loved this book! It hits on all my favourite tropes, a fake girlfriend to lovers situation, and famous person vs common folk. And unlike Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, The Reel Deal did not make me cringe at all. In fact, I found all the scenes to be super adorable and tastefully written. The author did a fantastic job writing the romantic tension between Jake and Delilah.

Typically, I don't like reading stories with alternating narrative perspectives, but The Reel Deal does it very well. I found that it provided an intimate look at how Jake and Delilah felt during that moment. 

The overall conflict with Zoe, the ex-girlfriend, felt to be under-developed. It came off as a typical villain for the main characters to navigate around, which is perfectly fine, however, I thought that the story made a weird decision near the end of the story. 

Mini-spoilers!! Skip the following section if you wanna keep the review spoiler free!

So at the end of the novel, Zoe makes up with Jake and Delilah and I honestly thought it was so totally left field. It felt like it was plopped on my lap, and I was supposed to accept it. I understand that it's nice to have everyone get that happy ending, but I felt like it would have been better to have it left it ambiguous of Zoe's fate. It felt so shallow to justify her progress by giving her a boyfriend to ground her and for the characters to tell the reader that she went to therapy, and it helped her. I had no rapport with Zoe, so I didn't care about her redemption arc, and yet we got it. I understand that it was an attempt to get the reader to empathize with her more, but they under-developed her character throughout the novel so why bother with the ending? 

They truly missed an opportunity to keep it ambiguous and then write a spin-off story where we follow Zoe's journey of self-discovery, therapy, healing, and understanding. The spin-off story could then lead the reader into the last scene at the lake with Jake, Captain Karo, and Delilah. Ignoring the weak ending, I still liked the story. 

Overall, this novel was such a fun and light-hearted read. I loved how descriptive the food scenes were. And the eloquent descriptions of the paintings were very well done, I could truly imagine it in my mind as I read. If you're looking for a light-hearted read, I recommend giving The Reel Deal a try.