coffee addict books: ARC Review: That Thing Between Eli & Gwen by J.J. McAvoy

Title: That Thing Between Eli & Gwen
Author: J.J. McAvoy
Series: none
Genre: contemporary romance, new adult
Release Date: April 21st, 2016

When Eli's bride runs off with Gwen's fiancé on his wedding day...

Amazon US | Amazon UK

FLO'S REVIEW

That Thing Between Eli & Gwen by J.J. McAvoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 **con artist & dr. asshole** STARS

“His eyes…his eyes were like mine: broken. The scary thing about reality is all of our monsters are humans…humans who have the ability to make you drink with people you don’t even know.”

I liked this book. I didn’t love it like previous JJ McAvoy reads, but it was a good one nevertheless. That Thing Between Eli & Gwen started out absolutely brilliant; I loved the premise, I loved the setup, but along the way it just didn’t really click with me. And I’m absolutely certain this is a case of it’s me and not the book. I can’t even put it into words, it’s just a gut feeling that it wasn’t really for me.

The first half of That Thing Between Eli & Gwen was pure romcom gold. Seriously!

Picture this: Girl and boy have been together for three years. They are engaged. Girl and boy go to a friend's wedding. Clue in big surprise! Boy runs away with the bride. Scorned girl and speechless groom have to pick up the pieces. The girl happens to be twenty-four year old Guinevere 'Gwen' Poe - successful and wealthy artist. And the groom happens to be Dr. Eli Davenport - equally as wealthy and a neurosurgeon.

Didn't I tell you? Romcom gold!

Oh, I forgot the best part. Even though they try to stay as far away from each other as they can...you know, because of the whole reminding each other of the worst day in their lives business, being humiliated by their now ex partners and such. They have run ins left and right. Cumulating in Gwen moving in next to Eli.

Did I mention they don’t get along? Yeah, the hatred sizzles like hell. It’s sublime. Only a matter of time before they become friends and eventually try out the horizontal tango. *wink wink*

“I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how I got here. One moment you were just that other woman who got hurt too, and then you were Guinevere. Funny, weird, talented, beautiful Guinevere, and I’m thinking about how you smell like rain, and whether you’ve eaten.”

As I said, really loved that. The slow development of their friendship and later more was marvellous and absolutely spoke to me. Unfortunately somewhere around the middle the fun part got a bit lost for me and the story dragged a little from there. I’m trying to put my finger on it, but I just can’t pinpoint the reason. I liked the characters, the banter was great, but the tone and pacing seemed a bit off to me.

All in all, the first 90% was a relatively drama free (if you don’t count the runaway bride), funny and a little emotional friends to lovers story, with two very opposite characters - the artist and the scientist. It was charming and a pleasure to read.

Now the last 10% were pure drama. And in hindsight I’m thinking that’s where she truly lost me. The proverbial last straw. There was a twist I didn’t see coming and to be perfectly fair it was a great one to create tension, but it left me with a strange feeling at 2am after finishing my read. So yes, purely personal gut feeling. Nothing about this story is wrong and I’m sure a lot of people will enjoy it immensely. And just to put it plainly, 3.5 Stars is not a bad rating, people!!

Dr. Asshole alone makes this a worthy read. ;D

**ARC very kindly provided by author in exchange for an honest review.