Book 883: New Year Not You – Edie Montreux

UGH. Two duds in a row and MM Holiday Romances at that! I’m now warry about what I read next and really wish I had an Annabeth Albert or a Roan Parrish lined up, because I need their perfection after these last two!

This one had so much promise when it arrived in my inbox: enemies to lovers, substance abuse overcome with sobriety, redemption and romance, two protagonists who’ve known each other forever and reconnecting as they’re coming into their own as adults, but in the end, it was one massive let down from beginning to end.*

The biggest problem for me, by far, was the writing of the book:

• There was too much description, like first and last name of EVERY character introduced and a description of everything even if it didn’t need it.
• The two characters were impossible to tell apart. Like I legit have no clue which was the law student or which was the one figuring his shit out, I highlighted a passage at one point because it made it clear but less than 12 hours after finishing it I still don’t know. And I still don’t know who did what to whom in the sex scenes because yeah.
• There were jumps in time or location that didn’t make sense that I had to wade through that didn’t make any sense.

I was most annoyed with my inability to tell the two characters apart. It’s not like their names were John and Jonathan. No, they were Brady and Tate, but for the life of me I cannot tell them apart. There was no differentiation between how Montreux wrote them even though they had vastly different experiences in the world and over the last year. Even a pneumonic didn’t help, so yeah that’s a problem.

When you added in that neither of the two protagonists were compelling or caused any sort of empathy to develop in me it was a lost cause from pretty early on. The sex scenes all had potential but they were either too clinical or just awkwardly written, and when you added I didn’t know who was who I wasn’t sure what was happening.

The one bright spot in the book was how Montreux wrote about gender expression and sexual identity. I liked that she included a young character who uses they/them pronouns and had a drag queen and had Brady (I think?!) give a big F-U speech at his mom’s New Year’s Eve party about being gay and accepted and loving his boyfriend (Tate).

Recommendation: NOPE. This book could really have used some better beta readers or a stronger editor to help make the story flow better. There were so many good ideas in the story, but the execution fell far short. I generally can read a romance of this length in less than a day, but it took me 3-4 days because it was a constant slog of trying to figure out who was who and why I should care about them.

*I received a copy of New Year Not You via Gay Romance Reviews in return for my honest opinion. No goods or money were exchanged.

Opening Line: “Brady needed to get drunk, and fast.”

Closing Line: “Looks like I’m moving out of my parents’ house after all.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)