It\u2019s any writer\u2019s dream: an empty house to write in and not pay for. Bonus points if you get to do it in the Hamptons with a fancy coffee maker and hot rich dudes around every corner. But I don\u2019t know if anybody\u2019s told Lover Girl how primo her situation really is.<\/p>\n
Author Nicole Sellew\u2019s protagonist doesn\u2019t have a name, so we\u2019ll just call her Lover Girl. She represents that in more ways than one: sure, she\u2019s seeking love and sex, but she\u2019s also the definition of a lover to other people. Specifically, Lucas and Cameron.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucas\u2019s parents own the house Lover Girl is staying in. He\u2019s hot, and he\u2019s rich, and Lover Girl spends pages pining after him (even though it\u2019s not too hard to get him), but he\u2019s about as emotionally unavailable as they get. She admits she could actually fall in love with him if she hasn\u2019t already, but, despite being exactly what she wants, it\u2019s also not what she\u2019s trying to do. She wouldn\u2019t expect a relationship from him. It doesn\u2019t stop her from sleeping with him of course. I mean, he did make this dream house available to her, so she owes him. Right? <\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n But the house isn\u2019t empty, it turns out. Lucas has also allowed Cameron to sleep there, one of Lover Girl\u2019s former lovers. He\u2019s hot and rich too, coasting on what finances his parents gave him despite not being on speaking terms with them. She already wasn\u2019t getting any work done on her novel while she was alone, but now that she has Cameron to spiral over, lust over, and have sex with, her allotted work time dwindles even further.<\/p>\n This is very much a novel inside of Lover Girl\u2019s mind. She\u2019ll think herself out of or into anything, and the prose reflects that\u2014a stream of consciousness style from a girl who is outwardly sure of herself but deeply self-conscious of her actions inside. She does everything she can to come off a certain way to boys: she cares about things but shrugs her shoulders when asked about them; she doesn\u2019t hear what you said but giggles about them anyway; she\u2019s cold but won\u2019t ask for a jacket; she\u2019ll take an uncomfortable nap if it means she\u2019ll look cute doing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you love reading into the psychology of characters, you\u2019re going to have a damn good time with Lover Girl<\/em>. At once, she\u2019s aware of her privilege and completely ignorant of it. She doesn\u2019t work on that novel because she doesn\u2019t have to; another perfect opportunity will fall into her lap after this one ends, won\u2019t it? As a writer myself, I always wanted to know if Lover Girl got any writing done today only to realize that she won\u2019t tell me; it\u2019s not even on her mind.<\/p>\n There are a number of quirks that make Lover Girl as a character interesting. She\u2019s a girl fueled by sexual desire with limited inhibitions on the outside, but she might just be a page away from crying uncontrollably. It\u2019s just a matter of if she\u2019ll let herself feel something from it this time. One of my absolute favorite ticks of Lover Girl is that she\u2019ll tell herself she\u2019s beautiful and ugly in the same sentence.\u00a0 She\u2019s so unsure of herself and so desirous of affection that she has to constantly seek out positive attention from men and constant reassurance from herself. But she can\u2019t help but let those little jabs of pain in when she thinks she doesn\u2019t fit a conventional type of beauty at every given moment.<\/p>\n This is a novel of privilege, and it feels like one. I wouldn\u2019t call Lover Girl particularly easy to like or empathize with, even if she is relatable, but her lack of ambition also makes for a fairly stagnant plot. I don\u2019t need plot in my literary fiction, but I couldn\u2019t help but want something to get through to Lover Girl in a way that Sellew just doesn\u2019t seem to want to do here. It\u2019s voicey and it\u2019s real, but it can also feel one-note.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lover Girl<\/em> is a quick, psychologically rich read at just over 150 pages. It\u2019s got sex, hot guys, beautiful houses, and fancy coffee makers you might not know how to use. If you\u2019re looking for a sharp bite and a vivid stream-of-consciousness style, you\u2019ll be seduced by Lover Girl<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Lover Girl by Nicole Sellew<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Funny, sharp, and infinitely voicey\u2014a glimpse inside the mind of a love-deprived writer aching to be seen It\u2019s any writer\u2019s dream: an empty house to write in and not pay for. Bonus points if you get to do it in the Hamptons with a fancy coffee maker and hot rich dudes around every corner. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}