Review: The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich


The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich

Publisher: Macmillan

Publication Date: May 16th, 2017

Genre: YA Contemporary/LGBTQIA

Pages: 384 pages

Format: eGalley (Netgalley)

Rating: ★★★★ (4 Stars)

Cover = Goodreads

Amazon/Barnes & Noble

*HUGE thanks to Macmillan, Netgalley, and Cale Dietrich for the eGalley of The Love Interest in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.

There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.

Caden is a Nice: The boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. Dylan is a Bad: The brooding, dark-souled guy, and dangerously handsome. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Will she choose a Nice or the Bad?

Both Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. They are well-trained and at the top of their games. They have to be – whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die.

What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. Feelings that could kill them both.

If you’re anything like me, after reading the Goodreads blurb for The Love Interest, you immediately got This Means War vibes. You know? the one with Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy? yea, that would be the one! & just like the rom-com, The Love Interest doesn’t take itself too seriously & this alone made it a fun read. This book is a satire of all those YA tropes we either love or hate. It’s self aware & as such, is chock full of laugh out loud moments that will leave you shaking your head. We first get introduced to the love interests Caden & Dylan while they’re in the facility that houses others like them while they get all of the necessary spy training. A spy is said to have been taken from their home (voluntary/involuntary is unknown) from childhood & sorted based on personality to either be a Bad or a Nice. Depending on which you were sorted under, you’d receive specific training & skill sets to ultimately be paired up with a person of importance in the outside world. Julia is a high school student who is set to have her pick of universities based on the fact that she is a GENIUS inventor. Targeted as a V.I.P. by the secret organization that deals with selling secrets for top dollar, Julia has no idea she’s about to be highly sought out. Caden is a Nice & Dylan is a Bad, both sent in to better the odds of Julia picking one of them as her love interest. These guys go out of their way to woe Julia in their own ways & will offer you non-stop entertainment. However, it’s not all fun & games for these guys who have the constant threat of death over their heads if they fail. Whoever Julia doesn’t choose will be put to death which only serves as motivation in the race to Julia’s heart. What happens when a Love Interest falls in love for someone other than their intended target? *GASP*

Told in first person point of view, we get Caden (the Nice) as our narrator. Caden is your cliche blonde guy with blue eyes and abs for days haha! I don’t want to give away too much but just know that the spy organization plays no games when it comes to perfecting their love interests. Caden will come off as self absorbed & I believe it’s purposely done. I love my YA books but if we’re being honest, we all know that Caden is a representation of what we see as the male lead interest. Now Dylan doesn’t fall short either lol he plays the broody bad boy, so dark & mysterious with his book of poetry & leather jacket. Then we have Julia who is a a genius inventor in high school who has that quiet beauty. She’s so focused on her inventions that dating isn’t at the forefront. By the end of this book, Julia was hands down my favorite of the characters but no spoilers here lol. We get two other supporting characters, Natalie & Trevor who also attend the same high school and are in a relationship. They also happen to be best friends with Julia & so we get to see them join in on the battle of the Nice vs. Bad. These characters are over the top versions of what we see in the YA genre & I enjoyed the satirical take. I’ve seen other reviews critique the one-dimensional characters which is true…but I don’t think the author set out to have us connect with these extremely tropey characters. If you’re looking for characters you can connect with, this isn’t the book for you. This is the book you pick up if you’ve read tons of YA, love it to death but can still poke fun at the many tropes we often see in our beloved books.

This is Cale Dietrich’s debut album & I love that it was so much fun to read. I took it for what it presented itself to be…a parody of all the YA tropes you can possibly find in the YA genre lol. I laughed so hard reading this book, an overall good time. Those who have been with my blog for a while now know how much I love YA & that I read/review tons of it. I also love good humor and The Love Interest provided a few hours of comedy. I docked it a star simply because it wrapped up too quickly in the end. I recommend this one for all those looking for some light hearted fun & a plot that will keep you guessing the outcome 😉

The Love Interest is out today (links to buy can be found at the very top), have any of you awesome bookworms picked up a copy? if you’ve already read it, what are some of your thoughts?

Author: LairOfBooks

"I didn't choose the Book Life, the Book Life chose me"

35 thoughts on “Review: The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich”

  2. I skimmed through this review because I haven’t read The Love Interest yet (it’s not released in the UK until the end of June :/) and I really want to go into this book blind so I’m avoiding reviews for it, but I did read your conclusion and I am so glad you enjoyed this book Lilly. It’s a shame about the ending but it sounds like there is a lot of humour, which I assumed based on the blurb so I’m glad the book lives up to that expectation, and I’m sure I’ll love it as well. 🙂

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    1. Lol thank you for always stopping by Beth! I also skim when I haven’t read, completely understandable 😉 I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did…think you might but it all depends on how the humor comes across 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

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  4. she said book of poetry and leather jacket. I don’t know about ya but I am SOLD!!! where’s my bad boy at? lawd!!! and also love how you described it as a Parody because with the blurb and your summary, it definitely has all the TROPES in one book lol. I definitely want to read this one for sure! great review twin =)

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  6. Just received this one in the mail today and I’m so excited to start it. I finished up And I Darken today and I was going to write some of my reviews but I may be a little too eager to start this one haha. So glad you loved it! And what’s more fun than a parody 🙂 Love that it pokes fun at those YA tropes!

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    1. Yay! Book mail is the best mail! 🙌🏼 I hope you enjoy the read 😉 And I Darken is on my more immediate TBR & I was lucky to get the ebook deal a few mths back so I don’t have to carry that chunker 😂 love a good parody & this one was a blast 😃

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      1. I hope you like And I Darken! By the end of it, I discovered that I actually loved it. And I finished The Love Interest yesterday. That was a fun little read haha. It didn’t quite meet my expectations, but it was tons of fun regardless 😀

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  8. Maybe a pass for me huh? It sounds like you found so much enjoyment in this 🙂 But I am struggling still with YA, although working on it slowly. I feel like I am not ready for this haha. Was it intended to be a parody? What a clever approach if so!

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    1. I fully believe it was intended to be a parody, it makes fun of itself. I’d say you can pass on this one since you’re easing back into YA. This one although a parody, might remind you too much of the reasons you took a real from YA 🤣🤣🤣

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  9. OHMYGOOOOSSSSHHHH! How have I not heard of this book before now? This sounds totally up my alley. Like you mentioned above, it does sound like a parody. I love the idea of this as a parody, too– This Mean War slayed me. You have alluded to so many twists in these tropes, too. I must read it now! Ordered! ❤
    Great review, Lilly! You obviously hooked me.

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    1. Oh my gosh! Thank you Jackie! I LOVE This Means War & this book was so much fun. A parody of all the YA tropes you love to hate 😂I’ll keep an eye out for your thoughts on this one, it seems like you either love or hate it lol. Then again I think that the fact that it’s a parody, flew over some peoples heads. It happens but I enjoyed it 😉

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  10. I love the fact that this ended up being a YA parody on tropes! There are those tropes I always talk about not caring for an then the ones I actually enjoy (like the bad boy trope because I am unashamed to admit that I enjoy it 😂) and it’s funny how this one has the nice guy and the bad guy. Anyway! I could always use a book that makes fun of tropes in my life. I’m even more excited to read this one now. Glad you enjoyed and great review as always, Lilly!! 😁💕

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    1. Omg. You’re gonna love Dylan then, he’s a “Bad” smh soooo funny how that trope is poked at, it’s like there’s a checklist & he checked off every single box. Such a blast reading it & I hope you do too Melissa 😃💕

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  11. “I took it for what it presented itself to be…a parody of all the YA tropes you can possibly find in the YA genre lol”
    This sounds like it would NOT be the book for me lol BUT I am happy you enjoyed it. It sounds like this is a very “light hearted” read and not meant to be taken too seriously.

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