ARC Review: All the Feels by Olivia Dade

“The romance also leaves a lot to be desired.”
~ Under the Covers

“A home truth, and one he hoped she understood. ‘Your lack of anger does not reliably indicate a lack of wrong done to you.’ She blinked those gorgeous eyes up at him, looking lost.”

Lauren Clegg has just called it quits as an ER therapist after completely burning out. While recovering from burn-out she gets hired by her cousin to watch over his client Alexander Woodroe. Alex is a typical Hollywood star: rich, charming, sexy, and impulsive. His recent bar fight was the final straw and his intervention is Lauren. She is tasked with keeping Alex out of trouble and watching him 24/7.

Despite being complete opposites in every way, Lauren and Alex begin to connect and enjoy each other’s company. When Lauren begins to see Alex as more than a troublemaker, her job becomes less black and white.

This book did give me all the feels but not in the way I think it intended to. When I read the description and saw the cover I had to read this book. As a plus-sized woman, seeing a plus-sized woman on the cover gave me all the feels–in a good way. The woman on the cover is gorgeous.

I think I was a lost cause in the beginning after Alex meets and describes her as a “birdwoman.” Not only does he describe her as avian, with a crooked beak, but he goes on and on about it–going through different birds she could be. While he never comments on her size other than calling her round he says her eyes “were her only feature an honest observer could call pretty”….. WHAT?! What makes this worse is that these aren’t just thoughts—he says it…out loud. Not cool.

Alexander struggles with ADHD and the book did a decent job of incorporating those qualities and showing how that affects him. But it went to the extreme with it and had him unfairly immature and narcissistic. He lashes out at the slightest provocation and becomes violent; the book tries to redeem this by spinning it to seem altruistic.

The romance also leaves a lot to be desired. He describes her as round (instead of, say, curvy). And his thoughts on having sex with her are excited due to his imagining that if she’s on top of him….he wouldn’t be able to get up. Sigh.

I did love the quote “your lack of anger does not reliably indicate a lack of wrong done to you.” I love that Alex was trying to help Lauren see that she should stand up for herself. What would’ve made this effective is if Lauren was able to understand, process, and act on it; instead Alex does it for her.

Is this a love story or a story of dysfunction?