I loved this book. I loved the use of tropes, I love the reference to ya books as a reason for these tropes. I loved the action, the romance and the beautiful relationships that came out of this book. Basically I really love this book.

This book was just too crazy for me, but I have a feeling that the right reader is going to LOVE it. I'm just not that right reader. Too much of the story just made absolutely no sense (like what is really the purpose of the secret organization that creates the Love Interests? Who really cares to spy on teenagers, even brilliant genius scientist ones), and the characters weren't engaging enough for me to stop caring about the crazy plot holes.

I think the cover and the blurb are both misleading, probably intentionally so, but I think that's going to lead to some disappointed readers (and perhaps turn off some readers who may potentially really enjoy this). Anyone hoping for some love triangle with two hot guys trying to win the girl are going to be sadly disappointed when the big twist is revealed.

I think the main thing that didn't work for me was the central romantic relationship of the book. Neither character was engaging to me, so their romance didn't feel really well-developed.

This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2017. Did it live up to my expectations? Sadly no. I enjoyed it but not nearly as much as I was expecting.

I LOVED the concept of the story - two spies trained to be YA tropes for the heroine to fall for. One the Nice guy one the Bad guy. Then instead of falling for the girl they fall for each other. However I felt that too much of the story was about the main character (the Nice guy) portraying his role as the Nice guy and his conflict over this than any other real plot.

The relationship between the two spies didn't really develop that much. It was there but it seemed almost an after thought than a real exploration. There were a couple of scenes where I felt like the author had nailed the conflict between everyone but these were far and few between and it just let me wanting more of that than the actual story I got. I felt there was SO much to explore about not being your true self, manipulating people you are beginning to care about, falling for your competition, watching your competition try to woe your target, not wanting to die and not wanting them to die. While these things were look at it was in quite a superficial way. I wanted more.

I felt this novel was so full of potential - and it was written quite well and an easy read - but I think it was too stuck in trying to point fun at all the cliche YA tropes (especially love triangles) than actually telling an emotionally and character driven story. I actually thoroughly enjoyed the epilogue and was much more interested in what had happened between the last chapter and the epilogue than I had been in the rest of the book.

The Love Interest was a book that had an interesting concept: literally take a bunch of cliches and throw them together and see how it turns out. Which worked in this sense.
This story is about a Good Guy and a Bad Guy competing for the same girl - they are literally remade for her, to look like a supermodel and be exactly her type. Which is cool. But the LIC, the corporation that does this, has a flaw in that they have the "love interests" meet before any transformations happen, and they become... friends.
More than friends. It turns out that Caden has some romantic feelings for Dylan.
The whole plot of this book took have gone completely wrong, but it didn't. There were some flaws for me, such as Juliet being considered as important for experimenting with science, and the whole concept that "if I'm not chosen, I'm dead."
They convince these characters that if they aren't chosen by the Love Interest in the end, they will be incinerated.
This review is kind of everywhere, but the book was enjoyable, despite being riddled with cliches and some hard-to-believe characters.

The best part of the book was the gay guys. I really loved watching that story unfold and the guy slowly starting to realize that he's gay and understand what his feelings mean. Loved that!

The stuff I didn't quite like...

Juliet was boring. Caden has feelings for someone else, but given that he's supposed to be going after Juliet, she's still quite a big character. But she was pretty cardboard. I think I expected more from her because she was supposed to be this hugely intelligent person and I just thought she'd be more... interesting?

The world building was kind of thin. There's this huge concept of a secret spy organization, but the most we get is:

- We've existed for thousands of years, accept it.
- Nobody knows we exist but we've infiltrated everywhere, accept it.
- We target teenagers.

I guess some of it was just hard to buy. For example, I'm all for a good teenager-in-love romance. I know that kind of high school romance can happen, does happen, and can turn into a forever thing. But let's face it, more often than not, that probably isn't the case in real life. It does happen, but probably not most of the time. And yet this huge spy agency builds its business on making teenagers fall in love, betting that it will be forever love... IDK, it just kind of had me constantly questioning how logical it was.

And then there's the whole good/bad stereotype thing. I started out liking the idea but it got kind of cheesy. I looked at some other reviews that suggested the book was supposed to be poking fun at some YA tropes rather than being serious? But how is that something you even know? Maybe I'm being obtuse but I feel like I couldn't tell the difference. And it came back around to that realistic/world building factor: it seemed so silly that this huge spy organization built its whole thing on the idea that there are two types of exaggerated people: bad and nice.

Maybe there were parts of this book I just didn't "get" right. Maybe I took parts of it too seriously. I don't know.

In short: I LOVED reading about Caden discovering who he was, falling for Dylan, and seeing that relationship develop. Love love love.

The spy agency part? Kind of disappointing.

Favourite quotes:

"I guess I thought I was straight just because everyone treated me like I was, and no one ever gave me a chance to think otherwise."

"Like, by liking guys, I automatically take on that role in her life. That I'm suddenly a supporting character in her story rather than the hero of my own."

It pains me to give this book such a low rating because the concept really is spectacular and there is clearly a TON of potential here. The low rating stems from the writing itself - it feels very, very forced and the dialogue/inner monologues not only feel repetitive, but also way too cheesy (There were moments I couldn't help but roll my eyes). This really stalled the narrative and I actually ended up skimming the last 1/4 of the book because I was so distracted by the dialogue. That said, I fully appreciate the premise and idea of this one and despite the cheesy dialogue, I do think the author did a wonderful job with the LGBTQ aspect of the storytelling and some of the more thematic elements such as body image / perfection / idea of good vs. bad / etc.

Review will be published to http://novelinkblog.com on May 8, 2017

The Love Interest was a book that I was super excited for and when I got approved for an e-ARC on Netgalley, I may have jumped up and down a little. I immediately started reading it once it downloaded to my kindle because there was no way that I could wait.

The Love Interest has such an unique and intriguing premise, I mean, a YA book about spies? Yes, please! I think that was what caught my eye with this book. That, and the fact that the love interest are on both side of the spectrum, a Nice and a Bad. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, watching both boys try to win the heart of Juliet all the while knowing in the back of their mind what happens if they lose.

I also really enjoyed the other romantic aspect of this book, I don't want to say any more because of spoilers, especially since I was spoiled on this aspect due to a Goodreads review that wasn't hid. But I definitely felt the chemistry with these two specific characters and I think this relationship was my favorite in the book.

This book also delivers on the feels. There are so many things that happen that I wish would've worked out differently, once again, I'm being vague due to spoilers, but oh my gosh, certain things broke my heart. The characters and their relationships were definitely my favorite part of this book.

Overall, The Love Interest is a book that I can see a lot of people falling in love with.

I love spy novels and I love male/male romance novels, so I was totally on board for a book that was going to not only combine those two things, but doing it while poking fun at so many stereotypes in young adult romance novels. I am so happy to say I was nowhere near disappointed with this one. It was such a fun ride and was peppered with such a good mix of characters. And what an interesting way to get across the message to be who you are. Teenagers taking down evil corporations is always kind of silly to me, but considering the premise of this novel I was able to go with it and it worked for me. I am most definitely a fan of Cale Dietrich and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

For a book about teenage spies this book starts really slow, and it continues to be slow for most of the book. I had a hard time knowing who to root for or who was worth investing feelings in. It seems like an impossible situation, but I found Juliet to be totally perfect and that's just three too many perfect people for me. I was hard to root for Caden even when he was narrating, and Dyl was intriguing, but was a total enigma (guess he's got that bad brooding persona down pat). Overall, I found this story to be kind of boring and looked forward to the parts without Juliet when it was just Caden and Dyl.

I loved this book! I've really never read anything like it, and was up until 3am last night because I couldn't put it down. If you've ever wondered how The Hunger Games would have gone if Peeta and Gale had ended up together, or if Edward had fallen for Jacob instead of Bella in Twilight, this is the book for you.

Caden grew up in what's essentially a prison, knowing his life would have one purpose: to be assigned to a girl deemed "important," get her to fall in love with him, and then spend his life reporting her secrets back to the organization. So when he's assigned to Juliet, a teen genius expected to be a famous scientist one day, Caden can't wait to leave the compound and enter the real world. However, there's a catch - Dylan, another "Love Interest," will be competing for Juliet's affection too, and whoever Juliet doesn't pick will be executed. With his life literally depending on his ability to seduce this girl, Caden vows to pull no punches when it comes to sabotaging Dyl's advances on Juliet. But Dyl's not what Caden expected. And when Dyl and Caden's rivalry becomes a friendship - and then possibly something more - Caden doesn't know what to do. If he wins the game and Juliet's heart, Dyl will die and Caden will be trapped forever in a relationship he doesn't want, manipulating a girl he's come to love and respect as a friend. If he loses, he dies. And neither outcome gives Caden what he really wants - a chance at his own life and a relationship with Dyl.

Aside from the obvious trope subversion - which was a refreshing twist on the YA love triangle trope - there was so much to love about this book. I loved the subtle humor and gentle prods at familiar YA tropes. I also liked Juliet, and the other side characters, who were all likable and well developed. There were at least two big twists in this book I didn't see coming. I'd definitely recommend this one!

I thought the premise for this book was really promising, and I was excited to hear that it was an LGBT romance, but I thought the execution was a little underwhelming.