I absolutely loved this book. This book drew me in right away, from the very first page. What a journey the author takes you on! You will quickly fall in love with Eve, with her many quirks and habits. You'll also find yourself rooting for the happy ending. And what a great twist. Love!

I didn’t think this book was that great. Cute but blah.

Eve is a normal girl although normal might be a stretch when describing her. The thoughts that flit through her mind during this book are equal parts amusing and confusing but who ever said being a girl was easy? Work, school, guys, oh! And don't even get me started on the worries I have about mismatched socks, which is more common than you'd think! Teasing spoilers aside, I found Eve to be a wacky zany character that I cheered and groaned for during the book. One of those times where I empathize waaay too much with the characters but that's never a bad thing!

Allow me to introduce Ben. Quiet steady and smart Ben is a rock. He's..basically every girl's dream guy I suppose. Or at least every young woman's dream man, and as thisnis a slight coming of age novel I'd say that fits him perfectly.He's serious, has a reliable well paying job, not terribly bright with the touchy feelie stuff and his friends sum up his role as the all around Good Guy.

The plot of this story is simple: girl meets boy. Goes after wrong one. Lives a little, learns and forgets and returns to average joe. As the novel progresses things change not just in Eve gaining feelings for Ben but in Eve growing up bit by bit. Ben grows as well but we dont see that change as much as we do with Eve. Did I mention that it all takes place in New York, the City of Dreams, The City that never sleeps, ie: in my opinion the best place ever!

After reading the first few pages, I was so excited! The writing felt fresh, but so relatable. It immediately had me making Rainbow Rowell comparisons. In case you're wondering, I love Rainbow! Unfortunately, shortly thereafter the story was shaping up to be less and less like the type I'd enjoy.

WARNING: Spoilerish details ahead...

There was an incident where the heroine and her friends shared some drugs in a cab, then there is the unfortunate job opportunities and recreational activities that occupy Jessie’s time, not to mention Eve and her proclivities. All of these things may be very typical of 20-something Columbia University students, or New Yorkers, or not-quite rich kids, but I don’t want to read about it.

SPOILER ENDS

On the plus side, the writing is quite good -- tangible and textured. Also, I loved the hero, Ben. He's a rare jewel and what any girl would want in a man. Not to mention, he's just the right amount of chill and accepting that Eve needs.

All in all, I think the author is a good storyteller. I just didn’t happen to like many of the characters featured in this offering. As long as you don’t mind character’s who are nonchalant about drug use, among other things, you may like this one.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book was not for me. I just could not get into it... it was too drawn out for my taste

This Love Story Will Self-Destruct is the first book I've read by this author, but it won't be the last. I greatly enjoyed this story that follows Eve and Ben throughout college and beyond. There were so many places where this could have turned into a woe-is-me, overwrought, overthought book on dating, but it didn't. It was fun, held my interest and had very likable characters. I loved the descriptions of the various neighborhoods in NYC also.

There's so much to like about this book and it does not follow the typical boy meets girl storyline. Check it out! You'll be glad you did.

Thanks go to Ms. Cohen, the publisher and Netgalley for an early copy.

Look at the title.

Despite that, I was pleased with the ending.

Intrigued now?

This is certainly not your typical rom-com (notice I didn't just say romance). There's of course boy-meets-girl, only in this case it's more like boy-has-always-been-around-and-girl-never-really-noticed-him-until-one-day-at-a-Japanese-circus.

Recent history has become more prevalent in fiction as of late and, since this story takes place in New York, 9/11 plays a significant part in the relationship and connection between the two main characters. Starting in 2005, this story begins at the end of their senior year of college. Told from both Eve and Ben's perspectives, I was rooting for these two from the first mention of Ben's name in a 2005 chapter told by Eve, though at that point the mention was very much in passing. (Eve was quite focused on another guy at the time.) As time goes on, Eve and Ben are brought together and pulled apart. They're drawn to each other.

In essence, this book is about relationship development, and the maturing of said relationships, but also the maturing of the individuals in those relationships. We all grow older and, unfortunately, we can't stay in our senior year of college forever. (Much to my dismay.)

Three great lines:
-"It should be illegal for two English majors to date each other."
-"'You're the only one I know who wears metaphorical pajamas.'"
-"'Do you have any large chunks of wood lying around?'"

This isn't typically the type of book I choose to read. It's about a young woman, Eve, and her trying to find herself in life. She struggles with being with the right guy....and all her issues/quirkiness that prevent her from being happy. Then there's Ben, a very structured guy, who has been in her life but basically in the background. The story is about how the two are drawn together and then the struggles to stay together. This wasn't really a story I could get into that much....more for a younger audience than I am, I felt. I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

An inventine rom-com plotline with good writing, but it had a very slow start that caused me to struggle a bit to get into it and into the characters. By the time the love interest was introduced I had already lost any investment in the story.

Boy meets girl, girl doesn’t even acknowledge him on her radar, perhaps because he is reasonably safe, a little bland, not a bad boy? Eve is anything but stable, mature, she is a dreamer, waiting for her dreams to arrive and unfold themselves in front of her. She likes to think she is living life on the edge, but her own thoughts and insecurities keep tripping her up.

Ben is a young man who thrives on order in a chaotic world. He isn’t worthy of Eve’s notice until years later when their paths continue to cross long after they were “out in the world,” and even then, it isn’t some magically, eye-opening experience, but there is something. The pull of opposites attracting? Eve finally deciding to get off the crazy train and grow up just a little? Ben needing to add a pinch of chaos in his orderly world?

Funny how a character can irritate a reader, especially when she is so realistic, shallow, but far too realistic. Eve is that girl who wants to live life in the fast lane, complete with the drama, the bad choices and the ability to do it all in the shallow end of life. She has been damaged by her past, and it becomes her shield, her reason for why she is the way she is, which is often unappreciative (ie: her stepfather and her attitude towards the man).

I wanted to know more about Ben. Being less “volatile or quirky” doesn’t mean he isn’t just as complex.

Love is a funny thing, there is no rhyme or reason, it’s an attraction that just is. Real love doesn’t worry what others think, it isn’t life in the fast 24/7. Will Eve learn this before it is too late? Perhaps she will never find that “perfect love,” perhaps she will find what she needs as opposed to what she thinks she wants. Will Ben be there to cross her path one more time?

THIS LOVE STORY WILL SELF-DESTRUCT by Leslie Cohen is superbly written, there is no doubt that Ms. Cohen is a gifted wordsmith. She did evoke emotions from me, not sure all were good ones, but I was drawn in, partly because I needed to hope I could find that missing connection, that AHA moment when everything made sense and I could return to reality feeling settled, feeling I could like BOTH main characters. It didn’t happen, but maybe it’s just me, because I DO like Leslie Cohen’s sense of writing style, sharp, edgy and strong enough to create a world where not everyone feels warm and fuzzy.

I received an ARC edition from Gallery Books in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Publisher: Gallery Books (January 23, 2018)
Publication Date: January 23, 2018
Genre: Fiction | Domestic Life
Print Length: 336 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

This book was definitely messy. But in the way real world and real lives are messy. Nothing was sugarcoated here and I appreciate the author's approach to this love story.

When I first began the book, I admit that it did start off slow. I wasn't sure where it was going with Eve because she was clearly in a very bad place. She had a tragic childhood and was barely holding it together. And then we met Ben. Ben started to smooth the story out. Just as Eve was a whirlwind of emotions, Ben was her complete opposite. He was contemplative and logical but most of all, he was patient.

If there was one type of relationship that I would root for to work out for the long haul, it would definitely be this type. I enjoyed following the good, the bad, the misunderstanding, the self-destructive behavior, and all of the other pieces of the puzzles that seemed like they didn't belong, but somehow fit.

This is not your typical sappy love story and for that, it may just be one of my favorite books of 2017.

(Full Disclosure: I received a free eGalley of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review).

This Love Story Will Self-Destruct is definitely the kind of book I gravitate to: Recent college grads navigating their young adult lives, falling in love, and learning who they are over the years. I admit that when I initially saw it, I immediately fell in love because of the cover, but then when I saw the comparison to One Day, I knew I would actually like it. And I did!

I love how we hear about Ben at the beginning of the book, but don't really meet him in a meaningful way until much later. This kept me turning the pages and wondering what role Jesse would be playing as the story went one. I also love how Evie's 9/11 story is woven in without having it overtake the novel. The book is really well-written and the characters will likely pull you in, even if you don't totally love them.

I didn't love some of the cliche things that happened in the book (I don't want to spoil!), though I appreciate they were done in a bit of a different way. She's a really well-done character, but Evie's behavior made me cringe at times. I related to her in many ways, but she's a little too emotional and over-the-top in many instances. There were several times throughout the book where I wanted to shake her and tell her to calm down and appreciate her life. I really, really liked Ben, but also wanted to shake him a couple times (how could he think not immediately telling her about their little "coincidence" was a good idea??).

I read this book in less than two days because I couldn't seem to stop turning the pages. I was super invested in Evie and Ben's story and was sad I had to leave them at the end of the book.

I'm afraid Ben lost me instantly, in the prologue, by saying Eve has 20 irrational thoughts for every rational one. What a pompous dickbag. And this is supposed to be written *after* they're together, looking back at their story. I would be mortified if my husband said something like that about me. And then I'd leave him. I wanted to find Eve and warn her away, not root for the two of them to get together.

And while I should have instantly become Eve's biggest champion after that crack, she annoyed me, too. I couldn't get into the writing style. I wound up putting the book down very early on, with no interest in reading the rest.

This book was not for me. There were some great moments, but I felt like it took too long to get the plot started. I felt there was too much telling vs. showing, which relies too heavily on the characters' voices. I had high hopes for this, but it left me wanting more.

This wasn’t my favorite book to read. The beginning is kind of jumbled up but when I got about halfway, I wanted to see what was going to happen.

One of my first problems with the book is that Eve told her boyfriend at the beginning of the book that her mother died when she was 10. The book is broken up into timeframes and in one of the flashbacks to when she was younger, she kept growing older and older and her mother was still alive. For some reason, that was sitting in the back of my head as I read.

The two characters, Eve and Ben, are very different and ultimately end up together and it works as it so often does in real life. They knew each other throughout college but only peripherally as they went to the same parties and hung around with the same people.

This story is about how two unlikely mates find each other. I’m glad I finished the book so I could see Eve and Ben end up together.

This book follows something of a nontraditional structure for romance. The book opens with a brief narration from each character about their relationship, then flashes back to where the story began. This makes it immediately obvious who ends up with who.

As a result, the period of time where one character is actively dating someone else felt in many ways like a weird waste of time. For a while, I found this frustrating,, but as I kept going I saw the value of character development and laying the seeds for future plot points.

The back-and-forth narration between main characters Eve and Ben worked fairly well and the voices were distinct. It was fun getting both sides of the story, which isn’t as common (though certainly not unheard of) in a love story. The choice to bring Ben’s narration back only around the halfway point was a bit of an odd one, and I do wish we’d gotten to see a bit more of what he was doing for the beginning of the book so that his character was developed as well as Eve’s.

There were a few times when I thought I could predict the plot, but Cohen surprised me and took things in different directions than I expected. This made the book a refreshing and engaging read. For a debut especially, I was quite impressed with This Love Story Will Self-Destruct and definitely recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a love story with a less typical structure.

I cannot resist a book with well developed characters. When those well developed characters are funny.... that is a winning combination and the book gets high praise from this reviewer. This is one of those books. Girl meets boy, girl dates boy, relationship implodes. Girl struggles to get over boy. New boy enters the picture.... readers wish hard for a happy ending.... but the story does not end there! I cannot say much more without giving too much away. Here's what I can tell you... read this book!!! It's really good, but ends way too soon!

This Love Story Will Self-Destruct is being called the When Harry Met Sally for the 21st Century. While there are some similarities, (both are about two college graduate acquaintances living in New York City) there are distinct differences. This Love Story Will Self-Destruct is grittier and darker than it's counterpart. Eve and Ben cross paths occasionally as students at Columbia University and in the early years after graduation, but it is not until mid way through the book that sparks begin to fly. Eve's life has been filled with abandonment (both voluntary and involuntary-there is a very sad subplot to the story) and this makes her pursue the wrong men and push the right ones away. The hyphen in "Self-Destruct" gives you a clue as to how Eve expects her relationships to end. Eve is quirky, spontaneous and flighty (she frets over how a single sock feels if it's mate gets lost in the wash), while engineer Ben is more analytical, logical and predictable. A match like this should be a recipe for disaster, but it is their differences that Ben finds most appealing. But eventually Eve does something to "self destruct" her relationship with Ben, and their future hangs in the balance. Leslie Cohen writes with the wisdom of one who has gone through the angst and joy of finding true love. Her dialogue is quick and crisp, and you can feel the pulse of New York City even if you've never been there. This Love Story Will Self Destruct is a thoroughly modern take on a tale as old as time.

Thank you Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book. There was a part in the middle when Eve and Ben were getting together when I was absolutely in love with this book. The beginning drew me in and I read the whole thing in a day, but the Jesse part in the beginning was so depressing in a cliche way. It did set a good contrast to the Ben part. Then the ending also felt kind of cliche and didn't pack the same punch as the middle and kind of dragged on but also I love Ben and Eve and I think that dominates my feelings for this book. Also, after reading the about the author page I have to question what percentage of this book was autobiographical. Just because I'm curious and nosy and a journalist, haha.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not even sure where to begin with a review for this book. I didn't like the story, the writing was just okay, characters other than Eve and Ben had little to no development so you never got invested in any of them. Ben's character wasn't introduced until half way through the book (which seemed to drag and take forever to get to) and even then his character needed much more detail to stand as a main character. Eve was not a believable or likable character. So there you have it. Some of the descriptions of New York were good.

I almost abandoned this book on several occasions but since it was an ARC copy felt obligated to finish it and give it an honest review.

I had high hopes for this story and was sadly disappointed. Many reviewers liked it, so I guess it just wasn't my kind of book.