An odd book which does not seem to fit into any genre very neatly. The book seems almost unfinished or, at least, unpolished, but perhaps the author will take the premise and build on it for the future.

I hate giving one star reviews a I live in constant terror of hurting someone's feelings, but I have to be honest. This novella was disjointed and confusing. I couldn't figure out who the characters were (did one of them have multiple personalities?) and the sections with the animal POV were very odd.

I was browsing the books available and the cover of Love Model caught my eye. It fits with the usual style of books I read, so I clicked on it straight away. The description of the book seemed like it was romance between two characters, Alice and Noah, with each of them having their own dark secrets. Usually this makes for a great read, full of drama and angst, and as this was a novella, I thought it was perfect for reading on my lunch break.

However, this book was not what I expected and not in a good way. I always hate giving negative reviews on books, especially as the authors worked so hard on them, so I try to find as many positives as I can. Unfortunately, this book is difficult to find the positives about, which is a shame as I was looking forward to reading and enjoying it.

For me Love Model felt a little unfinished, with spelling errors and different ideas thrown into one book, which probably would have worked better as a series, with the various themes entwined into the story that way. From the description and the cover, I was expecting a romance between the protagonists to blossom, with the usual few bumps along the way. The storyline for this book was very strange, with the various themes and ideas not really making sense in a novella. I get the feeling that parts of this were veering towards a paranormal romance, but there is no lead up or real exploration of this, rendering it pointless to the story. I don’t particularly like paranormal romances, but I don’t think my personal tastes were the reason for my dislike of this element, as I believe it could have been interesting, if it was executed well.

The writing in the book was vague, with key parts missing. I honestly felt as though the author had thrown several ideas onto the page and called it a day. I even wondered if this was a book of excerpts taken out of another book during the editing process and put together here, but surely not? I really don’t understand this book and it was confusing with the multiple POV’s. I’ve read books before with 6 different POV’s, but that was well executed and the stories ran across a few books, not crammed into 1 short novella. None of the story lines were developed, with so many weird things happening. I’m still confused now and don’t understand the premise, even as I’m writing my review.

I didn’t mind that this wasn’t a happy ending story, as this can be a nice change to the usual ones and open up the possibility of a sequel. However, I feel the story is as finished as it can be and I don’t think I would like to read a sequel, given how utterly bizarre this one was. If this novella had been longer, I would have 100% put this down as a DNF, something I rarely do as I like to finish things properly. However, as it was short I stuck with it and hoped it would tie together towards the end. It was such as let down and I really disliked the whole thing.

The only positive I have about this book is the cover, which I like, but nothing else is likeable. I’m not sure who this book could be recommended to, if I’m not the target audience. This is my first 1 star review, purely based on how utterly bizarre the whole thing was, nevermind the rest.

This was the most bizarre book I have ever read. There were so many different POV's you couldn't keep up with who was who and you didnt care for any of the characters because you only met them for 10 lines and then they were gone. There was no plot, at least no plot that you could actually follow because of the hodge podge of writing styles and characters individual arcs. It was like someone had taken out massive chunks of the story so that it no longer made any sense. Was there supernatural elements or not? If so how did it happen? When did Noah and Alice meet? Why were so many people killed? What did S&M have to do with anything and why did it get a trigger warning at the start when it had nothing to do with the story? More so, why did the incestuous rape not get a trigger warning? Its just unbelievable! It just left me feeling very very confused. Its only redeemable quality was that it was very short so I can't be mad at it for being so unbelievably confounding.

***This review contains spoilers***

The cover and description immediately drew me in for this book and seeing that it is listed as a novella really excited me because my free time is nil lately.

Unfortunately Love Model wasn't what I'd hoped it would be. I'd like to say that the premise is good, but around the middle of the story there are random bits thrown in that suggest it is a PNR/shifter romance, but it kind of comes out of no where and isn't truly fleshed out. Which can basically be said for the entire story. It had a lot of promise, but everything was very vague and confusing and isn't always explained to the reader.

There are a zillion POVs, some of which have odd names like "Look" and "Ugly" and none of which make sense. One is, I think, a cat, but the way it's written it could be a shifter. I'm not sure.

I realize this is a galley, but it could do with a bit more editing. There are several misspellings that made an already murky read a bit harder to handle.

Finally, there isn't a happy ending. A reader goes into a romance with certain expectations that the two main protagonists end up together and that doesn't happen in this story.

Overall this was just a very disappointing read. I'm going to give it a 2* rather than 1 because I love the cover and I think there was promise, but it missed the mark in a big way.