Review at a Glance
- Title: Meet You in the Middle
- My Rating: 1
- Genre: Contemporary Romance
- Format: eARC*
- Publication Date: May 4, 2021
- Author: Devon Daniels
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Book Blurb
What happens when the person you find MOST impossible becomes impossible to resist? Opposites distract in this hilarious romantic comedy about America’s least likely couple.
There’s just one thing standing between liberal Senate staffer Kate Adams and passage of the landmark legislation she’s been fighting for all year: Ben Mackenzie, intimidating gatekeeper for one of DC’s most powerful conservative senators. After Kate and Ben lock horns in a meet-not-so-cute, they vow to take each other down–by any means necessary.
She thinks he’s arrogant (and doesn’t deserve those gorgeous green eyes). He thinks she’s too quick to judge (and irresistibly distracting). But as their endless game of one-upmanship becomes Kate’s favorite part of the day, she starts to wonder if her feelings for Ben are closer to attraction than animosity…and maybe their sparring is flirting. And when Kate realizes there’s more to Ben than meets the eye, she’s forced her to confront her biggest fear: In her sworn enemy, she may have found her perfect match.
My Thoughts
I want to be completely fair to this book, but to say I was disappointed is an understatement. I feel like there have been enough reviews calling out the author for the obvious bias and very problematic themes throughout the novel, so I thought I would talk about the other aspects of Meet Me in the Middle.
Why this book became such a disappointment is simple: in an attempt to shy away from political views, the author left behind the real story.
The pace was spot on perfect for contemporary romance. It never dragged, it always brought more action or emotions.
The actual premise is a pretty beautiful idea. People with two different political views coming together, listening to one another, and being able to have a relationship is ideal; however, Meet You in the Middle fails horrifically at acknowledging even the inherent problems that will arise from such a partnership.
At no point in the story did the couple address and work through political differences, and what’s worse, the author portrayed the woman as ridiculous for imagining that this would be an issue. As if she was close minded for not being able to put her political views aside for love.
In fact, throughout the book Kate is portrayed as another hysterical, liberal, socialist while Ben is the clear headed, fiscally conservative, republican.
Here’s where I ended any ability to think these two characters could be in a happy, loving, and honest relationship. Kate sees a picture of Ben celebrating at the Inaugural Ball. He’s smiling and happy while she is recounting the misery she felt in that same moment. Devon Daniels is clear that this book is based off of the current and recent past political climate, as even the bills they were working on were purposefully correlated to real-life legislation.
Someone who loves Trump cannot fundamentally agree with someone who does not. I see it play out in my day to day life, and it’s getting harder and harder to even be friends with people who can stomach the things he says let alone defend and promote his agenda.
There is no shade of gray to kids dying at the border because they were locked into cells.
There is not shade of gray on white supremacists.
There is no shade of gray on child molesters and sex traffickers.
I would love for someone to be explain to me how anyone can talk about these issues and come to a compromise. I’ll wait.
In the meantime, Meet You in the Middle doesn’t even try to address these obvious barriers, and in fact, jumps right over them or bends over backwards to avoid them. Ben is given exactly zero specific political views accept that he works for a republican senator and is redoing the tax plan. Oh yeah, he also loves guns and celebrated Trumps election, so…
The book and the characters needed to have those conversations, otherwise, you are left with a shallow attempt representing what a mixed political relationship looks like. Without these conversations, debates, or more likely arguments, the reader ends up trying to ship an almost impossible and unbelievable romance.
As for the writing, as I said before, I loved the pace and the dialogue was on point. Wity, smart, and funny all at the same time. However, I felt like the sex scenes needed some work. They were all super long, and simultaneously detailed and vague. There were multiple paragraphs devoted to uncontrollable lust kissing, in the same sex scene.
I understand the idea of wild, crazy, mind fogging sex, where it feels like hands and lips are everywhere. Trust me, they are some of my favorite scenes:
But when writing for a reader, I need to be able to remember what body part we are talking about. Just a little more streamlined approach in the sex scenes and the wildness could have been conveyed while I was able to follow along better.
I actually hope Devon Daniels writes a different book after Meet You in the Middle, because I would be interested in her storytelling without trying to force this failed premise.
*Special thanks to Devon Daniels, Berkley, and Netgalley for providing a copy of Meet You in the Middle in exchange for an honest review.
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