Latte Darling by SJ Tilly
Latte Darling is a just don’t read.
This book was bad. I did desperately wanted it to be good but it wasn’t. I made it to 60% before I just gave up. There are so many things that were wrong with this book.
The author has chapters that are as short as half a page. 85 chapters in a book with less than 370 pages Some chapters are a page or two or three. Why? What is the reasoning. It wasn’t stylistic and it did not help the story.
The style of the meet cute was unique. Maddie is stood up or so she thinks by her date- turns out he is 20 and his dad has “grounded” him and took away his phone.
Here is where it starts to fall off some. The characters are very flat in this book. They are basic. They lack depth. The potential is there but nothing ever comes of it. I would classify this as PWP however it lacks chemistry and passion. The sex scenes are awkward. They are written in a way that you are cringy.
Axel is controlling and super jealous but with zero foundation. Maddie needed therapy. She reads as a spoiled teenager who has zero clue as to the world around her. She is so desperate to be something to someone that she turns into a doormat or his Baby Doll. Maddie at times calls Axel Sir and Daddy but it feels forced as if the author was Kink Chasing but did not know how to execute it.
Fat Phobia and Body image issues in this story were subpar and also not well done. When it comes to body size the author did do justice to Axel’s description. He was barreled chested and Big all over. Talking about his solid AND THICK THIGHS. Maddie was not treated as kindly. Maddie is short in the book. She has soft spots on her sides and her stomach. It is more than once brought to light herself conscious feelings towards her stomach when she sits. There was almost zero self-love of her body. Instead, she tries to hide it and is ordered by Axel to embrace it. It could have been so good with love for all body sizes and shapes instead it was once against played off as something that the MC needed to fixed or told to love it.
This book just had to many missteps for me to forgive. I tried so hard to like it. It has some of my favorite tropes in it. It just did not work for me at all. I don’t know if it was the writing style, editing choices or the cringy spice. This book needed more!
