Book Review: Most Eligible by Isabelle Engel
Basically setup to be like The Bachelor, Most Eligible by Isabelle Engel has all the right things to be a great romance. Check out my full review of Most Eligible below!
Book Information
Georgia Rose applied for a spot on TV’s most popular dating show, Love Shack, for one reason and one reason only: to get the scoop of a lifetime and boost her career. Is she there to find love? Absolutely not. But when the man she had a one night stand with that she’s never forgotten happens to be one of the hosts on the show, love just might find her. Can Georgia keep her secrets hidden even though she’s trying to tear down the very show the man she has a huge thing for works on? Will their budding romance even be able to handle it since she’s technically vying for the heart of the bachelor on Love Shack?
Review | Heidi Dischler
Honestly, there was so much about this novel that intrigued me and pulled me in. But the execution of these awesome ideas? Wasn’t my favorite.
To start, I don’t really watch reality TV shows like The Bachelor or Love Island. It’s just not my thing. I have really loved books about being on reality dating shows, though (see One to Watch). So, I don’t think it would be a huge leap for me to love Most Eligible. The thing is, though, that I really didn’t enjoy it and was more disappointed than anything. A lot of that had to do with the choppy structure, the underdeveloped characters, and the lack of LOVE in a romance novel.
So, with the choppy structure. There were so many times I was reading this book and the main character would mention that something that just happened on-page was actually a week ago. This literally threw me off so bad because I felt like I never had the true timeline or even knew how fast time was going. It all felt rushed and too slow at the same time. I never felt like I got to connect to any of the other contestants except for their big exit moments, so the emotional impact of those exits just wasn’t there. Which leads me to the underdeveloped characters.
Our main characters are Georgia and Rhett. Rhett is the one of the hosts for Love Shack and also happens to be the guy Georgia hooked up with a year ago and thought she had an instant connection with until he left without a trace. Roland is the bachelor on Love Shack, so Georgia is also technically trying to win him over in order to stay on the show and expose Lainey, the corrupt executive producer on the show. The only other character that really stands out is Addison (the mean girl of all the contestants). I’ll be honest, though, with how little you get to see true emotions from this group and how invested you’re supposed to be, my favorite character was probably Addison. She added the most to the novel even if it wasn’t something super specific to the plot. Lainey was supposed to be this horrible and mean executive producer while Georgia was exposing her. The exposing, though? Felt like it was totally in the background of the entire novel even though that was Georgia’s sole purpose. Not only that, but I feel like I didn’t even get a real connection between Rhett and Georgia to root for them as a couple. Sure, we had sweet moments, but there wasn’t enough to build a romance and that was SO disappointing.
Overall, the lack of romance in this romance novel, the choppy timelines and structure, and the lack of character development really just threw me off the entire novel. I think lots of other people might like this (especially if you’re a huge fan of reality dating shows because it does have the all the drama you need), but I just didn’t feel like it was something for me. 2/5 stars.
Source: Book of the Month Pick
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)
