In a Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander | Book Review

In a Not So Perfect World by Neely Tubati Alexander
Published by Harper Perennial on March 19, 2024
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 350
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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A delightful Caribbean-set romp about an ambitious designer of apocalyptic video games with a strategy for (almost) everything who discovers what happens when her best-laid plans go off course...

Sloane Cooper is up for her dream job as a designer for a top video game company. During the interview, though, she somehow promises the all-male panel that she’ll remain single and fully dedicated to the work. It’s actually fine—after her last boyfriend cheated on her, she vowed to focus on her career anyway.

Enter Charlie, aka Hot Neighbor Guy, a near-stranger who shocks her with the offer of an all-inclusive trip to a Turks and Caicos resort. The catch? Charlie originally planned the trip with his ex, and asks Sloane to pose as his new girlfriend to make his old flame come running back. Against her better judgment, Sloane says yes; she can use the time away to develop a game design that will dazzle the Catapult team and get her a job offer.

Despite sparks flying in paradise, the trip can’t lead to more. As their connection deepens, Sloane is reminded that she can’t fall for Charlie and get knocked off her professional path. Besides, he’s trying to win back his true love. Can Sloane figure out a way to move past heartbreak, land the job of her dreams, and avoid catching feelings? The zombie apocalypse would be easier to solve—at least she’s prepared for that.

I’ll never say no to an opportunity to read a fake dating, forced-proximity, destination romance, so I was very excited to dive into In a Not So Perfect World! I love traveling to fun locations through books, and this one is set in a place I’ve been before (Turks & Caicos) so I could picture the water and the sand and the balmy breezes off the ocean. I initially had fun with this one. It was heartwarming and got me in the feels at times, but I also felt like things spiraled out of control and ultimately fizzled. Anyway, let’s discuss.

Right off the bat, things started strong for me. Sloane has a unique and sexy meet-cute with Charlie, who for some reason she doesn’t know is her super hot neighbor. Like, actual neighbor. Not a down the hall or one floor above kind of neighbor. She can see his door from her door. How does one miss a guy like Charlie?? They’re both reeling from recent break-ups and when he offers her his ex-girlfriend’s spot on his fancy tropical vacation (to make his ex jealous, of course) she reluctantly agrees to go, thinking it would be nice to get away from the possibility of running into her own ex. We’ve seen this premise before, so it’s obvious that shenanigans will ensue and the feelings will flow. This storyline is my kryptonite, and I quickly settled in. But things grew clunky for me as I read more.

I liked Charlie a lot and thought he was sweet and very caring. His punny t-shirts were very entertaining. Sloane wasn’t as easy to like. I wanted to see a strong woman challenge the norm in an often male-dominated sector of the business world, but she practically laid down and invited these guys at the video game company to wipe their feet on her. Watching her value herself so little was infuriating. I did LOVE her dog. Her dog is my favorite character in this book. Charlie and Sloane are cute together, and they have some very silly, chaotic interactions that I wish I had seen more of. When they got deep into their banter, I couldn’t contain my smiles. They have some purely golden moments. However, they got boring. I wanted to see these two spending more time enjoying the resort and sightseeing together than sitting on their balcony having the same conversations over and over again. There was a LOT of sitting around talking about their past struggles, and I did start to skim at times when things began to drag. The fake dating plot was seriously overshadowed and nearly wiped out completely because the emphasis was on their painful pasts instead of leaning into the fake dating and the forced-proximity tropes. I really enjoyed the connection they developed but, I can’t believe I’m saying this, when all was said and done I actually liked the friendship parts of their relationship much more than the romantic parts. The romance developed so slowly that when it finally happened it was all way too fast. It’s like they fell in love because this book is supposed to be a romance instead of general fiction, and I didn’t believe in it.

This might be a bit spoilery (maybe?), so stop reading here if you’re worried. The third-act break-up was so long that, again, the romance was unbelievable. I was getting Elsa feelings like… how do you fall in love with someone you just met and hardly know? A week-long vacation, followed by months of not even being on speaking terms does not a love story make. The ending is so messy. For all the conflict and drama that Sloane had to wade through, things were wrapped up too quickly and too perfectly. Like the romance, the ending came out of nowhere. There was so much more that could have been done to let Sloane really shatter the glass ceiling of video game design, but it all fizzled. I wanted more oomf from her. More power. I wanted to be jumping up and down, fist-pumping, and living vicariously through a strong woman that actually declared her worth and stuck it to a group of misogynistic, egotistical men. I wanted her to grow a spine, but she never did. At least, she didn’t on-page. She put up with so much crap and I never got the satisfaction of her telling anyone off about it. So much of what happens in the epilogue should have happened in the story, with details on how we got there. Instead, the ending seriously just happens and then an “oh, by the way, let me tie up some loose ends really quick” epilogue was slapped on at the end. “This happened and this happened and this happened…” NO!! As a reader, I want to see an ending happen. I don’t want to be told about it after it’s over. This issue right here is what made me give the book a much lower rating than I was planning. The last 15%-20% made the entire book plummet for me. All in all, this was not what I wanted.