From Lukov with Love

Ugh, these books always get me! Stayed up all night reading this one, of course. I HAVE to know what happens with the slow-burn romances in this author's books. Always and forever.

I liked the relationship between the characters in this one more than I liked the characters themselves. I didn't connect that much with Jasmine in this book because while we learned a lot of the struggles she went through growing up, I don't think there was enough of her personality in the book. I understand the author wanted to portray that her life revolved around figure-skating but the developmental moments she highlighted of Jasmine's childhood only centered around the qualities that she would constantly point out made her “different”. Her vulnerable moments were few and far between, and then nothing would come of them. The story would just go on as if the two main characters didn't just share a MOMENT.

The main thing I didn't like about Jasmine was one of her character flaws so obviously this was a subjective preference on my part. She was all about being “anti-fake” and keeping to her promises, and being different than she was before because she's grown. Her refusal to confront her own bullshit was the most annoying thing to read. She sounded like a two year-old instead of a twenty-six year-old woman whenever she would have back and forth arguments with Ivan. And honestly, how...how could she not know that he was teasing her because he liked her? That's one of the oldest tricks and so blatant from the very beginning that her shock later on was a bit extra.