Love At First Fight by Carrie Aarons

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With a little bit of free reading time, I decided to pick up Love At First Fight by Carrie Aarons. I remember the cover from when Shelby read it last year and thought it would work for one of the prompts for her Summer of Swoon. I am going to be using it to cover the 1st board prompt set in summer.

Molly was excited to be one of several people taking part in a summer house share in the Hamptons. She originally was supposed to be going with her long term boyfriend, but a month ago he let her know that he was moving to Singapore for his job alone... from the tarmac. She decides to still go despite most of the other people taking part being his friends. Molly ends up staying in the room next to Smith, one of her ex's best friends and someone that has always been rude to her. Smith knew that Molly was his end game from the first moment they met and has spent the last year and a half trying to keep his distance. Now that Molly is spending time with everyone single, he can't keep himself from dropping those surly walls and starting to show her how he really feels.

Okay, so I'm not usually a big enemies to lovers fan, but here it didn't bother me too too much. I did think it was a little silly why he was so rude to her, especially in the past. He knew when they met that they were pretty much meant for each other and decided to be rude to her and try to hate her and make her hate him to stay distanced and not insert himself in their relationship. Now that are neighbors in the house share and both single, Smith finds it harder and harder to keep up his surly facade. I like how naturally he started opening up to Molly, but there were a few issues that ended up detracting my enjoyment of the book overall.

I'm going to try not to get too ranty, but the biggest issue I had was how grief was dealt with. About 6 months before this book starts, Smith's twin sister dies after being hit by a drunk driver. Now there were very touching moments when he discussed his sister and how he felt about her, but most of the time the way that other people, and even Smith himself talked about grief made me angry. It is not okay to tell someone that the way they are grieving is wrong or should be further along in the process than they are. It really bothered my and I found myself unhappy with the situation multiple times. Outside of that, I thought the 3rd act break-up was a little silly to me as well. It felt a little over-reactional on both parts and I really didn't understand why Molly was pushing Smith so much when she was one of the few people that he was able to open up about his sister with.

I think overall I enjoyed Love At First Fight, but it was a couple things that were big detractors in my rating. I'm interested to try something else by Carrie. I just might look at a couple review or go through the blurb before picking it up in case there is something that I might be a little pickier or oversensitive too. I just think that there were some saving moments in the books, so we'll see what happens.

Have you read Love At First Fight?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Love At First Fight, Carrie Aarons, 3.5 stars, 2 days, eBook, 258 pages, published in 2020, indie published