Imme [trying to crawl out of hiatus] van Gorp's Reviews > Merry Measure

|| 1.5 stars ||

Unfortunately, I was just really not feeling this.

That's not to say that there aren't quite a few cute moments in here, because there were, but they just didn't do anything for me, and I actually found myself completely and utterly bored more often than not.

I was genuinely waiting to be done with this one not all that long after I started reading. It did not grip me at all, and actually became slightly annoying after a while.
It gave me a bit of a headache, if I'm being completely honest.

The two main characters are nice guys, and they do appear to have perfectly fine personalities, but.. they somehow never really grew on me. They never breached that basic surface level, and rather remained a bit stereotypical and simple.
I know that these two were supposed to be this duo where one is perfect and one is all clumsy, but that got old rather quick and it actually felt like I was being told this more than shown.
Arlo was supposed to be the dorky, clumsy one of the two, but aside from being clumsy in the physical sense of the word with him walking into stuff, he was actually extremely confident and sassy. Not at all awkward or ‘clumsy’.
It was this weird clash where I was being told that Arlo was this lovable geek, but then he acted just like a normal funny dude. It was a jarring mix of two personalities, where it seemed like the author could never quite decide who exactly she wanted her characters to be.

I think the unclear personality portrait that we have of Arlo also shines through when it comes to his feelings for 'perfect' Jack.
He was so wishy-washy and flippant; sometimes he seemed to be totally in love, and other times he wasn't even sure if he still had something as simple as a crush on his childhood hero. Did he really want to be with Jack? Or did he not?
Arlo was the least adamant person ever, and I really needed him to pull his head out of his arse. He could have at least tried to fight a little bit more for what he wanted, as he really did not do this once. If it wasn't for Jack's perseverance, these two would have never gotten together. No way.

Now, when it comes to the actual plot, I have to say that I did like the sightseeing and ‘hanging out’ they all did in Amsterdam. I think it had quite a warm feel to it, and their trip was even more enjoyable for me personally because I'm Dutch myself and was therefore incredibly familiar with all the references.
However, I do have to say that I think the plot could have been a little bit more expanded than just sightseeing, as it's, of course, quite a bit of an empty story on its own.

I also thought the whole sub-plot concerning the evil ex-boyfriend was so strange, as I couldn't for the life of me understand why he was even in Amsterdam.
I mean, why the others couldn't just tell him to bugger off was completely beyond me, but more importantly, it was never made very clear to me why the ex-boyfriend even wanted to be there. He wasn't particularly in love with Jack, and he also wasn't exactly trying to win him back very effectively. So what the hell was he doing, then?
The ex-boyfriend coming to Amsterdam just because he was sort of obsessed with Jack's parents was the weirdest thing ever and seemed like a very unsatisfactory explanation.
I actually think it would have made a lot more sense for him to simply just be in love with Jack, yet being a dick about it, hence not being what Jack wants. It would have given the same amount of angst, if not even more, without it being completely nonsensical.
Unfortunately, this easy option was not chosen, and instead a very strange and peculiar route was taken, which I could have gladly done without.

Something that was frequently mentioned in this book were the tiresome amount of childhood memories. There were so many of them, and I quite frankly could not have cared any less.
I didn't feel connected to these stories, as I hardly felt connected to the characters as they were now, let alone to when they were years younger.
It just felt as if they were trying way too hard to be all fun and 'oooh, happy vibes', which in the end just felt off and more cringy than heart-warming.

Long story short, I was mostly bored out of my mind while reading this, and even a few cute moments can't make this novel all that much better. Especially when none of those moments really packed much of a punch for me, as I simply just didn't care about anyone or anything that happened.


Lily Morton books:
‘Mixed Messages’ series - var. ratings
Spring Strings - 3.5 stars
Merry Measure - 1.5 stars