Till There Was You by Lindsay Hameroff || Book Review

I prefer writing full book reviews of books that I've loved because I want to gush about them and make more people read them. Usually, I don't write reviews of books I didn't enjoy.

But sometimes, books like Till There Was You come along which annoy me so much that I need to vent about them.

about Till There Was You

Culinary student Lexi Berman, 24, has one goal: to make her late mother proud by becoming an executive chef in a Michelin-star restaurant. And she isn’t going to let anything–or anyone–get in the way. But when she meets Jake Taylor, a dive bar musician who charms her with show tunes, she makes a rare exception to her no-dating rule. After a steamy weekend together, Jake leaves for L.A. to record his demo, and Lexi never expects to see him again. And she definitely doesn’t expect him to become an overnight celebrity, with a breakout single that’s almost certainly about her famous blueberry pancake recipe.

As Jake’s star rises and the world speculates about the subject of his song, Lexi keeps the affair to herself. After all, she’s finally found her footing at her new restaurant job, and even has a prospective romance with her coworker. But when a distraught Jake turns up on her doorstep late one night, her carefully-laid plans are thrown for a loop. Though she and Jake try to be friends, things between them soon reheat faster than a bowl of Lexi's matzah ball soup. But a relationship with Jake means risking her face in tabloids, withstanding cruel internet comments, and worst of all, jeopardizing her career. As Jake’s upcoming tour approaches, and rumors swirl about him and another pop star, Lexi has to decide if holding onto her meticulously-planned future is worth walking away from what could be the perfect recipe for love.

Set both in the chaos of fame and the high stakes world of New York City restaurants, this novel sprinkles in a second chance at love and a dollop of celebrity drama to create a romantic romp that will make even the most jaded reader smile. 

my review

I listened to the audiobook of Till There Was You on Libro.fm and I mainly listened to it while commuting. I picked this book because I find that romances are fun and don't need as much attention so they make good audiobooks during commutes.

I usually hate pop star romances but I decided to give this a shot because this seemed to be different.

Most pop star romances take place in a small town that the musician runs away to for a break where they meet a love interest who doesn't know them so they find it "refreshing" and fall in love. That's the cliche.

Till There Was You was a bit different because they met and liked each other before Jake became popular. Jake's claim to fame is the song that he wrote about her pancakes! That sounded fun.

The story started pretty well. Lexi is a student at culinary school, pursuing her dreams of making good food, when she meets Jake at a bar where he performs. They spend the weekend together before he leaves to record a demo during which she makes him blueberry pancakes for breakfast. He is so gone on her that he writes a song about the breakfast and it blows up.

As we all know, fame is not all that it's cracked up to be. Jake is bombarded by texts from people he hasn't spoken to in years and changes his number which cuts him off from Lexi. The next time she hears from him, it's a year later when his song inspired by her plays on the radio.

Lexi decides to move on and even agrees to go on a date with a colleague at her new job when Jake shows up at her door, drunk and sad. Of course, since she likes him, she lets him in.

Until this point, everything was just a set-up for the actual story. The setup went on for far too long. I was bored! The only reason I didn't DNF was because I was listening to the book half-heartedly for 30-45 minutes a day. If I was paying full attention and spending my time on it, I might have dropped it.

When the actual story started, I kept listening because it was a train wreck and I wanted to see if any of it was good.

Most books aren't perfect. There are always small annoying things and there can be pet peeves. It's hard for any author to please everyone so it isn't rare that most readers will find at least a couple of small things that annoy them. That's why 5-star reads are rare.

I won't lie and say that I don't have pet peeves. I prefer certain plotlines over others and irrationally hate some things in books. But I don't mind sticking through a few of them if the rest of the book is good. I hate office romances but I don't mind them if it's done well. Similarly, I don't mind a pop star romance if it's nice.

Till There Was You slowly hit several of my pet peeves until I started hating the book. It wasn't a thing about chance anymore. It was that this story had too many overdone things without valid reasons.

Let me go through the minor pet peeves first as they're quicker to finish with:

• Lexi tried to break up with Jake TWICE for no reason. It's understandable if she's afraid or if something from her past influenced her decision. But they would be happy and out of nowhere she would say "let's break up." Both times, Jake had to reassure her and convince her to give them a shot. Both times, the tension felt forced as if it was there simply to rock the boat and keep the reader on the edge. Yeah, I was on the edge of yelling at her while I was in the metro.
• Lexi's best friend announced that Lexi was "in love" after Lexi and Jake's first weekend together. The friend reasoned that Lexi was blushing and checking her phone for Jake's texts so she was in love. Come on! Even crushes are bigger than that. I hate how the friend insisted and convinced Lexi that Lexi was in love even though she didn't think of it and didn't have feelings that big.
• Repetitive use of writing devices. For example, multiple chapters ended with "I was so wrapped up in ... with Jake that I didn't notice the flash of the camera." If used once or twice, it adds the intended vibe. More than that, it's just annoying.
• On Lexi's first day at her new job, she's paired with the tough girl in the kitchen who sneers at her. When she says something, Lexi responds with a one-liner about her sad past and that's how she gains the other girl's respect. Are you kidding me? I agree that it can get you kindness and some space to speak but respect?? The other girl started talking about Lexi as if she were a confident woman who could take on everything. Lexi is actually the most inactive girl I've ever seen. She sticks through things only because she doesn't know how to make them better or when to quit and change.
• There was a stunning singer who liked Jake and, of course, she was made to be a villain. I hate the trope where another woman exists just to make the MC jealous and insecure. I hate it when the other woman is the villain even though all she does is try to help him and try to keep him by her side because she likes him. And I realllly hate it when the other woman helps the couple get together at the end and is shown as if "she's nice after all."

The characters were very uninteresting. They were BORING. AS. HECK. Especially the main characters. Lexi's only personality was her sad past. Jake's only personality is his struggle with fame. That's it.

When Lexi was introduced, we saw that she liked cooking and it's especially special to her because her mom enjoyed her food even while she battled with illness. Her mom encouraged her to pursue a career in food and Lexi wants to make her proud. Such a background isn't bad. If there is growth in Lexi, it works fine.

However, there was no growth! From the start of the book till the end, Lexi is afraid to do anything. She dreams of becoming a chef and she does work hard for it. But when it's clear that the path she's going on isn't right, she doesn't do anything. When she and Jake begin dating, she basically throws away her career. She doesn't put her all into her job.

When faced with the fact that something isn't going right, she keeps going halfheartedly until an external force stops her. I hated how she didn't take any action. She wasn't energetic at all. She lived in her expensive townhouse and expected her "passion" to take her to places.

SPOILER (click read anyway because I don't want you to read the book to find it out)

When her performance started tanking at her job, she didn't try to do better. It's supposedly everything she wanted because it's a stepping stone to her end goal but when things got hard, she didn't use her brain. She kept trying to do the same things. She got SO MUCH SUPPORT from her colleagues and boss but didn't make use of it. She didn't think about how her actions affected them. In the end, she "found her right path" only when she was FIRED from her job. No matter how much the book tries to sell it as a good thing, I won't agree. Especially when, right after setting up a new food catering business with a friend who trusted her, she makes a declaration to Jake that she'll follow him across the world on his tour. Bruh. Come on. She literally does not think about others when she makes decisions.

As I said earlier, Jake's only personality trait was his struggle with fame. He likes music and has been trying to get noticed so that he can put out his music. Suddenly, when his single blows up, he is overwhelmed and is easily led wrong by his manager who only cares about money. Jake becomes sad and lonely and eventually shows up at Lexi's doorstep.

He laments to Lexi about how naive he was and how his trust was broken. He vows to be smarter and keep her closer to him. When he convinced her to give him another shot, he proceeded to be naive again. I wouldn't say that he came from a bad family or that his career is a do-or-die situation either. Sure, his father doesn't like it and prefers that he take over the family architect business. But at the end of the day, they let him do what he wants and he always has a safe space at home.

So, why do Lexi and Jake like each other? What kept them together beyond the initial attraction? What made the pull between them so hard to fight? I don't know. I saw no chemistry between the characters. Reading about them together was not interesting. It might have been fun if the writing style and the boring narration didn't make everything seem like bland bread.

And listen, the Till There Was You Audiobook was 10.5 hours long. Listening from Lexi's point of view for 10.5 hours was no small feat. After 50% through, I continued listening just because I wanted to have the right to rant about it properly in a book review. I was so annoyed that I was making faces and telling myself "are you serious" while commuting. Once, I was walking in rage with a huge frown on my face and I had to school my features after I saw someone staring at me in confusion.

There was nothing in the story that warranted 10.5 hours. I listened to it in 2x speed so it was about 5 hours but that is too much too.

Lexi and Jake date and fight the chaos of Hollywood for most of the book. But why did they make zero progress through all of it? They kept having the same conversations and insecurities. I would say that the story is predictable but there was nothing to predict!

The book felt like every other pop star romance that I read. The blueberry pancake song doesn't make up for the rest of the story. I so wanted Lexi to have a different attitude and take on life with confidence but she didn't do anything. She kept banking on Jake to make the best decisions and keep them together. He had enough on his plate without having to cater to her every minute. And believe me, he tried.

The story may have ended with them getting back together after a third-act breakup but I was not convinced that it's their happily ever after. The characters are prone to going back into the same insecure cycle if anything rough comes along.

overall

Till There Was You somehow managed to fit several of my pet peeves into one story without making use of any of them well. I should have quit it but I rage-listened to the second half of the book just to see if it redeemed itself even a bit.

I didn't enjoy it. I'm in a small reading slump because of it.

I don't recommend it. Pick a book from my romance recommendations list instead.

chat with me!

Is there any book that somehow managed to annoy you with multiple things throughout? What are your pet peeves in books? Chat with me in the comments!