Sabrina’s new Melbourne cafe, her lifelong dream, is struggling—despite her exceptional baked goods and fabulous coffee. Her love life isn’t faring much better—she just keeps dating the wrong kind of guy. But the boyfriend clause in her loan agreement requires her to be in a committed relationship or pay back the loan in its entirety. That would mean losing the cafe.
What could be worse? Making up a fake boyfriend, and accidentally giving him the name of the rude and brooding famous writer in her apartment block, the one she wildly insulted when he moved in—that’s what!
And when that leads to the rude and brooding writer joining her rambunctious family on a trip to England and a charade of perfect romance, Sabrina finds herself navigating a whirlwind of contradictory emotions. Including an unignorable awareness of just how infuriatingly hot the insufferable writer is. But as the boundaries blur, one question looms large: what, or who, is he writing about?
Review
I really wanted to love The Boyfriend Clause. The opening scene was strong and hilarious, and the humour continued throughout the book. Sabrina is the kind of main character I love to root for, and I love a story with complicated family dynamics. I particularly enjoyed the plot involving Sabrina and her older sister’s relationship. Unfortunately, there was a couple of things that did not sit well with me.
The main thing that bothered me about the story is Sabrina’s mother, Dianne. Dianne can be read one of two ways: a mother who is over-the-top with her meddling, but is ultimately well intentioned, OR, a mother who has specific ideas about what her child’s life should look like, and will ignore all boundaries to make those ideas come true. The other characters in the book clearly see her as the former. I saw her as the latter; while most of the things Dianne does in the book is played for humour, I saw someone who will guilt trip and manipulate things and other people to get what she wants. Well-intentioned, perhaps, but I almost couldn’t bear it.
I generally enjoy Sabrina and Adam’s dynamics, and they have some lovely moments together as the plot progresses. I would have liked to see more of Adam’s genuine personality earlier though. He had a lot of growth to do when the starting point is a grumpy brick wall of a man who would sit in an otherwise empty café for hours and not buy more than one cup of coffee (despite the fact that he can drop money last-minute on a flight to London from Melbourne). He never quite got there for me, unfortunately.
Books and their characters can be a bit of Rorschach test sometimes; we all bring our own values and experiences to them. It’s possible that other readers will not be bothered by the same things as I was. There are plenty of banters, loveable quirky family members, a good dose of humour, and some spice to keep The Boyfriend Clause an entertaining romance.
Thank you to Text Publishing who provided a copy of the novel in exchange for a review.
Review by Priscilla
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