Book Review: Meet Clara Andrews by Lacey London

Meet Clara Andrews by Lacey London

Blurb

Clara Andrews is a stereotypical female character who loves fashion, shoes, alcohol and guys. She recently had a promotion at her dreamy job in the fashion industry, is best friends with her boss and finds herself falling head over heels for her new colleague, an American designer named Oliver. Not wanting to break the no relationships between office colleagues rule, she also agrees to date a barman, George.

Review

Rating 3/5 stars (I liked it).

I found about this book from the author's twitter who put the first book of her series for free.
Overall, the book is a decent quick read. It promises to be a laugh-out-loud romcom, which in all honesty, it isn't. I did find myself smirking on a bus on multiple occasions, mainly due to the writing style of London. For instance, I felt the description of Clara's feelings towards being smitten were quite genuine and relatable. The book started off with a great promise, although I was not a fan of how Oliver was showering Clara with rich gifts and she was easily swooned over by expensive champagne, first-class tickets and fancy hotels. George, although he seems like a nice guy, stands no chance against Oliver.

I enjoyed the awkwardness of Clara around guys, which make up for the seemingly perfect life she holds from the outside. Her love for food and drinks is noticeable since almost every scene includes food and drinks, whether in the office, at her house, at a bar, at a restaurant, at a hotel, or pretty much anywhere. I think she needs an intervention (seriously, the alcohol use is normalised way too much).

One of the flaws to the book is that it is focused on a cliché story without reaching depth into the characters. I get that is maybe what romcoms are, but it is fairly disappointing after a promising start. I was enjoying most characters and I ended up disappointed with almost all of them (which means I am not going to continue reading the rest of the series).

Story

Warning: There will be occasional spoilers ahead.

I have already expressed my annoyance with Clara being shallow in falling hardly with a money-machine. In a couple of weeks they're both head-over-heels about each other, and Oliver is serious about the relationship and is not looking to play games. Fair enough. As mentioned in the book description/blurb, Clara also dates George (just two or three dates), which are quite early on, and when she realises how hard she is falling for Oliver and how serious he wants to be, she wants to meet George in person to cancel. Here is when the story gets predictable. In fact, you probably already know what happens.

Oliver and George find that Clara has been dating the two of them and they both make a big of deal, putting the blame on her, that she has messed up and all that. I'm not going to spoil how the book ends (although if you see the book titles of the rest of the series, you could quickly find out). However, I really dislike this last part of the book where it is all about Clara feeling guilty, feeling sad about having messed up the relationship with Prince Charming and all that. Furthermore, her boss and best friend Marc also tells her that she messed up, rather than comforting her. It's one thing to have a couple of predictable twists in a story, but I really disliked how they treated Clara, and it did not make any sense.

Monogamy is Problematic

This is the taste I am left in my mouth after reading this book. How dare guys assume that Clara is a possession just because she went on a couple of dates with a couple of guys? There weren't any labels, not even months of dating, but everyone assumes she is going to be a serious girlfriend and future wife (which probably she would be), but they are too tied to the notions of monogamy. This is especially unexpected when it her best friend (who should not have personal feelings hurt over these relationships) attacks her for dating two guys at once. Since when has this become a wrongdoing? Furthermore, calling a guy over a hundred times to apologise. Gurl. Move on!

Lack of Diversity

I'm not a typical preacher about diversity. However, the story revolves over a British woman falling in love with an American guy (dreamy, typical). Moreover, her two main friends also end-up in relationships and they both progress quite a lot in a short amount of time. Moreover, I was a bit surprised there weren't any LGBT characters. No queer/gay individuals in the fashion industry? I am not saying everyone has to be queer, but it is a misrepresentation of a vast industry when all the characters have White names and are in heteronormative relationships. I mean, really, this firm is screwed because everyone is willing to give up their career for love and that fairy tale infatuation.

Summary

It's a decent chick lit, so it might depend what you are into as a reader. For a free book, I don't regret reading it on the bus (especially since it has over 40 small chapters, which helps to break the book in several reading sessions). It had a great start but it lacked to diverge and remained somewhat. The story isn't bad itself, although I was not a huge fan about Clara's submissiveness and the sexist and heternormative climate. I do hope that there is more depth to the characters in the series, even though I won't be committing to reading them.