ARC review: America’s Sweetheart by Jessica Lemmon

America’s Sweetheart by Jessica Lemmon
Series: Real Love #5
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Links: Amazon • Goodreads
Publication Date: October 2, 2018
Source: ARC from publisher (via Netgalley)

Old flames burn bright. When a disgraced starlet returns home to lick her wounds, she discovers that her high school sweetheart is just as tempting as ever.

Allison: When I left for California, I gave myself a new name and never looked back. Now my carefully crafted good-girl image is getting torn to shreds in the press thanks to my Oscar-winning A-hole of an ex-boyfriend. So I escape to the only safe haven I know and trust—my hometown—to take a breather while I plot my triumphant Hollywood comeback. However, when I arrive at my parents’ house, Jackson Burke answers the door instead. And suddenly the past comes rushing back. . . .

Jackson: First kiss. First time. First love. Yep, Allison Murphy and I shared a lot of firsts back in the day. When she left, she took half my heart with her. Now she’s back in town, and even though I swore I’d keep my distance, her parents hired me to remodel their house, and I’m going to finish the job. But one hot kiss later, suddenly the press is calling us the next big celebrity couple. Sure, I’ll play the part, for Allison’s sake—but I refuse to let her close enough to break my heart all over again. . . .

At this point, I think I’ve lost track of how many of Jessica Lemmon’s books I’ve read. I know that this is the fifth book in her Real Love series, a series that I had been more or less enjoying… until now. I’m not sure what exactly it was about this book that bothered me so much, but I found myself rolling my eyes all the way through.

To start, I guess that the premise really isn’t my favorite thing. I love a good second chance romance, but this book almost had too many tropes for me. Not only is it a second chance romance, but it’s got some fake dating, a small-town girl who became a famous actress, a misunderstanding that turned into a scandal, some agents meddling in their clients’ lives… it was too much.

And not only that, but I couldn’t get over the push and pull between Jax and Allison. Do you want to be together or don’t you? Is it a bad idea or a good one? Are you pretending to date or dating for real? Are you dating other people or not? Make up your mind! You’re grown adults.

And finally, the POVs. I am totally fine with multiple POVs in my books, but it needs to make sense. Alternate every chapter or every couple chapters. Don’t just do the first 45% from one character’s POV only to randomly switch to the other’s. And if you’re going to randomly switch like that, maybe just leave it? Don’t randomly switch back in the middle of a sex scene. It was so disorienting and there wasn’t even so much as a character’s name at the top of the chapter to warn me.

I’ve really enjoyed many of Jessica Lemmon’s previous books, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

Previously: Eye Candy • Arm Candy • Man Candy • Rumor Has It

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Have you read America’s Sweetheart? Are you a fan of Jessica Lemmon?
Let’s talk in the comments!

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