Too Busy, Falls Flat

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I wanted to love Marina Adair's RomeAntically Challenged, even despite the cheesy misspelling in the title. The first few chapters were great, introducing Annie as a serial "last girlfriend/fiancee before true love for her ex" who has just been dumped again by a fiancee that thinks they are still buds and who has moved on to planning a wedding-using their venue & wedding date (and $10,000 of her money to hold it) and Emmitt, a thrill seeking, world traveling photojournalist benched by a near fatal incident while on assignment who also happens to co-parent his 15 year old daughter with her stepdad and uncle following her mom's death.

This is a classic enemies to lovers trope, with plenty of drama. In fact, too much drama in each of their respective personal & work lives, and with each other. With as much as baggage as they have individually there really was not any need for the author to create "the big deal conflict" towards the end of the book; them managing to let go of some of their other stuff was plenty to overcome.

All through the book there was one other issue I had. Part of Annie's personal drama comes from being a Vietnamese woman adopted as an infant by white parents and her struggle to fit in. The term "banana" is used to describe Annie (self described) more than once, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.