Review: Literally by Lucy Keating

SYNOPSIS:

A girl realizes her life is being written for her in this unique, smart love story that is Stranger Than Fiction for fans of Stephanie Perkins.

Annabelle’s life has always been Perfect with a capital P. Then bestselling young adult author Lucy Keating announces that she’s writing a new novel—and Annabelle is the heroine.

It turns out, Annabelle is a character that Lucy Keating created. And Lucy has a plan for her.

But Annabelle doesn’t want to live a life where everything she does is already plotted out. Will she find a way to write her own story—or will Lucy Keating have the last word?

The real Lucy Keating’s delightful contemporary romance blurs the line between reality and fiction, and is the perfect follow-up for readers who loved her debut Dreamology, which SLJ called, “a sweet, quirky romance with appealing characters.”

REVIEW:

*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*

I have to confess, I did not like this book in any way, shape, or form. I had such high hopes, because Dreamology was positively enchanting but this book fell very short. So let me break down the down fall of this story. The plot looks interesting and the synopsis was intriguing but it also poses the question, how self-centered do you have to be write yourself into your own book?

Lucy Keating puts herself into the story, okay, I can get behind this but then she writes herself being this lavish author, she is a best seller numerous times over, her books are made into movies and this is what bothered me because the story references all her books…books that she hasn’t wrote. Books that don’t exist and this really bothered me. The characters discussed key “Lucy Keating” book traits and it was disappointing to see an author would want to categorize herself into troupes. While Dreamology was amazing, this book felt like an author ego trip.

In terms of characters, I really liked Annabelle and the whole love story going on there. But I was also left with questions at the end of the book, does she cease to exist since Lucy is writing her story? Does the story continue on after the final page closes? It feels like an existential crisis kind of story. Did Annabelle actually exist or was she only their because Lucy created her? It was just confusing and made me question everything. It wasn’t enjoyable to read andI have to say disappointing isn’t the correct word to how I felt when I closed the book.

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