eARC Review: Love, Lex by Avery Aster

Title: Love, Lex
Author: Love, Lex by Avery Aster
Series: The Undergrad Years, #1
Format: eARC via Netgalley
My rating: 1.5 / 5

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This summer, I’d planned to celebrate my eighteenth birthday in Europe with my fellow Manhattanites—Taddy Brill, Blake Morgan, and Vive Farnworth—until I caught my boyfriend screwing my mother. According to the police report, this vomit-inducing incident happened around the same time I’d supposedly blown-up my mother’s penthouse. Like I’m walking around Soho with a stick of dynamite in my Louis Vuitton purse—not! Now, my besties and I are in jail.

Officer Ford Gotti, the Harley-wheelin’ biker cop who arrested us, keeps sticking his perfectly-sculpted nose into my case. His inked body is jacked like a superhero, and he says I can trust him. He wants me to fess up. I won’t. Not again. Why should I? My friends and I had a previous stint in juvie that nearly destroyed us. I gotta protect them and keep my mouth shut. Right? —Lex Easton, women’s studies major, motorcycle enthusiast, and virgin.

The Undergrad Years is a New Adult contemporary miniseries about first loves, independence, and everlasting friendships.

Reader warning: Contains mature content intended for readers 17 and up.

-- As seen on Goodreads

* I received this book via NetGalley, with thanks to the publishers, in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my opinion in any way.*

My Thoughts

Lex is determined to lose her “Lady V” card to her boyfriend Kelle on her upcoming birthday trip to Paris – only, according to Kelle, if she loses some weight beforehand. She returns home one day to find Kelle screwing her mother. And we get details. Now, I will congratulate Lex on her restraint. If it were me in her shoes, I’d: 1) Vomit, then 2) Scream bloody murder, and then 3) Threaten to annihilate my so-called boyfriend’s manly parts. Painfully. But that might just be me.

Love, Lex is the first book in the The Undergrad Years series, and it’s a prequel to The Manhattanites series. I haven’t read The Manhattanites and this probably affected my overall feelings toward the book. I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot of things that had happened to the characters, and I’m not sure if all of this is covered in the main series or not. There are quite a few summary moments to help give some prior details and that helped a little. For those that have read The Manhattanites, you’ll definitely benefit more from the book that I did.

The entire book reads a bit like a TV show. I loved the Spice Girl references, they were so funny! That’s the thing, the book started out very funny and quite over-the-top and I liked it for what it is: rich New York socialite kids getting away with things they shouldn’t. But it does have a flip side: all the crazy over-the-top drama became a little too much and my attention slipped a bit at times.

There isn’t much character background or development in this novella, as I’m assuming all that is taken care of in the main series. I didn’t really like Lex, I didn’t connect with her. This is mainly because I didn’t know much about her! I mentioned it above, reading the main series would be extremely beneficial.

Love, Lex is exactly like I expected: a light, fun, sugary entertaining rom-com that will appeal to some people more than others. Did I like it? Overall, I did, but I don’t feel I got to know the characters, and that’s why I chose this rating. It’s funny and entertaining, I can’t deny that. It may not be exactly to my tastes, but definitely give it a shot. If you like those Reality TV shows that follow and show celebrities daily lives, I’d suspect you’ll love this series.