The Downside of Love by Meghan Quinn-Review Tour

    This isn’t a story about a love triangle. There is no triangle involved. This isn’t a story about an accidental pregnancy. Although having a baby with her . . . I would. This isn’t a story about lies and deception, even though at times I’ve lied to myself. No, this is my story. A story about sacrifice. A story about a man who fell in love with the wrong girl. A story I wish I never had to tell. This is a story about the true meaning of the downside of love.  

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            Tucked away at the base of the Rocky Mountains lived a little boy with one singular dream: leave this broken and battered home and become someone. Be somebody’s hero. That boy was me—Colby Brooks. Except I’m not that same little boy anymore. My dreams might still be the same, but my reality isn’t. I’m smarter. Stronger. A man. And I learned a long damn time ago, the only way to achieve my dreams was to avoid distractions—at any cost. Focus. Resolve. Determination. But all it took was one single night. One night and my entire life…changed. One night had me colliding head first with the biggest distraction of my life; Rory Oaks. Smart. Charming. Beautiful. Rory changed everything. Quickly, my one-track mind started to bend. Each kiss faded decade-long dreams. And with one single incident, I fly off course.   Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU                     Born in New York and raised in Southern California, Meghan has grown into a sassy, peanut butter eating, blonde haired swearing, animal hoarding lady. She is known to bust out and dance if “It’s Raining Men” starts beating through the air and heaven forbid you get a margarita in her, protect your legs because they may be humped. Once she started commuting for an hour and twenty minutes every day to work for three years, she began to have conversations play in her head, real life, deep male voices and dainty lady coos kind of conversations. Perturbed and confused, she decided to either see a therapist about the hot and steamy voices running through her head or start writing them down. She decided to go with the cheaper option and started writing… enter her first novel, Caught Looking. Now you can find the spicy, most definitely on the border of lunacy, kind of crazy lady residing in Colorado with the love of her life and her five, furry four legged children, hiking a trail or hiding behind shelves at grocery stores, wondering what kind of lube the nervous stranger will bring home to his wife. Oh and she loves a good boob squeeze! Facebook | Follow on Goodreads | Website | Amazon Author Page | Instagram | Follow on BookBub    

Brittany's 3.5 Star Review

​Warning: spoilers from book one
Overall rating: 3.5 stars

Now, I have so many feelings about this book. My overall rating has nothing to do with the writing, but more about my personal feelings involving the storyline and relationship between Stryder and Rory. 

This is where the spoilers from book one come in, so if you haven't read book one, don't read past this point.




Remember, at the end of book one, we're left with Colby watching his best friend kissing the girl that holds his heart. That's such a betrayal right there. Everyone knows the bro-code and the girl-code state that you CANNOT date your friends' exes. Especially your best friend's exes. That is a huge and gigantic no-no. 

So, I'm left anxiously awaiting for this book to appear on my Kindle so that I can continue this story and get the low-down on what happened to get Stryder and Rory to that point. I expected this book to be in Colby's point of view, especially from the synopsis (which, by the way, is heart attack inducing), but it was in Stryder and Rory's points of view. When I opened the book and began reading and saw that it was in Stryder's point of view, I wanted to read this book as slowly as I could. Because if it's in Stryder's point of view, that must mean that things don't end well for Colby. I just was not ready for this betrayal, this huge friendship-ending betrayal to be justified. I couldn't get over it. 

I think my reasons for feeling so strongly in regards to these two starting a relationship has to deal with how I fell in love with the relationship between Colby and Rory in book one. The love they shared was one that I want to experience one day. It was a love that you must hold on to and never let go. So when (again, spoiler from book one) Rory broke up with Colby, my heart broke along with theirs. I wanted this book to be about Rory and Colby finding their way back to each other. 

While I love Stryder and think he's a great character, I didn't want this story to be about him. I thought, from the verymisleading synopsis (there's no accidental pregnancy) that this book would be about Colby and Rory. I wanted it to be about Colby and Rory! 

Deep breath, Brittany. It's okay, it's just a piece of fiction. 

But that doesn't mean my heart didn't feel what it felt. What it still feels as I try my hardest to process this fucking book. I don't think I've ever felt this way about the ending to a book. No, wait, there is one other series that I still hold a monster grudge over it not ending how I wanted it to. Now, I know that there's no changing this ending. The way this ended is how it was supposed to end, because the author made it so. She did a fantastic job at writing this duet, knowing exactly how to catch a reader and draw them in, making them feel as if they are voyeurs in the book, watching each and every scene unfold. 

I guess what I'm most mad about is that the synopsis is quite misleading. I read the synopsis thinking that this would really be a love triangle (even though it said it wasn't), but it also being so much more than a love triangle. I thought there'd be an accidental pregnancy (again, even though it said there wasn't), because my understanding of the first line of the synopsis was that there would be a love triangle, even though it said there wasn't. And my god, I thought this book was going to be sad and depressing and heartbreaking, because it was about "the true downside of love".

Spoiler: it wasn't any of those things. 

And I'm mad about that. I'm mad that this huge betrayal was written off and made to seem like no big deal, when it should be a big deal. It should be about fist fights and anger and making the other person hurt like they hurt you. That's what I'm most upset about. I know that there's really no reason I should feel such intense anger, because a) it's a piece of fiction and b) it's not like any of them cheated. Two characters fell in love and no matter how hard they tried to stop it, they couldn't. 

Their story really is lovely. I believe their love is so much greater than the one that Rory and Colby shared. In my heart, I know that it's perfect that Stryder and Rory ended up together, because what kind of person would I be if I said that I'd rather Rory and Colby be together when their love doesn't even hold a flame to the one that Rory and Stryder share? 

I swear-I'm never this way about anything that goes on in books. Cheating never bothers me. I read the darkest of dark, some real sick and twisted shit. I'm a very open and accepting reader, so I don't know why I'm as bothered by this as I am.

So, in summary, I gave this book 3.5 stars because I feel that this book should have been about Rory and Colby finding their way back to each other, that the betrayal of Rory and Stryder becoming a couple shouldn't have been written off as easily as it was, and the synopsis was very misleading to me , having me go into this book with very different expectations.