Only Twenty-Five is the story of Meg and Josh, who are teachers at the same school, and the way they fall in love.
Well.
Ostensibly it’s the story of Meg and Josh.
In reality, it’s the story of Meg and how she falls for Josh, but more importantly how she deals with unexpected alopecia – hair loss.
The thing is, I liked a lot of this book.
I really liked Meg, and her struggles with losing her hair, as well as how that would impact the rest of her life – from her job to her friends to her dating life. Her issues were handled well.
And I liked Josh…what we saw of him anyway. While we had his POV, it was very uneven, and I would’ve either cut his POV entirely or added more of it.
The problem was that it wasn’t a romance.
Or at least, not a complete one.
There was flirting, there was cuteness.
And then suddenly time passed and they were dating. Which, by the way, is a pet peeve of mine. If you’re writing a romance, not writing the growth of the relationship…well, it leaves me feeling cheated. In this case, it was much more told than shown, which automatically knocks it down a star.
The relationship came together too quickly, and then the one obstacle got solved in only a couple of chapters – and short chapters, at that. It was much more a book about Meg’s struggles with losing her hair than a book about Meg and Josh’s relationship. This was a great idea and a good framework, but it needed more filling out.
All in all, while I liked bits of the book, I had enough issues with it that I can’t give it more than
Three Stars
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