Review: Catching Lucas Riley by Lauren Winder Farnsworth

Catching Lucas Riley

By Lauren Winder Farnsworth 

My Rating: 4 Stars  

Date Read: March 2016

Publication Date: March 8th 2016 
Paperback, 192 pages


Summary From Goodreads:
  
Alex Foamer is in love . . . with the untouchable singles ward heartthrob who has no idea she exists. Enter Sealey Witchburn, the manipulative, sarcastic ward executive secretary, whose scheming is Alex's only chance to catch her crush’s attention. But when Alex actually wins the bid for her dream date, she gets more than she bargained for in this surprising LDS romance based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid

My Review: 

This book was a quick, fun, and hilarious read, though saying that it is based on The Little Mermaid is kind of stretching it. That was part of the reason that I wanted to read it in the first place {because, you know, Prince Eric is my fave} and as I was reading it, it just wasn't clicking for me... I mean, okay Sealey and Ursula, I got that... And Alex has red hair like Ariel... But I think it would have been better to leave the reference to The Little Mermaid out of the summary... But that's just my opinion.

Anyways, moving on... I really didn't like Sealey... I thought he was a major jerk. And I just wasn't feeling a connection between him and Alex. I kept waiting on him to grow on me as the book went on, but it never happened. I did like Alex's relationship with her roommates though. They were all so different, but their personalities just meshed together so well.

I've never obsessed over a guy {well I have, but they're either fictional or famous, so that doesn't count} but I felt like I could relate to Alex and her insecurities.} I'm a member of the LDS Church and I'm also roughly around the same age as Alex. So I can kind of relate to her on that.

Even though this one is categorized as Adult Christian Fiction/New Adult book, teens could read this book without any fear of it being super raunchy. Which is always exciting for me, because it's hard to find New Adult books that aren't full of sex, drugs, and alcohol.

There are some terms and phrases that readers may not be familiar with unless they are a member of the Mormon Church {which I am}, or they know someone who is a member. But it's nothing that is so off putting that it makes you want to stop reading the book. It's also not overly preachy either, which is always nice.

One of my favorite quotes from the book was:

"It wasn't that she didn't appreciate testimony meeting for what its purpose was supposed to be, but the problem was that too many testimonies turned into storytelling sessions or academy award speeches."

Because, let's face it... it's something that everyone has thought, but just never had the guts to say out loud.