Romance Novel Review: The Engagement by Michelle Grotewohl
Genre: Contemporary romantic comedy
Average Smashwords Rating: 5 Stars
My rating: 1 star
The dispute started on the first day of kindergarten when Ethan put dirt in Arin’s hair. He followed them all through school, even through college. But when Ethan and Arin get jobs at an advertising company working together, as the “Dream Team”, it seems that they will finally have to work together. With the two of them sharing the same space so close, they might realize that what they feel for each other is not hate, but sexual tension.
It’s just supposed to be a cute story about two kids who grow up hating each other before realizing they like each other, but it has an unintended darker side. Most of the pranks the two boys played on each other were harmless and amusing. Like dirt put in Arin’s hair, or Arin putting gum in Ethan’s hair.
The pranks they pulled in college were even relatively funny and harmless. Arin dyed Ethan’s clothes pink to get back at him for trading his backpack for one full of condoms and pregnancy tests.
But some of the jokes weren’t funny or harmless, and it’s offensive that the author tried to pass them off as such.
Ethan hits Arin with a meat, hard enough to bruise him. He also broke his bra strap. These are not funny skirmishes in a cute childish feud. This is physical and sexual abuse and they have no place in what is supposed to be a light and funny story, especially of the so-called love interest.
Not that Arin also has her share of unfunny banter. Panting at Ethan is also wrong, and telling Millie, an awkward teenager, that Ethan liked her to pick on him is total bullying. It’s really hard to care about any of the main characters when they’re thugs pretending to be locked in a cute, frivolous war.
Perhaps these acts would have been almost acceptable if the characters admitted that they took things too far. goal no. Basically, the whole story said that this was okay, and even funny.
Frig. That.
However, that is not the only bad thing in this story. Arin and Ethan’s love affair feels really forced, probably because they don’t do anything good for each other, nor do they show any feelings except mutual hatred. They feel more like brother and sister at best, and distant at that.
Also, my suspension of disbelief was severely stretched when they not only entered the same job field (despite being “totally different” from each other), but also ended up working as the “dream team” with dream jobs. None of them have a bachelor’s degree right now! But their boss decides they are geniuses that will make him millions? Yes, sure.
As a college student facing a shitty job market, the ease of getting your dream job is incredibly annoying. Either they should be miserable interns, or much more experienced than AS holders looking for their first job. That’s more realistic and doesn’t affect the story at all.
In addition to all my problems with the plot, there are also the problems with Grotewohl’s storytelling ability. Sure this story was funny at times and I wasn’t bored, but there was so a lot of summary! We barely saw any dialogue, description, or action from Arin and Ethan, and certainly nothing that made me really care about them. All we saw was them arguing. All. Tea. Hour.
commitment it’s simply an unforgettable short story about two toxic people bringing out the worst in each other. I suggest you look elsewhere for your dose of romance.