DNF...: Sweet *ARC*

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne, June 2, 2015. 288 pages. Published by Feiwel & Friends. Source: Publisher.

The luxurious celebrity cruise launching the trendy new diet sweetener Solu should be the vacation of a lifetime. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She's already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host Tom Forelli—the hottest guy ever!—and she's too sick to even try the sweetener. And that's before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

Tom knows that he should be grateful for this job and the chance to shed his former-child-star image. His publicists have even set up a 'romance' with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when the hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it's Laurel that he's determined to save. 

First Sentence:

A guy wearing skinny jeans and a neon-blue fedora is leaping into the air, vaulting up onto the backs of people in the crowd, waving like a crazy and shouting, "Baby Tom-Tom! Baby Tom-Tom!" like a man on fire calling for a bucket.

*weeps* I really, really wanted to like Sweet because I enjoyed (though still haven't reviewed) Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne. I am actually considering giving this one another chance later in the year in hopes that maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this type of book. It all depends on how I feel when I, potentially, pick this book up again.

So, why did Sweet not hit the spot for me, well, it was Viv's fault. I don't know, something about her was not clicking with my reading mood when I first started Emmy Laybourne's newest book. Frankly, I'm not even  all that sure why she's going on the cruise in the first place! Sure, she's going for her friend's sake, yet, my thoughts  are if you don't really want to be there than you shouldn't go. Why, you're not going to be happy which is then going to make said friend unhappy. It's a total lose lose situation.

While I really enjoyed Ms. Laybourne's writing in Monument 14, I was not connecting with it this time around. I'm not much of a fan of books with celebrities or people acting the fool around celebrities, it really just makes it hard for me to get into the book, especially when that's the first twenty+ pages. If you know me, then you know that (pretty much) anything involving celebrities or reality TV within books does not work for me. Which looking back should have been a warning sign when I requested Sweet for review.

What makes me want to give it another shot. That would be that I still have this nagging curiosity as to what happens and that I'm just not 100% sold on giving up on Emmy Laybourne's newest release. Even though the first twenty pages had me uninterested I'm keeping it as a possible re-try because even though I've walked away it's still on my mind.

So, if you've read Sweet, tell me should I give it a second chance or leave it be?


This book was received in exchange for an honest review.