How (Not) to Fall in Love by Lisa Brown Roberts

Standalone. Entangled Teen (Feb. 2015) YA Bound Tours

A girl who’s lost everything meets a guy who can fix anything. Just one problem: Falling in love isn't an option. Seventeen-year-old Darcy Covington never had to worry about money or where her next shopping spree was coming from. Even her dog ate gourmet. Then one day, Darcy’s car is repossessed from the parking lot of her elite private school. As her father’s business hit the skids, Dad didn't just skip town, he bailed on his family. Fortunately, Darcy’s uncle owns a thrift shop where she can hide out from the world. There’s also Lucas, the wickedly hot fix-it guy she can’t stop crushing on, even if she’s not sure they’ll ever get out of the friend zone. But it’s here among the colorful characters of her uncle’s world that Darcy begins to see something more in herself...if she has the courage to follow it.

How (Not) to Fall in Love is a difficult book to review because there were parts I enjoyed but really most of what this book had to offer wasn't very good. Darcy is a rich girl who's father bails so she has to become the adult in her family. She just can't believe this is happening to her... Her solution is to go from whining about money to whining about the crush who could never like her because she's not as beautiful as this other girl who looks like a model *roles eyes*. 

So Darcy was hard to like. It took me a very long time for me to warm up to her situation. But, in the end I never fully cared for her. I did like her with Lucas after a while. Lucas mainly was always very sweet. However, it really frustrated me that he clearly liked Darcy and Darcy was too insecure about herself. I understand being insecure however, she got in her own way unnecessarily. This was also a very slow paced book so that didn't help her out at all.

Darcy's family faced their own demons which was an interesting part of the story. It's always nice reading about a family that has a few flaws and tries to pull through. I still didn't really care as much as I should have and was frustrated with her mom especially. I just couldn't believe how she acted. I could understand but then I couldn't. I feel like the writing in general didn't make me feel for these characters or believe in them. There were good parts in this story though. There were moments that I looked forward to concerning Darcy and Lucas. I wanted to see them together. Lucas really saved the day for me with this book because he wasn't a bad boy. Sure it was mentioned that girls fawned over him but he wasn't the type of person who thought they were a gift to the world. He was actually a nice guy. Shocker!

How (Not) to Fall in Love wasn't the greatest but it did have a couple of good moments. There are many other readers who enjoyed this book so if you really want to read this go for it. But for me this could have been way better.