ARC REVIEW: Stuck With Him – by Danielle Owen-Jones

Title: Stuck With Him
Author: Danielle Owen-Jones
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: July 12th 2022
Publisher: Bookouture
Finished reading: June 24th 2022
Pages: 327

“Society was far too fast to throw things away these days.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

I really enjoyed my time with Danielle Owen-Jones’ debut Stone Broke Heiress when I read it earlier this year, so of course I couldn’t resist the temptation when I was invited to read her newest story Stuck With Him. Especially since the blurb sounded like great fun with the two strangers (and seemingly complete opposites) buying a house together… I did become a bit more hesitant after seeing the recent spell of bad reviews, but I still had hopes it would be a success for me after a great first experience with her writing. Sadly, I did end up having mixed thoughts instead.

First of all, I do have to say that I still love the premise of Stuck With Him. Two strangers buying a house together sounds like madness, and the perfect backdrop for a romantic comedy; especially if the two characters are complete opposites and don’t seem to have anything in common. I really liked the author’s style of humor and writing in her debut, so I fully expected this story to be a great fit as well… Even more if you consider such a strong premise. Unfortunately this time around the story ended up being a bit of a miss for me and I do understand the mixed reviews now.

There were things that did work for me of course, including the premise I mentioned before and the setting. The writing itself was still easy on the eye and I found myself turning those pages quickly enough. The bare bones of the humor was still there, and there were some funny parts. BUT. I think my main issue with Stuck With Him is that the main character Lucy is condescending, rude, self-centered and simply despicable. I felt bad vibes as soon as I met her during the hen party in Spain (although her friends weren’t exactly considerate towards her either), but after I saw how she was basically looking down on everybody and how she treated Zack simply for being different than herself? Yuck. She basically ruined the whole story for me, although I never completely warmed up to Zack either (probably because I was too busy feeling sorry for him).

The romance itself didn’t feel credible to me; especially because the switch was too sudden and I never believed in their connection in the first place. Add the love triangle and the unnecessary tension and the romance most definitely didn’t do this story any favors for me. This is mainly Lucy’s fault of course, but then again I already mentioned just how much I disliked her character in general. The dog Kat brought some relief (although I was seriously annoyed by the allergy angle and how it was developed)… But it wasn’t enough to save the story.

All in all Stuck With Him wasn’t exactly a winner for me, which was mostly due to the main character and less than credible romance and love triangle. The writing style and humor itself were still solid enough to make me want to try her next story though.