"About Time You Noticed" by Lisa Renee: When Predictable Gets Boring

There's something so cosy and satisfying about two people bumbling through life for years, before finally realising "oh wait I DO want to kiss you instead of just helping you move apartments every time your lease is up". It's familiar, it's heart-warming, it's the romantic equivalent of wearing the same soft hoodie for the millionth time.

Here is the problem. It's been done. And done. And done again. The genre is so overcooked at this point, you could crack a tooth on it. This book doesn't just lean into the tropes- it swan-dives straight into them like it's auditioning for the Hallmark Channel.

Our leading man, Tommy, is a 39 year old sports teacher in a small town, and his main personality trait is being "super easy going", and "fun loving". Translation: He is completely oblivious to anything that isn't directly in front of his face, which is why he has spent decades not noticing his best friend Sarah has been in love with him. Imagine a man so dense that even a falling piano wouldn't clue him in. That's Tommy.

Sarah, our long suffering heroine, is a woman with a dream: she wants to save enough money to start an equine therapy business. Why? Because plain old therapy wasn't rustic enough, apparently. She's also been harbouring feelings for Tommy since the dinosaurs roamed the earth, but instead of, you know, doing something about it, she just lets him go on with his life, completely unaware. At this point, her love life is so stagnant, eve her therapy horses would suggest she move on.

Ready for the ground-breaking twist that everyone saw coming?? Enter Edward, the towns new science teacher who has the audacity to be attracted to Sarah. The nerve. He asks Tommy to set them up, and suddenly, our clueless protagonist experiences a strange new emotion- jealousy. Tommy having previously categorised Sarah "like a sister" now starts to see her in a different light. Is he... interested in her now? Could it be that he has been interested in her the whole time, but just didn't realise it?

Yes Tommy. Yes it could be. Literally everyone else in this town figured it out back in 2004.

What follows is a series of painfully predictable rom-com moments: Tommy acting weird whenever Sarah and Edward go on a date, Tommy accidentally sabotaging said dates, Sarah getting confused, Tommy getting confused, me getting frustrated because I've seen this exact storyline play out a thousand times before.

After a few misunderstandings- none of which were necessary or interesting- Tommy finally has his Eureka! moment. He confesses his feelings, Sarah swoons, they kiss and boom: happily ever after. Cue the fireworks (or, in this case, an overly sentimental epilogue where they ride off into the sunset on one of Sarah's therapy horses). Was it sweet? Sure. Was it heart-warming? I guess. Was it the exact same friends-to-lovers storyline I've read at least 86 times before? Absolutely.

Here's the thing. I love this trope. Or at least I did. But when every book follows the same predictable formula- childhood besties, one of them dating someone else, jealousy kicking in, then boom, realisation and confession. Where's the twist? The originality? The spice?

This book had every opportunity to shake things up, but it plays it so safe you'd think it was contractually obligated to be this bland. It's the literary equivalent to plain porridge- warm, harmless, and something you consume when you don't feel like using your brain too much.

If you're like me- someone who once loved friends-to-lovers but is now desperately craving a fresh take- this book will only confirm that yes, you are, in fact, completely over it.