It’s been a while since a book had done that to me, so I have to applaud Cale Dietrich in causing me alarm. I was literally questioning “ What?” out loud and re-reading the paragraph. There are a number of plot twists and events that I did not see coming. But that’s me being picky, because I thoroughly enjoyed ‘ The Love Interest.’ I think the only thing holding me back from giving this a perfect score is that I would have loved to see more complexity in the female characters, and maybe a bit more angst develop between the Caden and Dyl. She has skills and towards the second half of the book really shines but during the first half felt more like a prop to tell Caden and Dyl’s story. Our female love interest, and target of the boy spies, Juliet fell a bit flat for me. As hard as it was to peg Dylan, he also felt the most genuine. We never truly know his motivations because the novel is told only from Caden’s perspective, and this narrative adds delicious tension – as it does between all the cast – for each are pretending, hiding secrets, tenuous with trust. I think he is my favourite character from this story. That he is not ‘the chosen one’ or ‘the solo hero of the world.’ It takes a team – and you get a strong sense of that.ĭylan (‘Dyl’) kept surprising me… and for all the right reasons. It was a great mix, and I was relieved that even with the fact that he is the protagonist – he also is not. He is determined, a little stubborn, but compassionate. The characters have layers and motivations and aren’t simply the label that has been given to them.Ĭaden is a fun protagonist. ‘ The Love Interest’ does a great job of presenting stereotypes and tropes and throwing them into the harsh light of day to show that they really don’t exist. I was in tears more than once because of the helplessness that the characters faced, but still managed to have hope. Some parts of the book are cheesy, some ironic, but I didn’t expect the subtext of hopeless desperation through most of the novel. I’ve see blazing reviews and some flaming ones, and after reading the blurb, I was definitely interested, but didn’t have lofty predictions. What the boys don’t expect are feelings that are outside of their training. They have to be-whoever the girl doesn’t choose will die. They are well-trained and at the top of their games.

Will she choose the Nice or the Bad?īoth Caden and Dylan are living in the outside world for the first time. The girl they are competing for is important to the organization, and each boy will pursue her. Dylan is a Bad: the brooding, dark-souled guy who is dangerously handsome. The agents are called Love Interests because getting close to people destined for great power means getting valuable secrets.Ĭaden is a Nice: the boy next door, sculpted to physical perfection. There is a secret organization that cultivates teenage spies.

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich