The Hot Henry Effect by Lucy Chalice [ARC Review]

 

*I’d like to thank NetGalley, One More Chapter and Lucy Chalice for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

“The Hot Henry Effect” by Lucy Chalice tells the story of Clara and Henry. Clara met “Hot Henry” during grad school when he was assigned to her as an assistant. At that time it seemed Clara was the only student on campus immune to “The Hot Henry Effect” which causes people to swoon and hyperventilate whenever Henry is near. Her immunity resulted in a friendship with the popular guy who after eight months returned to the States and their connection went cold. Seven years later, they met again. A project throws them together again and as they work together their friendship rekindles. But things are different this time around. Clara doesn’t seem to be immune to “The Hot Henry Effect” anymore and suddenly it appears that Henry never was immune to her charms either…

First, let’s talk about characters. The main character of the story is Clara. The story is only told from her POV and as a reader we don’t get any glimpses into Henry’s head. For the first half of the story I kinda liked Clara. She’s a bit too immature for 32 years though, but still appeared to be kind and funny. But around the second when it is revealed why Clara isn’t dating or her love story being dormant, I kinda started to dislike her. Perhaps her daddy and abandonment issues were simply written badly, but it felt so sudden to be confronted with her past which didn’t seem convincing to me as a reader and well fleshed out in context of the whole story. It was as if the author desperately needed a reason why Clara didn’t want to be with Henry and just randomly chose one. Suddenly, Clara became that winey woman that didn’t believe in therapy (though, she desperately should have talked to a therapist) and the back and forth between her and Henry began. I wanted to like her through her struggle, but I just couldn’t. She became insufferable and her weird attempt to win Henry back was simply put cringey. Honestly, Clara should clear signs of some b-cluster personality disorder or something. 

Her relationship with Henry was weird. I liked their friendship: the teasing, the thoughtfulness and the honest conversations. I thought these would translate beautifully into a romance, but somehow they didn’t. The moment Henry confessed, their entire chemistry went down the drain. Of course, it was obvious that he liked her more than a friend, but when Clara became aware their entire dynamic shifted drastically and became almost toxic. Like Henry tried to set a boundary (good for him; though it didn’t make a 100 % sense) and then Clara did something utterly ridiculous and he was like “yeah, forget about my wants and needs, she gifted me a stack of post-its”. I did not like it. He constantly ran after her, and Clara never had to actively work on her issues or return genuine affection to him in any shape. Like the moment they got together, not even 24 h later, she wanted to break up again…she didn’t even consider having a conversation about the information she received or verify it, she just blindly ran with it and Henry was totally cool with it. Like dude! Have some self-respect! And before I finished off this point, Clara needed therapy not a boyfriend. This relationship will fix nothing for her, if she doesn’t get professional help. The way she behaved and coped with the situation wasn’t healthy at all!

Secondly, the entire tone of the book was off. It started off very light-hearted and a bit goofy. I was here for it. And then suddenly, there was stalking, an assault, childhood trauma, a failed marriage and the drama just didn’t stop. And weirdly enough, the light-hearted tone was badly pushed through these heavy topics. I have read novels who managed to be light-hearted and discuss heavy topics. But not this one. This one failed at the attempt and the entire thing just seemed off. 

Thirdly, I did not like the pacing of the story. The first half was so slow, like nothing happened except them hanging out and drinking coffee. And then with the assault one dramatic thing after the other happens, and the story got rockier and rockier. I wished an editor would have looked all over this and said “The idea is great, but the line up and focus needs to be washed out more, because it’s drowning in plotting clutter.” No plotline is fully developed, no plotline is actually followed through the end which makes the entire book appear unfinished and very frustrating to read. 

So, overall a great idea, with fun characters and potential to be great, but sadly failed in its execution.