The Finn Factor by Rachel Bailey

It’s been twelve months, three days, and eleven hours since accounting student Scarlett Logan made it past a second date. A pitcher of mojitos in hand, she employs her supreme graphing skills to narrow things down to one horrifying explanation. Kissing. Clearly someone needs to teach her how to kiss properly. Like, say, her best friend and roomie, Finn Mackenzie. He's safe, he's convenient, and yeah, maybe just a little gorgeous.

 

Finn knows exactly why Scarlett's boyfriends are disappearing quickly. Him. Not a single guy she’s brought home is nearly good enough. And he’ll be damned if he lets some loser give her “kissing lessons.” No. He’ll do the honors, thank you very much. The moment their lips touch, though, everything turns upside down. But Scarlett deserves the one thing Finn can't give her. And if he doesn't put an end to the sexy little shenanigans, he’ll teach Scarlett the hardest lesson of all...heartbreak.

 

Title: The Finn Factor | Series: | Author: Rachel Bailey | Publisher: Entangled Embrace | Release Date: 8/25/2015 | Genre: New Adult Romance | Source: Publisher | Rating: 2

This was a light and fluffy friends-to-lovers romance but I found it slightly boring

 

To make the friends-to-lovers trope more interesting, Finn and Scarlett have lived together for four years without going down the touchy feely path. Then suddenly Scarlett is worried that her dating life has dwindled because she’s a bad kisser so she comes up with the idea of enlisting an actor she knows to aid in her ‘kissing lessons’ which has Finn—who is actually responsible for her nearly nonexistent dating life—, instantly volunteering for the role. Now that they have kissed, it’s all they can think about but if they venture forth into unchartered relationship territory, they could lose their friendship.

 

Okay, so I don’t know about this one. I picked it up for review because it had the friends-to-lovers trope and I do love a good friends-to-lovers romance, but I couldn’t really get interested in this book until it was nearly over.

 

I really struggled with the first few chapters and nearly put the put down for good. While I know this is a NA read and characters tend to have a younger more immature slant to them—Scarlett, with her ice maker obsession and apple-berry lip gloss, sort of had a YA vibe and I had to force myself to keep reading.

 

Scarlett, while she does occasionally come off as childish, was sweet, caring, and artistic. She’s holding back a bit but eventually she figures out who she is. I thought that I would like Finn a bit more than I did. His parents died leaving him guardian of his two young sisters, so he’s been through a lot and has some issues to overcome but he’s so guarded that even though this was told in both of their POVs, I never really felt that I got to know who Finn was, so he came off as flat.

 

Overall, the first 70% of the book just seemed a bit boring to me. It did finally hold my attention, but left me wanting more from the characters.  I think that readers 16-18 would probably like this book.