Exception - Angel Devlin

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from Booksprout

Official Blurb:

The first time we met at my father’s party, I told movie star Tobias London he could go do something to himself, something anatomically impossible.
It wasn’t his fault. Just a case of wrong place, wrong time, dramatic family drama occurring. It should have put him off, watching me acting like a brat. But months later I get a text.
It’s amazing what people will do for a movie star. Except you. I have a feeling you’d make me work for it. You’ve been on my mind since you left. So what do you say, want to play?
Hmm, that decision took me about three seconds. Be bored alone in Bel Air or go play with a hot guy? Hours later I’m on a plane.
I’m expecting bedroom fireworks with Toby. What I’m not expecting is to feel a connection… and for Toby to feel it too.
But it’s a case of bad timing for both of us and, unable to commit to anything beyond those few days, we part company and wait to see if fate brings us back together.
Now it’s three years later and he’s back, hiring my events company to host his party. But things are different, and I have a strict rule I refuse to break—I don’t date clients.
But maybe Toby is the one exception I can allow myself to make.

My Thoughts:

This book certainly gets better the more you read, with the best being the middle section.
I was really unsure about it, to begin with, I didn’t feel any connection with the characters, and I found it hard to engage in their storyline. The way they met initially felt very disjointed and had no basis. It felt almost forced like the author needed these two characters together but wasn’t sure how to segue into their forever.
However, the story gets a lot better once the three-year time jump happens. It was a long period of time to miss, but it did sort of work. The book suddenly becomes full of drama, and you feel as if you really are getting to know the characters by this point. All of a sudden, I found myself invested in their romance.
The Epilogue wasn’t great, though, it felt rushed, and the ending was simply there as an introduction to what was to come in the next book in the series. Again, I found it didn’t flow and was disconnected from the rest of the story.
Overall, this was probably the most disappointing of Angel Devlin's books that I have read. I am usually blown away by the sophisticatedness of her writing. This, however, read like it was written by someone else entirely. Only a three-star read for me, I’m afraid.