*I was given an ARC of Falling for the Protagonist in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Aria & Aries and Bex Goos for my copy of the book*
Synopsis:
THIS LOVE STORY IS HOTTER THAN FICTION
When Emmy Miura falls asleep reading a newly purchased romance novel (after her visit to a sex psychic her sister swears by), the last thing she expects is to wake up in the protagonist’s bed the next morning. Emmy doesn’t want to disrupt Will Barrett’s world – even if he is fictional. He is clearly content with his life in idyllic and not-actually-real Cobalt, Massachusetts. He has good friends, steady work as a nurse in the paediatric wing of the local hospital, and an adorable house he inherited from his grandfather.
Understandably, he doesn’t take it well when she manages to convince him none of the things he knows and loves are real. While Will is reeling at the implications of Emmy’s revelation, Emmy is frantic to get back to the real world. The problem is that she is, against all her best efforts, falling head over heels in love with Will.
Will has feelings for her, too – much to the chagrin of the woman who was supposed to be his love interest – and he is determined to go with Emmy when she finds a way out of the book. Neither Emmy nor Will know if they can make a real life together that’s based on fiction, but together they are willing to try.
Review:
I’ve already reached the point in 2026 when I can’t justify continuing books I have no interest in. Falling for the Protagonist has fallen into that category for me. The concept of this book sounded like something I would love, but the execution just wasn’t doing it for me. The start of the book is way too slow and I didn’t like the main character in the slightest.
Emmy is so ‘not like the other girls’ it’s almost painful: “I like wearing oversized clothes. It’s a quirk of mine.” This is meant as a joke but my god am I sick of the word ‘quirk’ being related to women who think they’re so different from everyone else. I’m really nitpicking with this one, but I found her to be both dull and irritating at the same time that I just had to mention something about why I didn’t like her.
I’m not sure if I missed something but Emmy waking up in the world of the book she was reading (which is what I think happened, I’m not entirely sure) was done in such a clunky way. For some reason, Emmy wakes up in the bed of the male love interest (I think, honestly the details are not very clear to me) and it’s all just a little weird. It’s not even a case of “yeah you stayed the night” or whatever it was literally just “what are you doing in my apartment”. I was hoping for a real meet-cute. Something really cheesy like bumping into each other at a book shop, dropping everything they’re holding and accidentally touching. But no, none of that.
Honestly, I stopped reading this almost immediately after they met. There’s no trying to hide that Emmy thinks she’s in the book. She outright says it to Will (male love interest) and it’s all a bit meh.
Falling for the Protagonist fell very flat for me. I love a magical realism book and this one promised a lot of tropes I enjoy, but I was bored. This wasn’t the book for me, but don’t let that stop you checking it out if you’re interested.
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