Escape the heat with this light-hearted beach read featuring sunny Miami vibes, vibrant Art Deco architecture, and an amusing poolside book club. On the surface, Only Lovers in the Building by Nadine Gonzalez is a whimsical tale that unfolds in a fictional world of pools and cocktail social hours.
The book’s revolving door of entertaining apartment dwellers and fast-burning chemistry is a lovely reprieve.
It’s a fantasy that explores the romantic “what ifs” of quitting your day job and starting a new life in a new city where the champagne is flowing, and there are endless warm days of reading by the pool. Throw in a quirky building with historical accents and a hot professor as your neighbour, and this Miami-set romance is a penthouse of blissful encounters.
Lily is just the right amount of bubbly and outgoing to counterbalance the more immature tone that women in romances often adopt. Ben has a saltry delivery that certainly makes buying into this relationship easy from the start. The new neighbours are a lot of fun to be with, offering a refreshing, no-nonsense banter that cuts to the core of their desires.
There’s no beating around the bush with Ben and Lily. They vocalize their interest in eachother from their very first meeting, and that is a breath of fresh air.
“But at the end of the day, you’re just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to read romance books by the pool, and we know how that story ends.”
— Nadine Gonzalez, Only Lovers in the Building
Only Lovers in the Building also dips its toes into analyzing popular romance tropes through the book club at the centre of this novel. If you enjoy meta rom-com discussions and tongue-in-cheek plotting, the well-read couple at the heart of this love story offer thoughtful discussion about the highs and lows of the genre.
Despite their self-awareness, these romance experts can’t avoid the pitfalls of all the rom-coms that came before them.
Ben and Lily have a sizzling chemistry and an epic back-and-forth banter, but there’s not much else. The book doesn’t delve far into the inner depths of these two as individuals and relies entirely on their sexual attraction in place of character development.
Unfortunately, much of the book reads this way. This Miami fantasy sometimes feels excruciatingly fictional, with interactions that are too stiff and superficial. Everything about Lily’s new world comes too easily, from free drinks to new career opportunities. The book doesn’t introduce conflict for her to overcome, resulting in a very shallow victory. Ultimately, it creates the same cycling thought process of whether she should stay with Ben in Miami or move back to New York City for much of the story.
None of the characters in this vibrant ensemble of residents feels like they could be real people, and that leads to a setting that lacks a lived-in feel. The Art Deco building is exciting in concept, but never transforms into a three-dimensional structure.
Most of all, it is disappointing to see this book’s beautiful cover and eye-catching title go to waste. The premise has so much potential that it never acts on it. Despite the title being a play on the show Only Murders in the Building, the podcast is an afterthought. The author could easily remove the podcast from the story, and it would not affect the narrative’s trajectory.
Only Lovers in the Building proposes a laid-back escape from reality at the cost of leaving an impression on its readers.
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