Book Review: Art Criticism

Book: Art Criticism by Celeste Spettro

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

James has no idea what he's going to do with his art history degree, but for the moment he's managing as a lowly gallery assistant ... until he has to deal with an aggravating photographer. Turkish is a lot like his photographs: vapid, popular, and over the top. He's the perfect target for James’ snarky criticism, but somehow James is unable to reject the man as easily he rejects his art.


Rating: 5 stars

Review:

This was beyond funny and super adorable. Not to mention I also love the cover. Art and Romance are the focus of this book. I must include a forewarning: there are a few rather steamy scenes in this story.

After recently graduating from college, James Whitman is currently working at a trendy but small art gallery in San Francisco where most of his time is dealing with annoying artists. And one in particular is Turkish (Yusef Mehrandish, Turkish is his artist name) who has an upcoming photo exhibit at the gallery. James is also dealing with the fact that he feels like he wasted his time going to college because he's really not sure what to do with his life.

James' artist friend Kitty has a theory that Turkish likes him but James has no desire to listen to that piece of information. Especially when he finds Turkish to be a bossy airhead. To her, it explains why he's being so difficult.

So, one day while Turkish was being extremely annoying, James was so angry he actually told the artist exactly how annoying he was. But that little out burst was the beginning of them getting to know each other but it also upped James' worry factor (he thought he was going to get fired).

James and Turkish are complete opposites. James is one of those analytical over thinkers who's a bit socially stunted. He a little uptight and tends to be a bit sarcastic at times. He sometime has a hard time saying how he feels. It takes him a while to really warm up to people which can make it difficult when it comes to dating. Meanwhile Turkish is a more laid back easy going sort of guy. He has no problem expressing himself and kind of wears his heart on his sleeve. I think his upbeat and calm personality is perfect for dealing with a prickly sort of introvert such as James.

I like that this story didn't have too much angst and drama and you could see their relationship progressing in a believable way. They had a few hiccups along the way especially with James being a little awkward and not knowing the best way to deal with his feelings. I thought the author did a good job with creating real chemistry between the characters. I can't stand when books have characters with forced or zero chemistry and the reader is supposed to believe that those characters like each other.

I also thought the author did a good job with the other characters in the story. This delightful story was told from James' point of view but the reader got a nice surprise in the epilogue with Turkish narrating that.

I really enjoyed this and in the future I hope to read more books from the author.