Teddy Spenser Isn't Looking for Love
Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love is a quick read that promised an enemies-to-lovers rom-com but didn’t deliver. I really liked the author’s voice and humour – the writing is really sprightly – and I liked the snarky, awkward and belligerently extroverted Teddy, but the romance happens so fast that it’s likely to give you whiplash, the love interest is pretty bland, and the set-up is so ridiculous that it stretched my credulity to breaking-point.
Teddy Spenser works for a small interior design company, where he spends his days (according to the book blurb) “selling design ideas to higher-ups, living or dying on each new pitch.” Well, I’m guessing he works for an interior design company because it’s not really made clear; in fact the plot revolves around the creation of a single item – a smart vase (yes, really) – and it seemed as though that was the company’s one product as nothing else was ever mentioned. Anyway, this vase is supposed to be all clean lines and simplicity – but while everything is working well, the housing for the software needed to run it is impinging on the design and ruining the look of it. The project is dangerously close to the wire as far as the budget is concerned and there’s no more money to spend, so Teddy’s boss and the owner of Reddyflora tells him that he and the software engineer, Romeo Blue, have to come up with a solution fast, as she’s due to present the product to a high-profile potential investor in three days.
Teddy and Romeo don’t really get on, so this isn’t exactly ideal for either of them. Although actually, it’s not so much a case of their not getting on as it is one of their never really interacting with each other very much and not knowing each other beyond a nodding acquaintance. Teddy – who is the single PoV character – is a snappy dresser with a good eye for line and colour, Romeo wears boring dark suits and his office is devoid of any personal touches; Teddy is confident and fairly outgoing (if a bit neurotic), Romeo is quiet and keeps himself to himself… so it’s all pretty one-sided and the dislike is entirely in Teddy’s head.
As luck would have it, they turn out to be able to get on and work together quite well, so the enemies-to-lovers thing goes out the window quite quickly after that, as Teddy starts to see a different side to Romeo (as well as to allow himself to recognise how hot he is.)
After they present their solution to the software vs. design issue, they then discover that they’re being sent to Seattle to meet with the possible investor, former model, creator of a lifestyle brand and fashion icon, Joyce Alexander. Teddy can barely restrain his impulse to do a Wayne’s World “we are not worthy” while Romeo (or course) has no idea who she is.
Arrived in Seattle – to find that their hotel room has Only One Bed – the story then takes a turn into the truly ridiculous. When Teddy and Romeo meet with Joyce, she decides she doesn’t have enough information to make a decision. (Which isn’t surprising considering she won’t listen to Teddy’s pitch or look at any of the presentations they’ve put together.) But her concerns aren’t to do with either the design or the technology; no, she’s worried that Teddy and Romeo’s personality clash will impact the project (a personality clash that doesn’t really exist) and proposes that they should stay in Seattle for a couple more days and undertake a little test she’s devised so she can see if they possess the three key characteristics she thinks are essential to success. (And she’s not going to tell them what those are.) This made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever and actually felt really unprofessional; if the author was attempting “kooky”, it didn’t work.
And the thing is, even going along with that as the reason for Teddy and Romeo’s enforced proximity, the romance itself happens incredibly quickly. In the space of a week (?) they: a) decide they like each other; b) decide they like each other enough to have sex; c) meet the parents; d) decide to move in together; e) decide to get married. And I haven’t even mentioned that Teddy appears to be hung-up on his ex – who is name-checked forty-one times (I counted) – and preoccupied with showing him how well he’s doing without him, or the fact that both characters come off as much younger than I think they’re supposed to be; Teddy’s relationship with his ex lasted a few years, so I’d guess they’re meant to be late-twenties, but they read much younger than that.
Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love was a big disappointment. Stereotypical characters (Teddy loves fashion, design and musical theatre; Romeo is black and grew up so poor his family didn’t have a TV), a romance that moves at the speed of light and an utterly ridiculous premise (a Smart Vase and a ‘Mysterious Quest’ – seriously?!) earn it a below average rating, and the only thing that saves it from a D grade is the author’s breezy, very readable style.
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Book Details
| Reviewer: | Caz Owens |
|---|---|
| Review Date: | January 2, 2021 |
| Publication Date: | 12/2020 |
| Grade: | C- |
| Sensuality | Subtle |
| Book Type: | Contemporary Romance |
| Review Tags: | Male/Male romance | PoC | Queer romance |
Huh, sounds almost like the author rewrote a YA concept.
Maybe, but I think the main problem was with the stupid vase concept; there are many ways to make a forced-proximity workplace romance work, but this wasn’t one of them! I was reminded a bit of N.R Walker’s 65 Hours, where two ad execs have a weekend to come up with an important pitch – although NRW makes the trope work much better.
I read the excerpt on Amazon and I’m still not very clear on what this vase is supposed to do, other than get feedback of some sort from whatever flowers are in it. Maybe the vase shows you if the flowers are low on water or essential minerals or something?
There’s also a line about how Romeo smells of “sandalwood, bergamot and vanilla”, which was just a bit too much for me.
“There’s also a line about how Romeo smells of ‘sandalwood, bergamot and vanilla,’ which was just a bit too much for me.”
Certainly possible, I suppose, albeit a bit unusual for the average software engineer (whatever that means). It reminds me of how I once described a character smelling of “sandalwood, patchouli, and henna.” But in all fairness, he and his business partner were self-proclaimed modern day hippies who owned a “ragtag giftshop… wrapped in a 1970s aesthetic.” It sounds stereotypical, but people and places like this really do exist. I had a bit of trouble buying music in such a niche establishment several years back because the staff and management were all stoned and couldn’t remember they were supposed to be waiting on customers. There’s a fun story: “May I help you?” “You are helping me!” “Oh? What was I doing?” and so forth.
It all depends on the context as well as personal taste!
I just find too many descriptors not really sexy. Like, if the hero’s mouth tastes of brandy, that’s great. But if his mouth tastes of brandy and strawberries and honey, I start wondering what kind of dessert he’s eaten, rather than being immersed in the story.
It’s probably a matter of personal taste (no pun intended).
Ah, I get what you’re saying. It sounds like some authors are taking the advice about using the five senses in sex scenes a little too far. :)
Re. the vase, yes, I think that’s about it. And it supposedly had a digital display on the front that you can … change to fit the decor? There’s a bit later on where Teddy expounds the virtue of design that I liked and agreed with – but there are many, many better uses to which design skills can be applied than a vase!
This looks messy! A character that reads significantly younger than their implied age is always a turn-off for me. I reviewed one a few months ago where if the author had stated the character’s age as 21 instead of 28 I would have enjoyed the book significantly more. You can’t lose yourself in a book when your internal voice keeps saying “oh, grow up!”.
Yes, it’s irritating when you have to keep reminding yourself a character is older than they seem on the page. I might try another one by this author because I really did like her voice, but the plot was utterly ludicrous!
I wonder if the whole thing about characters acting younger than their age is a result of an increasingly immature culture. I mean, it wasn’t so long ago that teenagers used to marry their high school sweethearts by the age of 20. Then people said, “Wait a minute? Isn’t that kind of young in a lot of cases? What about college and careers?” So a lot of people ended up going to school four more years, thereby delaying maturity by about that long. If you think college is a place where young men and women learn how to be adults, think again! College is now a place of safe spaces filled with coloring books for the easily triggered…
Then four years of post high school wasn’t enough for a lot of jobs, so people are in higher education- depending on the field- up to the age of practically 30! Being in a sheltered environment like that, is it any wonder that the 28 year olds of today act like the 21 year olds of the past? We’ve gotten so credential crazy that we have a nation of young people who have never so much as run a lemonade stand or mowed a lawn and only seem to be allowed to do anything when more than a quarter of their life is already over.
I’m not trying to knock higher education here. I do realize there are some jobs that definitely require a lot of training. But at the same time, it is a problem when jobs that used to allow high school graduates to apply suddenly require a BA for no apparent reason other than a weed-out measure. And all this extra coddled schooling that keeps young people out of the real world for years and years and years is probably creating a less mature society.
Just my thoughts of the day…
The UK system is a bit different – we graduate from university at 21/22 (usually – that’s if you go straight to university after 6th form, and most degrees are 3 years) – my eldest will have her MA at 21 (she’s an August baby, so got her BA at 20 as she’s the youngest in her year group). But I do definitely think there’s this weird dichotomy going on right now, where – and I know this is a generalisation – kids are maturing physically much younger and mentally much later. (If ever!)
“But I do definitely think there’s this weird dichotomy going on right now, where – and I know this is a generalisation – kids are maturing physically much younger and mentally much later. (If ever!)”
Agreed. In some ways, I like the lack of cultural maturity in the sense that you can read comic books, play video games, and be an all-around nerd as an adult if that’s what you’re into. There’s still a stigma, but it’s not as bad as it once was. On the other hand, I don’t like that a lot of people in their 20s have become so sensitive to everything that they can’t handle an ounce of criticism, disagreement, or a joke as evidenced on Twitter and other platforms.
Coming back to higher education, I have been noticing a problematic trend for years now in the US that certain jobs require “a BA in any field.” Okay, think about that for a second. If you have no cares whatsoever about what a person got their BA in, why do they need a BA in the first place? So, in other words, you’ll consider hiring some immature dabbler with a BA in basket weaving and no real life experience but unequivocally pass over a high school graduate who has been learning real job skills working for a family friend. It’s just a weed-out measure based on a faulty, outdated paradigm. Ugh…
Well, I remember going to a talk at one of the Unis my eldest was thinking of going to for her BA (she went somewhere else in the end, but is now doing her MA there!) – and the speaker talked about how history graduates are sought after in many fields because they’re trained, analytical thinkers. I also think there’s an idea that having a degree in anything does at least show that a candidate can apply themselves and is able to assimilate and use information (depending on the subject, I suppose). But yes, there is definitely a silly assumption that someone with a BA is automatically a better candidate for a job than someone without one, which isn’t always the case.
This is my big beef right here. And the degree inflation is phenomenal. I keep waiting to see a job posting for door greeter that says, “PhD preferred.”
As for the argument about being a “trained, analytical thinker,” I would definitely question that assumption in American colleges today. If anything, having a college degree basically tells a prospective employer, “This candidate knew how to sit down, shut up, and do what they were told for an additional four years after high school.”
Also, I think the outrageous tuition prices of colleges are an insidious scam designed to trap young people into mountains of debt to keep them from jumping off of the corporate ladder. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but doesn’t it make better economic sense for a company who wants a retainable employee to hire someone with heavy debt than a debt-free high school grad who is liable to jump ship at the earliest opportunity? Heaven forbid your financially unburdened employees figure out they might make more money starting businesses of their own.
Granted, the usefulness of college depends upon what you are doing, what your field is, etc. But it’s also not an accident that a lot of entrepreneurs stopped formal schooling after high school- if they even finished it. That certainly didn’t mean they stopped learning, of course. They just did it on their own terms. Was it Robert Kiyosaki who said that C-students end up hiring A-students? A lot of people, not just me, have come to the conclusion that these starry-eyed upstarts who buck the system are entrepreneurial precisely because they haven’t had their analytical thinking skills squashed by formal higher education. Interesting things to think about…