99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
Darcy Barrett has undertaken a global survey of men. She’s travelled the world, and can categorically say that no one measures up to Tom Valeska, whose only flaw is that Darcy’s twin brother Jamie saw him first and claimed him forever as his best friend. Despite Darcy’s best efforts, Tom’s off limits and loyal to her brother, 99%. That’s the problem with finding her dream man at age eight and peaking in her photography career at age twenty—ever since, she’s had to learn to settle for good enough. When Darcy and Jamie inherit a tumble-down cottage from their grandmother, they’re left with strict instructions to bring it back to its former glory and sell the property. Darcy plans to be in an aisle seat halfway across the ocean as soon as the renovations start, but before she can cut and run, she finds a familiar face on her porch: house-flipper extraordinaire Tom’s arrived, he’s bearing power tools, and he’s single for the first time in almost a decade. Suddenly Darcy’s considering sticking around to make sure her twin doesn’t ruin the cottage’s inherent magic with his penchant for grey and chrome. She’s definitely not staying because of her new business partner’s tight t-shirts, or that perfect face that's inspiring her to pick up her camera again. Soon sparks are flying—and it’s not the faulty wiring. It turns out one percent of Tom’s heart might not be enough for Darcy anymore. This time around, she’s switching things up. She’s going to make Tom Valeska 99 percent hers.
Two bickering twins fight over the attention of their childhood best friend. So I've kind of been dreading doing this review because this was my first ever physical copy of a book from a publisher and I did expect to give it 5 stars. Spoiler alert- this wasn't 5 stars for me, but I really do think that this book will find its audience!Thank you William Morrow for this book! Receiving the free book did not change my feelings about the book!
4 out of 5 steam level
Okay this book ends with an Epilogue for The Hating Game. I know, this isn't technically reviewing 99 Percent Mine - but the epilogue for THG is in this book so trust me it needs to be included. Did you know that I loved THG? Oh I've mentioned it roughly 1 million times? Wait, are you saying I'm starting to sound like a broken record and you're tired of hearing about Josh and Lucy? Well, too bad! I love them with my whole heart and this epilogue was EVERYTHING. Is that dramatic? NO! This was a 5 star epilogue!!! I am not upset to own this book (which wasn't 5 stars) because I would have bought it anyways simply to own this epilogue!Okay, now to 99PM. Darcy's best friend in this book is great! She has her own business (which is an amazing business idea, btw) and is working hard to make it successful. She is supportive of Darcy! She wasn't entirely awesome but was mostly amazing (I could go into that more but that would give you some spoilers so... Not today satan!)While I didn't laugh out loud while reading this book, I did enjoy some of Darcy's inner dialogue.I read this book quickly, in less than 24 hours. So quick and easy reading with this one!So that's the end of what I liked. You're wondering how I possible gave it 3 stars and not 2 stars or 1 star. Did you already forget the 5 star Epilogue?! It carries this book.
Lucy (from The Hating Game) is all sunshine and strawberries. Darcy (from 99 Percent Mine) is black nail polish and remorse. I just could not connect with Darcy. Sally Thorne said that Darcy is like Lucy's older sister. Darcy is crass and hardened. She has constantly showing bra straps, and a boy always in her bed. HUGE contrast in the two main characters from the two books. Which is TOTALLY fine- I don't want to read the same character in every book at all! So Sally did a great job with that really. But, I just couldn't connect with Darcy because of these reasons! The reasons I loved Lucy, I disliked Darcy. Now it should be noted that I do think this book will find its audience. I think that some people didn't love sunshine Lucy and they will love rain cloud Darcy.Okay, moving on. I didn't fall in love alongside this couple. When I finished the book, I wasn't scrambling for more. In a romance novel- I should be shipping this couple all day every day.In THG- Sally (who is Australian) - does a phenomenal job of not using any language specific to Australia- so I actually thought THG took place in America because that is where I'm from! In 99PM, there were some phrases and words used that didn't translate easily to "American." Which confused me because I was pretty sure that this book was actually supposed to be in America.There were aspects of the dialogue and certain scenes that actually didn't make sense to me. A few times, I flipped the page to see if two pages stuck together because I didn't think the scene made sense.Darcy loves to flirt with other men, and even in the ending of the book, this is still mentioned. Why? That was super weird to me. The main couple is already together, but she still flirts with other men? What?! I was not into that at all.This book was predictable. I've had a lot of feedback from people who read THG and thought it was predictable too. But there were aspects of the plot in THG that were smaller plotlines and were not predictable. In 99PM - every small plotline was predictable. Obviously it's a romance novel, so the overall plot is predictable (which I appreciate). But I wanted more out of the smaller plots in this book.Darcy and her brother are twins. They are both so annoying. I don't know another way to say that. But wow they are annoying. Like, I heavily disliked them. Whenever there were scenes where they looked back on their lives with Tom... all I could think was, "Why in the world would Tom want to be around these out of control twins?! Let alone fall in in love with one?!"
Do: learn how to make a cocktail you really want!Eat: PizzaListen to this playlist I created while reading this book:Your Ex Lover is Dead by StarsFall by Justin BieberThe Best of You and Me by Number one GunShow You by CXLOE (Full disclosure, Sally posted the following songs on her insta stories when she was talking about 99 Percent Mine!)Call it What you Want by Taylor SwiftBackseat by Charli XCXBaby by Bishop BriggsLucky Strike by Troye SivanClumsy Love by Thelma Plum