Feiwel & Friends
June 2, 2815
288 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon
*People would kill to be thin.*
Solu’s luxurious celebrity-filled “Cruise to Lose” is billed as “the biggest cruise since the Titanic,” and if the new diet sweetener works as promised—dropping five percent of a person’s body weight in just days—it really could be the answer to the world’s obesity problem. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host, Tom Forelli (otherwise known as the hottest guy ever!) and she’s too seasick to even try the sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.
*But will they die for it, too?*
Tom Forelli knows that he should be grateful for this job and the opportunity to shed his childhood “Baby Tom-Tom” image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get a bit wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when his celebrity hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.
Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong.
If you read Emmy Laybourne's Monument 14, then you likely have some idea what to expect with Sweet - but not all of it. As in the previous series, it s normal, everyday (or in Sweet's case, a bit beyond both) life when it all changes.
Nothing is hotter than the Solu cruise. The celebrities and fabulously wealthy people aboard the ship will be the first to try Solu, the new sweetener that also promises to make you lose weight. It isn't Laurel's idea of a dream vacation, but it is her friend Vivika's so Laurel's agreed to go.
The cruise seems to go wrong for Laurel from the very start, even her arrival is plagued by difficulties. Then it begins to go very wrong for everyone and the only one who seems to be able to help Laurel is Tom Forelli.
Laurel's celebrity crush and former child star Tom is on the ship as the celebrity host/promoter. He isn't expecting someone like Laurel and he especially isn't expecting what happens to the passengers.
Sweet absolutely does go, "first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong." Perhaps more horrifyingly wrong than I had anticipated. The story does turn a bit dark but still with that dash of humor. It is a weird, strange tale, but somehow fun and squicky and sweet and melancholy all at once.
The romance is sweet and somehow fits in with the very unromantic goings-on of the cruise and its passengers. There is a bit of social commentary; not too much, just what there needs to be given the plot.
At times Sweet seems over the top or like its gone a bit too far, but somehow, with Laurel and Tom's characters, it still fits together and works. This is one example of a novel blending comedy and horror that I liked.
digital copy received for review, via NetGalley, from publisher
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