99 Percent Mine Review: Strong Family Themes but Shaky Romance

February 8, 2019 by Jenna | 3 stars, Books, Reviews

99 Percent Mine Review: Strong Family Themes but Shaky Romance99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
on January 29, 2019
Source: Purchased
Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance
Amazon | Book Depository | Publisher | Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | Barnes & Noble
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Crush (n.): a strong and often short-lived infatuation, particularly for someone beyond your reach . . .

Darcy Barrett found her dream man at age eight - ever since, she's had to learn to settle for good enough. Having conducted a global survey of men, she can categorically say that no one measures up to Tom Valeska, whose only flaw is that he's her twin brother's best friend - oh, and that 99 percent of the time, he hasn't seemed interested in her.

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 - just to make sure her twin doesn't ruin the cottage's inherent magic with his penchant for chrome. She's definitely not staying because of her new business partner's tight t-shirts. But sparks start to fly - and not just because of the faulty wiring. Soon, a one percent chance with Tom is no longer enough. This time around, Darcy's switching things up. She's going to make Tom Valeska 99 percent hers.

The Hating Game was one of my favourite books of 2016 and remains to this day one of my favourite chick-lit books of all time. So 99 Percent Mine had a lot to live up to and unfortunately did not hit the same heights as Sally Thorne’s debut. Although, it had one of my favourite tropes, friends to lovers… nothing really surpasses the hate-to-love trope in my opinion.

99 Percent Mine begins with Darcy Barrett co-inheriting her late grandmother’s house with her twin brother, Jamie. Her grandmother, Loretta, has stipulated that the house must be fixed up and sold… but the person in charge of the building and renovations is none other than Jamie’s best friend, Tom. Darcy has been in love with Tom practically since he moved in across the street from her when they were 8, and has been escaping her feelings by travelling around the world non-stop. Her initial plan was to pack up the house and leave on a plane as soon as the renovations begin, but now that they’re both single, things are a little bit different.

My biggest problem with 99 Percent Mine was that I couldn’t really latch on to the plot or the romance. Undoubtedly, there was a lot of sexual tension between the two main characters but their back and forth indecision kinda gave me whiplash. There was a lot of flirty banter that I found difficult to get through and while the tension did have me wondering what would happen next, it got a little bit annoying after a while. There was so much implicit and explicit propositioning of each other, followed by rejection, followed by flirting, followed by coyness, followed by “oh no, I mustn’t”, followed by “please touch me”. It was really doing my head in. The plot itself wasn’t bad and I actually enjoyed it for the most part, but the slow pacing of the first half of the book made it difficult for me to stay engaged. Hardly anything was happening in the first 150 pages and I just really wanted to give up and reread The Hating Game instead.

The characters themselves were quite relatable though I definitely preferred Lucy and Joshua from The Hating Game. Darcy was kind of a tough girl who has learned to be tough due to her heart arrhythmia and a lifetime of being coddled and treated like a liability. It took me a little while to warm to her but her little quirks made her really endearing, especially towards the end of the book and I began to appreciate her character more. Tom was treated as being the pinnacle of all men from the beginning so it was hard not to be suspicious of him… but also really difficult not to like him. I enjoyed the personal struggles that he went through throughout the book and I also grew to like him more as the story went on. Although I wasn’t as big of a fan of the romance as I thought, I highly enjoyed how Tom and Darcy treated each other as family. And I loved these family aspects of the book even more once Jamie was introduced. Seeing the love between the twins and how they both thought of Tom as being part of the family was really heartwarming.

While 99 Percent Mine wasn’t my favourite, it was still cute and fluffy and it definitely got stronger towards the end. If you enjoyed The Hating Game, you’d probably enjoy this one too. For those of you looking to pick up your first Sally Thorne book, I’d recommend The Hating Game over this one.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Jenna is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to indulge in great books and great food. She is a doctor (of philosophy) and can usually be found fangirling about something, devouring delicious food, or taking a nap. You can find her on Twitter @readwithjenna and on Instagram @readingwithjenna.

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4 responses to “99 Percent Mine Review: Strong Family Themes but Shaky Romance

  1. Whiplash is right, that’s a lot of back, forthing and game playing going on. I know how universally loved The Hating Game is so this has such big shoes to fill. I’m glad it was still enjoyable though Jenna, I think it helps when you have likeable characters to invest in. Wonderful review Jenna, will be checking this one out soon.
    Kelly recently posted…Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts)My Profile

    • Thanks Kelly! I kind of had a feeling that I wouldn’t really connect with 99 Percent Mine as much, because The Hating Game really was spectacular. I just thought I would like it more since friends to romance is one of my favourite tropes. Oh well, onwards and upwards!
      Jenna recently posted…Bloodwitch Review: So Much Confusion…My Profile

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