Review: Butterface (The Hartigans #1) by Avery Flynn

Title: Butterface

Series: The Hartigans #1
Author: Avery Flynn
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Published: July 30, 2018
Pages: 270
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Adult
Source: Ebook
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It’s true. I’m not what most people would call “pretty” and, well, high school was rough. Fast forward ten years and life is good… 

Until a bunch of jerks think it’s hilarious to put the “butterface” (AKA me) on a wedding Kiss Cam with the hottest guy ever—and that old humiliation hits hard. 

I recognize him immediately. The sexiest cop in Waterbury and totally out of my league. 

But then he kisses me. 

And we totally forget the room, the crowd, everything. 

Then he tells everyone we’ve been dating for months. 

Soon everything starts to feel too real, from adorable fights over “necessary” tools to fix my broken porch to surviving a free-for-all dinner with his six siblings to picking up where our last kiss left off. 

But there’s something he’s not telling me about why he’s really hanging around, and I’m pretty sure it has to do with my mob-connected brothers. 

Because this is not a make-over story, and Cinderella is only a fairy tale…

Goodreads / Amazon

MY REVIEW

DISCLAIMER: This review MAY contain spoilers. 

This is a story with a moral at its heart. As a book lover, it is one that I can definitely relate to - don't judge a book by its cover. 

I am really loving the Hartigan family! Prior to reading this, I read Muffin Top, the second book in The Hartigans series, and I loved it! I just adore the characters in this little fictional world. While I did enjoy Muffin Top more than Butterface, this is still a really wonderful book that I enjoyed very much.

What really makes this fictional world special is the incredible characters. I love the Hartigan family. I could read about their escapades all day long. I like that Flynn is able to beautifully capture the characters' personalities, even the secondary and background characters that don't get as much face time. She portrays the characters in a very straightforward way that really makes them feel real. 

The romance in this story is very heartwarming. It isn't without its heart-wrenching moments either, which really balances things out. I love the honesty of the romance and how it makes the story so much more palpable. The attraction between the characters was good, but at times I felt that there needed to be more spark. More in the way of romantic banter to ease into things. While their love didn't necessarily feel forced at all, it felt very serious and direct. 

As I mentioned in my review of Muffin Top, the world-building is on the smaller side of the spectrum. This is the thing about reading contemporaries that I am not used to. I primarily stick to fantasies that defy the laws of physics in their world-building. Contemporaries are just different. Since the story exists in a mirror image of the real world there is not as much to describe. All this considered, I felt that the world-building was adequate in the story. Not just in the physical locations in the story but in the perceptions of things. With regard to this book, things like police work, the physical attributes of a person, and societal norms and how they are interpreted.

This is a story that has a very emotional plot. While there is an overall plot going on that takes us through a series of events, the central plot revolves around a super hot police officer and a girl that society would consider ugly falling in love. So yeah, there was a lot of emotion inside the plot. It is geared toward emotions. The overall plot with the events that take place in the story was good but there were times that I felt things were dragging on. Though it might be that I was comparing it too closely to Muffin Top, which is a book that I couldn't put down for a second. 

Overall, this is a lovely story that was a joy to read. I am definitely addicted to the Hartigan family and this fictional world. I am eager to read the next book in this series and see what happens to Fallon and a bad boy hockey player. If adult contemporary romance if your thing then I definitely recommend this book! And even if it isn't, you could take a chance on it like I did and fall in love with an emotionally charged story with a good moral underneath.

This series is my first time really trying adult contemporary romance. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. Do you ever change things up and read in a different genre? Which are your favorite and why?