Book Review: Bad At Love by Gabriela Martins

Daniel never wanted to be a bad boy, but that’s the way the press have framed him, and it’s pretty unchangeable. Being in a famous band—Mischief & Mayhem—comes with a hefty price, including his nickname Rotten. His bandmates aren’t even that close to him, after all they were all friends years before they got clumped together with him on a talent show to be a hit-band. In a way, he feels distant from the whole “fame” thing, especially his bad-boy image. 

Sasha hates bad boys. But interning for a celebrity gossip magazine means that she gets the scoop on quite a lot of them. And when she literally runs into Daniel by chance, it’s suddenly a huge oppertunity for her to get close to him, write a killer éxpose, and make a name for herself at work. But something about faking being interested in him through sweet, yet awkward dates, sits uncomfortably in her stomach. Truthfully, she can feel herself possibly falling for him—and when she finds out Daniel’s secret, she has everything she needs to make her story go global, but when her heart wants the opposite, how does she decide once and for all?

Overall, Bad At Love was a short, yet sweet novel that felt like a hug on a summer’s day. In a way, it was too short, and I really wanted to know more about Sasha and Daniel after the last pages. I felt a strong connection to both of their POV’s and loved that there was rep for POC, plus pansexual and demisexual for both main characters (and LGBT rep for supporting characters, too) that was written with complete authenticity. Because the book was more on the shorter side, I felt some of it being rushed toward the end (aka, I didn’t want it to end) but it didn’t take away from how much it left an impact on my heart. It was truly a novel with warmth, hilarity, slow burn connections and the unexpectedness of love. A four-star beauty.