I thought this was remarkable. The most common complaint seems to be how unbelievable the relationship seemed to be; especially because it moves forward without establishing an acceptable foundation. This is where I found myself projecting into Elise in a very potent way. She makes it very clear that she is taken with Julianna very early, but you're not sure why. Neither is Elise. She is just going along with her gut, for lack of a better term, so I found myself doing the same. Elise didn't need to give me a reason for her feelings for Joules because she doesn't have one herself. And about the haste with which they were employing terms of endearment and the like, that's what happens when two people have the sort of intense, mutual attraction these two obviously shared from very early on, even if neither of them can codify it by saying, "Hey, I've gone a bit crazy for you." The whole book is like this. You never get to see inside Julianna's head, and even Elise isn't an omnipotent Goddeess in her own head. Many times, especially nearer the end, Elise only realizes why she did a thing because Kitty, who knows her better than anyone, told her. Everyone tells themselves they are doing a thing for some reason to hide their true motives from themselves. Elise isn't sure of herself very often, so she doesn't tells us what's going on in her head because she doesn't know either.In short, engage with Elise, don't just see her as a narrator, but as a person telling her story as best as she can as a flawed human being. If you do that you can appreciate the fact that this entire story is about visceral reactions, not a careful courtship. Although the writing is overall functionally sound (but there are typos), I have a lot of problems with this book. It starts with the main character Elise (who seems quite happily married) discussing how much she despises the woman that took her husband's promotion from him. Then she meets the woman (Juliana) and becomes almost immediately obsessed with her. From the title you think "infatuation-ok so it's probably a pretty intense attraction going on." But this is pure obsession. And I would suggest an unhealthy one at that. I had a hard time understanding what exactly they saw in each other to make such an instant connection believable. The characters did have excellent chemistry, the author is good at writing that.However, the speed at which these two go to calling each other "honey" and "baby" in front of everyone they know is quite alarming. Also, Juliana is emotionally immature at best. She has tantrums, reacts defensively a lot, and cries and stomps off when she doesn't get her way. Honestly, I contemplated borrowing my wife's DSM to determine if this character could be classified as a sociopath (I believe she is). I know that sounds kind of crazy, but let me tell you why I think so.Everything up to approximately 75% of the book made me keep looking back to make sure that this was in fact written as a romance. I honestly thought it was a thriller and that someone would be murdered at some point. The arguments they had sounded like arguments one would have with an emotionally unstable person. As an example, at one point Juliana asks Elise to go with her to San Francisco to pick up some stuff from her parents' house. They leave the next day for what they say will be a week. When they get there, there is some seriously weird conversations involving the mother, who photographed her daughter being put into deadly situations when she was a child (this is never brought up again, indescribably). Juliana then says they need to go to the vacation home and just be together for a few days, after being really creepy and irrational about a bike she bought for Elise in San Francisco WEEKS ago (wait-but didn't she JUST ask her to come to San Fran? Yes, because she's manipulative and creepy). Eventually they return home THREE WEEKS LATER without giving any word to her husband and children, who she left in Colorado.I kept with the book but by the end, I honestly did not want these characters to end up together. I didn't like how Juliana talked to Elise even when they were on good terms (don't even get me started on the 'cabbage incident'). I kept yelling at my e-reader "No! Don't do it! She's going to make furniture out of your skin!"Think I'm being overly dramatic? Yeah, I probably am. But I think I would have liked this book a lot more if it had been a thriller instead. That, I would have understood.On the plus side, since the character of Elise showed fairly good growth throughout, the author shows potential. I just think this book missed the mark in a lot of areas.
What do You think about An Infatuation (2013)?
Dialogue format was simply wrong...misplaced modifiers were jarring and pulled you out of the story.
—christian
Free on amazon prime, minor typos but otherwise a good read, very compelling.
—heather
I smell adultery. It's just not my cup of tea.DNFed. Sorry.
—sierra
