Review: The Conspiration of The Universe by Kenneth Olanday

Hello readers! Long time no post? :) Anyway, yes this blog is still alive and today is my stop for The Conspiration of The Universe blog tour.

Title: The Conspiration of the Universe by Kenneth Olanday
Release Date: October 2017
Published by: Popfiction
Source: From the publisher (Thanks Ishi and Jesselle!)

Summary:
Luke believes in a quote by his favorite author -- that is you want something so bad, the universe will conspire to help you get it.

Luke must have wanted to find love so much that Eureka, the heroine of his favorite book, comes to life and falls in love with him.

There is just one catch: once Eureka reaches the end of her book's storylike in the real world, then her story with Luke will end, too.

Will the universe conspire to help the star-crossed lovers find true happiness with each other?

One thing is for sure, Luke will do everything he can to keep Eureka forever.

Now, I will be completely honest. There are things in the book that worked for me and unfortunately a lot that didn't. I'll do my best to explain why, but again keep in mind that every reading experience is different, so read this review with your own preferences in mind.

When I first read the summary, I was immediately hooked. I'm a sucker for stories like this, and when I saw the cover, I was more eager to read the book and find out for myself if it's really good. A girl who came to life from a book you love? Her life following the book's story line? Very, very interesting indeed.

This is technically my 3rd Pop Fiction book, and I really loved the one I've read before this, which was Better Than Fiction. (My rave review for that will be posted soon, for those who haven't seen my tweeting spree a few days ago.) It might have set my expectations higher, and I have hoped that reading The Conspiration of The Universe will sustain those feelings but the reading experience is a bit different with this one.

It was very hard for me to connect with Luke. He was not the best protagonist I've read about, and having a love-hate relationship with the person whose POV I'm reading the book from tends to lessen my enjoyment of a story. While I can understand how he can be a pessimist at times, but can he at least have a better attitude towards his mother? Is it teenage angst? I didn't like his thoughts at all when he broke up with Sydney, and I didn't like Sydney any better too, so no love lost there. Do you really invite your ex out for lunch in the aftermath of a break up and get angry because they said NO? Come on.

On the other hand, I feel like Luke's love for books made me connect with him even just a little. I understand that feeling, where you love a book so much you wish the characters were real. In that sense, I was so amused when Eureka showed up. She's like a breath of fresh air in the story. She's quirky, dorky and cheerful. Though her cluelessness sometimes confuse me because 3 years seems like a short amount of time to not have an idea that the internet does exist and yes there are DVD players, she's still an interesting character. I was rooting for her. I want to see her carve her own path and do what she loves and break out of that box of expectations her parents had set for her life. She wanted to be a videographer and I admire her reason for aspiring to be one.

Slow burn is my jam, but that was not the case here. The story started out very shaky for me, what with having a book whose pages suddenly became blank and eventually have an e-book where you can read everything is a bit weird. I felt like the chemistry between Eureka and Luke were at a level of strong, platonic friendship at best and falling in love, really, was out of the question. There are also scenes where I felt were unnecessarily added and then having so little time to establish having Luke and Eureka fall in love. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the way they interacted with each other and find myself smiling when Matt teased them about being a nerdy couple.

The ending is to be expected. There were lots of moments that set the story up for the conclusion, so it was sensible that it ends that way, but I still feel like it could have been explained better. Why was there a video at the end from Eureka? Did she just disappear or just left Luke behind for good? Did she return to the book? I was very confused with that part. The author made an effort in giving the story an ending that was open to interpretation, and I feel that it gave the book more depth. The portrayal of Luke's struggle to move on was very emotional, and that eventually gave the book an extra kick in the heart as it ends.

My absolute favorite part of the book is, admittedly, Matt. He's like that friend who tends to fight with you all the time but is always there to set you straight and get you out of the mess you're in when you need them to. He's fun and sarcastic and basically delivers the hard punches and truths and the personified version of a very good smack in the head for Luke. His prequel story was EXTREMELY good, and it was such an uplifting snippet that I wished was longer so I can drown in the feels a little bit more.

The Conspiration of the Universe is not what I expected it to be, but the elements that worked for me gave brief moments that were sweet, enjoyable and entertaining. Insta love and meeting the author of the book you've obsessed over for years kind of plot twists aside, people will find the light-hearted moments between friends (Matt and Luke), lovers (nerdy couple Luke and Eureka) and that extra dose of angst a good combination in a story like this.


Content (plot, story flow, character):

I'm not trying to nitpick, but the typos also bothered me a little bit. Maybe I'm a jaded older reader, but more fluff please. This had so much potential but fell a little short for me.

Okay: Liked, but The Goddess demands more!

Book Cover:
Oh my goodness, I love everything about the cover! The illustration is SO good and it blends well with the typography used. It's stunning and if you have the chance to get your hands on a real copy, the texture of the cover is really nice. Kudos to whoever designed the cover, what an amazing job!