Exes and O’s by Amy Lea: A Book Review
Genre: Romance
The movies “What’s Your Number?” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” meet in, Amy Lea’s Exes and O’s. Going in, I did not realize this – I just thought that the summary was very rom-com and fun. However, by the first chapter I was in love as “What’s Your Number?” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) are my 2nd and 3rd favorite movies respectively. (Little side note: my favorite is “The Ugly Truth”. I could watch these 3 movies on repeat and be happy.)
Lea’s story follows the MC that moves into her brother-in-law’s old apartment. In all aspects, she basically is taking over his lease since he is moving in with her sister (being married and all). As such, she “inherits” his old roommate, Trevor. MC is obsessed with romance and even has a vlog about romance books, tropes, and everything to do with the genre… however, she is also single and wonders why she hasn’t had her own meet cute.
While talking to her grandma who had a “second chance romance”, MC wonders if one of her past boyfriends might actually be her “second chance romance”. Que “What’s Your Number?”.
If you haven’t watched “What’s Your Number?”, the movie, starring Anna Faris and Chris Evans, follows a woman (Anna Faris) who has recently read an article that states that once a woman reaches over 20 sexual partners, they are deemed less desirable and less likely to be married. Well… she counts how many partners she has had and comes up with 19 – only to have a one-night stand making her number 20. Scared that she is going to be less desirable, she decides to find all of her past sexual partners to see if they could be her future husband, which would then keep her number at 20. For help finding them she enlists the assistance of her neighbor (played by Chris Evans). From there, pure chaos and hilarity ensure.
Anyways, Lea writes a close replicate with her MC “stalking” her past boyfriends and trying to orchestrate meet cutes to see if her “future” husband is one of them. In Lea’s version, however, Trevor doesn’t help find the old boyfriends. Rather, he helps her stop being weird… which reminds me of “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”.
For another aside: “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”, starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, follows a columnist (Kate Hudson) for a woman’s magazine, who decides to write an article about actions/habits women may have that drive significant others away. In order to do this, she does a little experiment in which she starts a relationship with a guy and tries to “scare him away”. McConaughey’s character ends up being this guy – but in a twist of events – he made a bet he could make any women fall in love with him in 10 days in order to get promoted in his marketing job. Again – from there pure chaos and hilarity ensure.
Lea’s MC would want to read the article Hudson’s character writes as she exhibits multiple of the characteristics that Hudson’s character does to “scare the guy away” – only Hudson’s character is trying to and Lea’s MC doesn’t realise she is doing it. Trevor does realized that she is doing and and helps Lea’s MC not appear desperate and super insane – which as a reader I have to admit she does in some cases.
Being a lover of romance myself, I truly enjoyed the parody aspect and tone towards the romance genre. Lea plays on all of the tropes such as “second chance romance”, “the close-proximety trope”, “meet cutes”, etc. and the idea that they happen in books – not necessarily in real life. I also really enjoyed that the tone was fun and playful rather than condensending.
Fun fact, the romance genre is socially seen as less then compared to other genres – to the point that a lot of people will deny that they read romance – especially the romance books that are more explicit or erotic. In the short version of the story, this is because when books were starting to become more readily available, higher class women were looking for stories about love (and other scenes that you can find in those types of stories😉). As such, the romance genre was created for women and, because women were seen as less than men especially in the sense that they were less intelligent and more reactive to their primal natures, the genre became seen as “women literature” and less than any other genre that “a man might read”. Again, long story short, since then society has looked down on the romance genre (especially those with more explicit and erotic scenes).
I will also say that I also really enjoyed Trevor. He seened like a pretty awesome dude. If he was real, he would definitely be someone I would like as a friend.
If I had to pick one thing that I didn’t like, I would say that I found the MC really annoying. She was so needy! And what is worse is that she didn’t really realise it! I was like: “No wonder you are single! You are creepy!” Granted at some parts I did feel bad for her, but overall… if she was in my nonexistent friend circle and acted like how she acted in the book, she would be scaring me away too – and I like to think of myself as a pretty patient and understanding individual.
Who would most enjoy the work and who should stay clear (if necessary):
Enjoy:
- Romantic comedies
- Forced/Close proximity trope
- Roommates to Lovers trope
Stay Clear:
- Do not enjoy parody
- Romance is not your genre
- Needy characters annoy you
Other books like the one reviewed:
Set on You by Amy Lea (part of the same world – it takes place before Exes and O’s)
The Roomate Pact by Allison Ashley
The Amerian Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas
The Nanny by Lana Ferguson
| Plot: | 9 / 10 |
| Characters: | 9 / 10 |
| Writing: | 10 / 10 |
| Editor: | 10 / 10 |
| Total | 38 / 40 |
Title: Exes and O’s
Author: Amy Lea
Edition: eBook
Published: 2023
Publisher: Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9780593336601
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
Rosey Reviews 