The Cul De Sac War by Melissa Ferguson Review

 Happy Thursday Friends :)

I pray you're all doing well.

Life has still been really challenging for my family and I, but I wanted to hop on here today and share a review for one of my most anticipated releases for this year.

The Cul De Sac War by Melissa Ferguson:

Source: Publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley

Publication Date: November 10th, 2020

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

Bree Leake doesn’t want to be tied down. She’s had more jobs than she can count, and she plans to move as soon as the curtains fall on her less-than-minor stage role at The Barter—the oldest live performance theater in the US. But just when it’s time to move on again, Bree’s parents make her an offer: hold steady for a full year, and they will give her the one thing she’s always wanted—her grandmother’s house. Her dreams are coming true . . . until life at the theater throws her some curve balls. 

And then there’s Chip McBride—her handsome and infuriating next-door neighbor. 

Chip just might be the only person whose stubborn streak can match Bree’s. She would move heaven and earth to have him off her cul-de-sac and out of her life, but according to the bargain she’s struck, she can’t move out of her house and away from the man who’s making her life miserable. So begins Bree’s obsessive new mission: to drive Chip out of the neighborhood—and fast. 

Bree isn’t the only one who’s a tad competitive, and Chip is more than willing to fight fire with fire. But as their pranks escalate, the line between love and hate starts to blur—and their heated rivalry threatens to take a hilarious, heartwarming, and romantic new turn.

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

I've really struggled with writing this review. I honestly cannot believe that the same author who wrote the hysterically funny and adorable The Dating Charade, which was one of my favorite reads last year, is behind this mess of a book. This book should have only taken me a couple of hours to get through, but instead it took me days. I couldn't handle reading more than a couple of chapters at a time, and even that felt like a chore to get through.

To start with, the plot makes absolutely no sense, and the writing is choppy and never blends from one part to the next. Many times I thought pages must be missing as it didn't make sense why the story jumped from one point to a completely different point without telling the reader why. The reader is never really given a true reason to what starts off the intense hatred between Chip and Bree in the first place, unless we're maybe reading a book about twelve year olds instead of grown adults. Bree and Chip are both so immature, and a lot of the pranks go way beyond funny and honestly had me disgusted that anyone could try and do the horrible things they were doing to each other.

Furthermore, we spend the entire first three quarters of the book hearing about their hatred for each other, and yet all of a sudden this turns into a romance? What exactly prompted those feelings and why was it never revealed to the reader? I would have been disappointed enough with the writing, the lack of a believable plot, the obnoxious characters, and the romance that made no sense, but it got even worse for me. This was another example of a book being published by a Christian publisher that was really anything but Christian fiction. There is one reference made to Chip going to church and owning a bible. That's basically it for faith content for the entire book, and there were so many opportunities to have had Jesus included that would have made the story so much better. Also, I've been noticing a trend lately to include edgier content in Christian fiction titles, and I have to say that the fact that both of the main characters were in other relationships while falling for each other left a very bad taste in my mouth. There's enough dark content in secular titles, as Christians we need to do better than this.

Final Rating: 1/5.

I would personally recommend skipping this one, and picking up Melissa's debut novel instead. I'll still be picking up her next book, but I'm hoping it's going to be a vast improvement over this one.

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.