Review: The Secret Poet

The Secret Poet by Georgia Beers
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Finished on March 19, 2021

Favorite Scene/Quote: "You can show up midafternoon and launch a kiss attack on me like this any time you want."

1.5/5 rounded down

I really didn’t want to have to write a negative review about this book. I’ve read several Georgia Beers books previously and I enjoyed them. This book however, I felt every second of this book. This book took me several days to read because I just could not focus on this book for any length of time.
    
The idea for the book is interesting. Morgan works in the office for her brother Perry, a doctor, and one day they get a new pharmaceutical rep, Zoe. Perry, and Morgan, are immediately attracted to Zoe and Perry decides to pursue her. He asks Morgan to write poetry for him to give her because he’s not good with words and Morgan is. It was an interesting topic that made me want to read the book, shame it didn’t continue to be interesting.

I don’t know if there was a single character on the page for an extended amount of time that I liked. Perry started off sweet if a bit overwhelming but by the end of the book I couldn’t stand him. Morgan just read as plain boring. I couldn’t force myself to be even the slightest bit invested in her life and since the book is told from her point of view (first-person) that was a major problem. She also seemed to have no actual desire to stand up for herself when her brother asked things of her. Whether it be writing poems for a girl they have a mutual crush on or not getting together with the girl who hurt his ego. By the end of the book, I also still felt like I barely knew Zoe. There might have been a lot of information about her but all I can recall is that her mom died, she plays golf, and her last girlfriend left her with trust issues.

The only good thing I noticed about this book was the writing. You can tell that Georgia Beers is an experienced author. I wonder if my opinion on the book might be different had it not all been stuck in Morgan’s head, but I’ll never know. The poems were also an interesting part of the book but that was really all for me.

I really like Georgia Beers’ other works but this one is a hard pass for me. Based on other reviews, I might be the outlier here.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for a fair, honest review.