Running with Lions - Julian Winters

RATING: 2 / 5

Running with Lions is basically your cheesy summer camp love story. This felt so short, and honestly, it felt like nothing happened. This is one of my least favourite books of the year. I saw a lot of people online recommending this book, but it's not worth the hype. I don't like hating... but anyway it's my opinion. This felt like an unedited wattpad story published. Maybe it was because I overhyped this for myself, but I was disappointed. I don't mean it's wattpad in the way it's trashy'. I can't really hate on a 'trashy' book because sometimes I love them. I mean it's wattpad in the way that there wasn't a great plot and Sebastian was just such a bland character. It's 3.8 stars on Goodreads, which is pretty good, so I think you can understand my disappointment.

I finished this book today, and I can't remember anything that happened. I appreciate the diversity (Emil is muslin, and Sebastion is... plus size? I'm not sure). It was quite different to see a male character insecure about his body. I've never really seen that before, so it was cool. But I still hate the mirror scene. Boys, girls, in between and neither. I hate it when an author uses the mirror as a tool to describe your character. There are so many other ways you could have your character describe themselves. Having them stand in front of a mirror and list of things about themselves is just lazy writing. I'm sorry to say it. This is the first scene in divergent and I cringe (even though divergent brings back great memories). Overall, I was disappointed. There was just no conflict. They were at a camp, he helped him get better at football, they accidentally kissed in the rain, and whoopsie, they fell in love. It was way too insta-lovy for me. Also, Sebastian's inner thoughts after they... you know, was quite concerning. They didn't even like each other that much, and Sebastian was in denial after. He clearly had some problems which he did not address. I did not like how Emil brought it up, it wasn't natural.

This book honestly should have been about Hunter and Willie, who were the best characters. Willie was the most developed and you could see he actually had some internal struggle which would have definitely been more interesting to read about. My favourite part of this book was Zach firring shots at those boys from the other football club. That was funny. Sebastian was just so bland and he just didn't have any personality.  I didn't like him at all. Also, there were a lot of parts that were supposed to be inspirational but just ended up being cringy. I love books about summer camps, and this was just disappointing.

Other books like this, that are just better: Openly straight, Autoboyagraphy