The One About Making Tom Valeska Mine: 99 Percent Mine by Sally Throne

Disclaimer: If you loved this book, good for you! This review is not a criticism of your reading preferences. It’s a reflection of how I felt after reading this book.

99 Percent Mine

Sally Thorne

Paperback, 368 pages

Published July 4th 2019 by Piatkus (first published January 29th 2019)

ISBN; 0349422893 (ISBN13: 9780349422893)

Crush: a strong and often short-lived infatuation, particularly for someone beyond your reach…

Darcy Barrett has undertaken a global survey of men. She’s travelled the world, and can categorically say that no one measures up to Tom Valeska, whose only flaw is that Darcy’s twin brother Jamie saw him first and claimed him forever as his best friend. Despite Darcy’s best efforts, Tom’s off limits and loyal to her brother, 99%. That’s the problem with finding her dream man at age eight and peaking in her photography career at age twenty—ever since, she’s had to learn to settle for good enough.

When Darcy and Jamie inherit a tumble-down cottage from their grandmother, they’re left with strict instructions to bring it back to its former glory and sell the property. Darcy plans to be in an aisle seat halfway across the ocean as soon as the renovations start, but before she can cut and run, she finds a familiar face on her porch: house-flipper extraordinaire Tom’s arrived, he’s bearing power tools, and he’s single for the first time in almost a decade.

Suddenly Darcy’s considering sticking around to make sure her twin doesn’t ruin the cottage’s inherent magic with his penchant for grey and chrome. She’s definitely not staying because of her new business partner’s tight t-shirts, or that perfect face that’s inspiring her to pick up her camera again. Soon sparks are flying—and it’s not the faulty wiring. It turns out one percent of Tom’s heart might not be enough for Darcy anymore. This time around, she’s switching things up. She’s going to make Tom Valeska 99 percent hers.

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne follows Darcy as she navigates the restoration of her grandmother’s cottage, and figuring out her feelings for her twin brother’s best friend, Tom. In hindsight, this book should have everything I could ever ask for in a romance novel: girlboss, childhood friends-to-lovers and the falling-for-my-brother’s-bestfriend trope (if this isn’t already a thing, then I am officially making it a thing). Unfortunately, this one falls flat and I am forced to rate this book so much lower than I had expected to rate it.

First, let’s talk about Sally Thorne’s writing. I am a bit familiar with the author’s work, having read one of her more well-known novels titled ‘The Hating Game’. I have read and review this book (check out the book review here!), and unfortunately it was a miss for me too. Spoiler alert from my book review of ’The Hating Game’: my review basically outlines the fact that I did not enjoy the repetitiveness and overly cliche aspects of the book. As a result, I made sure to tone down my expectations going into this one, but even that was not enough to defuse my disappointment for this book.

One of the areas which have to be addressed is the romance. Romance is essential in any romance book— shocker! If the romance isn’t good then I am going to say the book isn’t good. If I wanted to read a sub-par romance, then I wouldn’t reach for a book which relies on the romance between the two characters. Darcy and Tom’s romance was as basic as it could get. There wasn’t much yearning or “will-they-won’t-they” action going on. Now I’m going to sound a bit hypocritical in the next bit, but hear me out:

The romance was too predictable. Obviously, there is only so much an author who writes romance can bring to the table– similar to film producers and their rom-coms. Once you’ve read about 10 romance books, you would have read almost all of the possible tropes and plot lines there is. It’s rare to bring something unique to the table when almost every scenario has been done before. That being said, most of the time, I read or watch romance books and films because there is a high chance that I get a happy ending– the predictability and certainty of romance films and books is what makes these kinds of content fun for audiences.

However, it does get pretty boring if it is not done right.

And this book is an example of that.

It could be because I haven’t taken a liking to the writing style, or the characters, but there was nothing to be excited about. My entire thought process throughout this book was whether or not I cared if they get together– which is the worst thought to have when reading a book about two people falling in love and getting together. I found myself caring less about the character’s love story, and caring more about how many more pages there are left of this book.

On a more positive note, I did enjoy the last couple of pages. Once Darcy and Tom got together, I will admit that they make a cute couple– I enjoyed their little moments together. Speaking of little moments, I love when authors (especially romance authors) leave readers a little peek at the future of the couples. I thought the epilogue was really sweet and left a momentary fuzzy feeling inside me as I closed the book.

It was an “okay” book. I would still recommend it if you are a fan of the author. I’m glad I read another Sally Thorne work, but I’m not scrambling for another one right now.

2 stars.

Have you read 99 Percent Mine by Sally Throne or any of her other books?

Let me know in the comments below!

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