ARC Review by Annie: Contour by Meg Harding

Posted January 22, 2018 by Dale

Jamie “Roxy” Albright has one great love in his life and room for no other. He lives and breathes makeup. Men are nothing more than temporary distractions and romance… well, that isn’t worth his time. With a burgeoning career as a YouTube makeup artist opening doors to never before dreamed of opportunities, time isn’t something Jamie has and distractions aren’t something he can afford.

Instagram model and shirtless wonder Tyler Jackson is quickly falling for elusive Jamie. How it went from a seemingly innocent message to feelings, he’ll never know. Their chemistry is instant and fiery hot, and Tyler’s never been that good at self control. The challenges are endless, though. There’s Jamie’s walls to break through and a country worth of space between them. And just when things are starting to look up, life throws a wrench in the works.

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Release Date: January 23rd

*A copy of this was provided via Signal Boost Promotions

4 stars

I was excited for this story since I first heard of it on twitter. Harding shared several snippets while writing and each made me want to read the story more.
I absolutely loved the text messages at the beginning. Online meet-cute’s are definitely my thing. And this one was really cute, engaging and I loved the easy banter between Jamie and Tyler. The author really sucked me in during these first chapters and putting the book down was nearly impossible — I tried it because I had to get some sleep so I wouldn’t be completely exhausted the next day at work. But only had little success doing so, because the book wouldn’t let me go. I’d turn the lights out, put the kindle aside, just to pick it up again and read another 3 chapters. It was worth every extra cup of coffee I had to drink the next day. 😉

Both characters are famous in their corner of social media. While Tyler is more on instagram, Jamie is at home on YouTube where he does make-up tutorials but also shares personal things – like stories about his latest one night stand – with his followers. It doesn’t take them long to constantly message each other. There’s definitely a lot of attraction between them but their first meeting is still awkward at first. It was so sweet and charming and so absolutely relatable. Talking with someone online can be quite different to meeting them in person. I feel like Harding did a great job of capturing that atmosphere of insecurity and awkwardness, layered with the attraction between both characters.

Out of both, Jamie is definitely the one who doesn’t really share personal things and keeps everything that is important to him close to his heart. He uses make-up as a shield and only those who he really trusts see him without. I really enjoyed how Tyler slowly won over Jamie’s heart and how Jamie in return trusted Tyler more and more with “the real Jamie” and not just the version he puts online.

The side characters — particularly Dan — were awesome (except for Jamie’s mum who I really don’t like). I loved the scenes when it was just Jamie and Tyler. But scenes like when Jamie does Tyler’s make up and Dan helps with the filming were awesome too.

When I went into this book I thought there would be a bigger focus on Jamie doing make-up or Tyler posting on instagram. It’s definitely part of the story, but I had wished for it to play an even bigger part. This is only a personal preference and no critique on the story though.

The pacing at the end of Contour felt kinda off. The first half takes place over a relatively short time but at the end we have several time jumps were we move forward by several weeks. Because of this it felt like the conflict arose too sudden. The long-distance part of their relationship had been a thing throughout the book, but I felt like they were doing mostly fine with it and their schedules worked out for the most part. But at the end of the story we have several time jumps and making the distance a huge conflict in the last 15% threw me out of the story.
I would have liked another chapter between the last chapter and the epilogue to even it all out a bit.

Overall I really enjoyed Contour and will read it again. It was a lovely story and great first book in a new series. I’m really looking forward to see who book 2 is about.

Meg Harding is a graduate of UCF, and recently completed a masters program for Publishing in the UK. For as long as she can remember, writing has always been her passion, but she had an inability to ever actually finish anything. She’s immensely happy that her inability has fled and looks forward to where her mind will take her next. She’s a sucker for happy endings, the beach, and superheroes. In her dream life she owns a wildlife conservation and is surrounded by puppies. She’s a film buff, voracious reader, and a massive geek.

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