Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

TL;DR circumventing the rules of a segregated day / night society for both familial and romantic love

(finished 1/23/15)

I have to admit, I liked Plus One a lot more than I expected. At first, it seemed like the only really unique thing about it would be the day / night divide, and it took me a while to feel invested in the story. Sol and D'Arcy seemed like stereotypical protagonists -- Sol was impulsive and reckless and D'Arcy was the one to counter-balance her and make sure she didn't make too much of a disaster. Sol's whole kidnapping attempt seemed incredibly stupid and poorly thought out. 

I think it was the worldbuilding that really got my attention at first. It took a couple chapters for it to really feel solid, but the reasoning and effects of the legal divide seemed fairly well thought out. There weren't any huge info-dumps to explain it, either, which I really appreciated. There were a few groups of paragraphs scattered over the first couple chapters, but after that it was woven in with Sol's memories and the dialogue / plot so it wasn't overwhelming. 

Looking at the Goodreads reviews, though, a lot of people have pointed out that the divide was built around really shaky reasoning. And I kind of have to agree on that. I accepted the reasoning as enough to explain what was going on, but if you really think about it, it's a really stupid reason to divide society like that. So I guess your take depends on how much suspension of disbelief you're willing to give the book. 

I'm almost entirely sure I would've loved the book if it weren't for the romance aspect. I know it's not fair for me to judge it on that, especially since the copy of the book I got from the library has a "romance" sticker with a heart on it on the spine, but the romance didn't seem all that interesting to me. Sol and D'Arcy did work well together, but I feel like they moved way too fast in their relationship considering how much time passed within the book itself. And it made the book kind of hard to read in school; the cover basically shows them making out, and I had to skip over a few pages towards the end just to make sure someone couldn't look over my shoulder and question what the heck I was reading. 

But I realize that it's not fair for me to rate down a romance book because I don't like anything even remotely resembling insta-love. It's a really good standalone. I still haven't figured out the exact reason I gave the book four stars over three, but three stars doesn't quite feel like enough. 

Review TL;DR: it's at least worth a try.