Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Picture Love 
SERIES: Good Bad Idea Book 6
AUTHOR: A.F. Zoelle
PUBLISHER: self
LENGTH: 184 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 21, 2020
BLURB:
Felix Murphy
My friend’s hot older brother agrees to play tour guide for me in Paris, so I know I’m in for the trip of a lifetime. The best part is that Arsène is a shameless flirt who gives my vivid imagination all kinds of naughty ideas. My lack of a filter always gets me into trouble, but at least this time it’s the fun kind.
Going home alone with a broken heart as a souvenir would suck. I’d rather return to America with a gorgeous French boyfriend instead.
Arsène Devereaux
When I agreed to babysit my younger brother’s American friend, he warned me not to break Felix’s heart. I never expected to be the one in danger of falling in love. But Felix is a cute and charming smart-ass, which is an irresistible combination to me.
If he offers to play tour guide next, I just might follow him across the ocean in search of a happily ever after.
Picture Love is the sixth book in the Good Bad Idea series. This novel features a brother’s best friend, age gap, instalove romance. Full of cute sweetness and sexy fun, every story ends with a satisfying HEA and no cliffhangers. Each book can be read as a standalone or as part of the series in order.
REVIEW:
Picture Love is the sixth book in A.F. Zoelle’s warm and fuzzy Good Bad Idea series. You can absolutely read this as a standalone, although know that couples from the prior books do appear. No spoilers result because of it, but the interconnections between the various characters can be a bit confusing. I’ve read all the books and still had to go back and remind myself who was who.
Since Book 4, Love Fool, this series has settled into a happy, treacly groove. Each book creates this bubblegum candy sweet world of preordained love without impediment or angst. Book 4, Love Fool, features Jules and Xander’s best friends to lovers romance which can only be described as a foregone conclusion. Book 5, Love Directions, focuses on the predestined love of sweet, innocent Elias Forthwright and anti-relationship playboy North Easton. Elias and North’s opposites attract romance is nothing short of sappy and lovely.
This book, Picture Love, continues in the same vein. It paints a picture of undeniable happiness and love for our couple, Felix and Arsène. Felix, brother of Augie from Book 2, Love Means More, has a fling with Arsène, older brother of Izzy who is a friend of Felix and his roommate North.
Felix is young and feisty, but lonely. He embarks on a vacation to Paris that was initially intended to be a romantic getaway for Felix and his boyfriend Danny. However, after booking the trip, Felix discovered Danny’s true colors and dumped his cheating ass. After some persuasion from Izzy and North, Felix decides to go on the vacation to France anyway, by himself.
Izzy arranges for his older brother Arsène to be Felix’s tour guide during his stay. Felix and Arsène arrange to meet for the first time in front of the Eiffel Tower. While killing time waiting for Arsène to arrive, Felix comes up with the brilliant idea to stick it to his ex and show that he’s moved on by enlisting a hot Frenchman to pose for a selfie with him so he can post it on social media to throw in his ex’s face.
He finally finds a gorgeous, sexy and willing Frenchman who, low and behold, turns out to be Arsène. In a somewhat implausible turn of events, Felix doesn’t recognize Arsène despite having previously seen pictures of him. They exchange a few words, but not their names, and take that selfie as well as a video of them engaged in some seriously hot and heavy kissing. Only then does Arsène introduce himself.
While Felix is certainly surprised and a bit embarrassed, that hesitation doesn’t last long. Truly one look and one kiss and they are already magnetized to each other. Neither the misunderstanding nor the respective warnings from Augie (Felix’s brother) and Izzy (Arsène’s younger brother), put them off from pursuing a French fling.
From there, Felix and Arsène develop an age-gap, friend’s brother romance that just feels right. It’s a forced proximity, whirlwind 5-day Paris frolic which showcases the epitome of instalove. There’s no hesitation or doubt about their feelings for each other, despite the speed.
Arsène is a player, totally opposed to anything more than hookups. He’s a famous photographer who works with gorgeous models on the daily. He’s wined, dined and bedded many of them, including famous model Rune Tourneau from Book 3, Fancy Love. Felix is a spirited flirt, but he’s looking for love in a lasting relationship. They seem complete opposites. Yet, they both come together in mutual understanding without hesitation or rumination.
Felix adopts a Vegas attitude in Paris: flirt, fool around and then forget about it. Not surprisingly, that plan is doomed to fail. Before you know it, Felix has fallen for Arsène.
What is surprising, at least to Arsène, is that he almost instantly falls for Felix, and that his feelings are so different from anything he’s experienced before. But he’s all in, quickly embracing it and there’s no looking back.
Felix and Arsène are fabulous together. Their romance is one of French films, with all of the gooey, sweet proclamations and manifestations of love for each other. They have palpable chemistry which translates to some hot, steamy scenes. However, what may be present for them but missing for the reader is emotional depth.
The story doesn’t develop Felix and Arsène’s feelings for each other at more than a surface level. Certainly external factors would impact this relationship, but it’s all glossed over, like fresh ice on a skating rink. My view is that was the author’s intent. The author wasn’t writing a book with trials and tribulations and angst. She wanted to create a happy bubble for her readers to live in. And that, she definitely delivered in spades.
The flip side, however, is that the book doesn’t have a lot of dynamics – variation in pacing, highs and lows, euphoria and angst, emotional turmoil. Many books are a mixture of these things: some balanced, some predominantly one over the other. Picture Love, like the others in this series, is more of a one note wonder. It hits that happy, schmoopy vibe and sticks with it.
Overall, Picture Love is a heartwarming, gooey, short, sweet read that will deliver all the warm and fuzzies, as well as some swoon-worthy French romance. It’s extremely enjoyable, assuming you’re in the mood for that kind of story. If you are, it will check all the boxes you’re looking for. 💘
RATING: 
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