Okay, Cupid! Let's go date a human

 

So, I read I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver ages ago, loved it, and then proceeded not to read anything else by Deaver for years, and I have no idea why. But I’m talking about Okay, Cupid today as I finally got around to another Mason Deaver book.

Our blurbara Walters says that as a cupid, Jude thinks they understand love a little bit more than the average human. It makes sense – Jude’s been studying love their whole teen life. And, yes, there have been some bumps in the road, and they’re currently on probation for doing something they absolutely, definitely shouldn’t have done… but they’re ready to prove they can make matches without getting too involved. It’s just a job, right? Jude’s next assignment isn’t about setting up two lovelorn adults. No, this time Jude has to go to high school to reconcile two best friends who are meant to be more than just best friends… if only they were still speaking to each other. Jude thinks they’ve got this one all under control, and that they won’t get personally attached, even if one of the friends seems to be, well, thoughtful… and lovely… and caring… Which proves that maybe Jude hasn’t learned the first lesson of humans and love: It’s complicated.

We start off with bestie Jude, our Judestie, if you will? But our Judestie has infiltrated a coffee shop and is working as a barista to try and get these office workers together – since it’s their first assignment after their major screw up. I was glad that this screw up is immediately just told to us as being that they fell in love with a human, and that when they kissed him, Leo, the human, forgot everything that they’d had together, yet Jude still remembers. And then Leo comes into the coffee shop and all the emotions come rushing back and is unable to finish their assignment. In the third chapter, yes, I am jumping ahead, we’re told that one kiss from a Cupid makes a human forget everything about them, but the second time a Cupid kisses a human, they lose all their power as a Cupid. So, now when I read that, I knew exactly what was going to happen – that Jude was going to get put in the position of whether they were going to kiss a human to get to be with them, or to not do that, and keep on living as a Cupid. And I will say, that’s a similar concept (losing the powers for love, I’m meaning, specifically) to Out of the Blue by Jason June, and I adored that.

Reading this book made me remember why I loved I Wish You All the Best so much, because there hasn’t been a book I’ve found just so easy to read in so long. It’s the book I’ve read in the shortest amount of time in many months, and I’d have read it quicker if I didn’t need to go to sleep or go to work. Like I said, it just felt easy. I think that’s what I love in a novel – something that’s just what it is. Something that doesn’t try and be clever, or try and make itself look smarter than it needs to.

There was next to no exploration of the concept of Cupid’s in this book. I will openly admit that with the way I consumed this book, I loved Jude and Huy together, but that’s because I love queer romance, so I was way more focused on the two of them then I was the supernatural element with the Cupids. However, I definitely do think there was opportunity to explore Cupids. There’s mention of Cupids having the ability to perform a spell that’s really quick and erase human memories. But it’s only ever mentioned. There’s also the concept of Cupids receiving training, but what the actual training is, that’s never mentioned. So, I can definitely see why people would have issue with it. However, I’m the type of person that feels like not everything needs explanation. That is entirely a personal preference, though. I’m happy for things to just exist as they are. Especially in the context of this book, Jude’s assignment was literally to go be a normal human, so I feel like it makes sense for Cupidism to not be massively present, because they’re meant to be being human.

That being said, leaning into the Cupid of it all, I think that lends to why Jude often spoke the way that they did. So, I loved the characters’ personalities, and I think they really shone through in the dialogue. I really think that’s where they shone. But for Jude speaking the way they did, in addition to being a Cupid and loving rom-coms, it definitely did sometimes feel like they knew a lot more about love then I thought they would for a sixteen-year-old. However, now that I’m writing this, I do think that could then link back to the concept of Cupid training that gets mentioned in the book. I know I did just say that I don’t think everything needs explaining. But it’s just that, not everything. Some stuff, however? It was one of those things that once I was putting my thoughts on page, it clicked. While I was reading the book, I was passenger princessing myself and letting myself enjoy what I read, which, my god, did I enjoy this book? Yes, I bloody did. But now I’ve sat and thunk my thoughts, I can definitely see where some parts of Cupidism (it doesn’t even get called that in the book, I’ve just started saying it) could have benefitted from being explored.

Anyway, to a point I popped a little bit into the last paragraph. Character personality. I think especially for Jude and Huy, I loved it whenever they were speaking with each other. I thought that I could really see them as real – which is ironic with Jude being a Cupid, I realise – like, it was real, sometimes irritating, conversations that they had. Sometimes I’ll read something, see some dialogue, and it’ll read specifically like dialogue, rather than a conversation. And to pop over onto something else briefly when it comes to character personality, with Huy and his family being Vietnamese, I loved seeing his family. Early in they had, I believe it was a doughnut truck, and then you also saw they had a full on shop, then further on in that you got to see this entire festival (the name of which escapes me – and I’m fully blaming that on the fact I was sure I finished writing this post but forgot about it for two weeks) that Jude, Huy, and the friends Jude has managed to make. It was all just so sweet.

To violent curb stomp the end of this post, like I just mentioned, I was convinced that I’d finished this post, but then I opened the file to upload it and turned out that I hadn’t… So, here’s a crusty ending for you. I really enjoyed this book and have since picked up another Mason Deaver book.

Okay, bye!