It's a matter of love or death for this teenage romance.
The Love Interest is an action-romance YA and the debut novel of Cale Dietrich released on 15th May 2017.
Contains the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Calen's assigned "parents" are washed-up love interests who were never chosen for missions in their prime and become incredibly bitter as they long past it yet have to babysit Caden. This is especially the case for Caden's "father" D, who likes to belittle him and throw his seniority whenever possible.
- Dylan's assigned "aunt" is of the neglectful type and never lets him leave the mansion unless it's for school or assignment purposes. His handler also constantly pesters and puts more expectations on him than Caden's.
- Betty and Veronica: Gender-inverted and deliberately enforced as the organization groomed Caden (The wholesome boy-next-door) and Dylan (The bad boy with a soft side) to be the respective Betty and Veronica for Juliet (The Endearingly Dorky Gadgeteer Genius)'s Archie so she will make the decision faster.
- Bullying a Dragon: D really plays up his role as the Abusive Dad to Caden and finds every chance to belittle him for the petty reason of being an active Love Interest while he's delegated to a bit role. After having enough of this, Caden puts him in place by reminding D of how the teenager is the only important part of the mission, not the pathetic excuse of a dad, and if he doesn't stay in line, Caden will just complain to his handler who would arrange D a meeting with the stalker and provide a suitable replacement. This shuts D up and makes him stay far away from Caden for the rest of the book.
- Did Not Get The Guy: Juliet ended up with neither suitor as Caden and Dylan became infatuated with each other and never love her in the first place. She didn't mind since she always suspected there must be a hidden agenda over the two boys fighting for her love since this scenario is very unlikely to happen in real life. Instead, it was mentioned in the epilogue how Juliet is dating on and off with other men instead once she became a renowned scientist.
- Hidden Depths: Dylan's handler invoked this by instructing him to read a book of old poems in front of Juliet to further characterize his bad boy image as having a soft, philosophical side even though he finds it boring and cannot understand a damn thing. An actual example would be Dylan professing to Calen in private about wanting to work in the medical field and becoming a nurse-in-training in the epilogue.
- Meaningful Name: Juliet shares her name with the female lead of Romeo and Juliet whose love life ended in tragedy only hers was all fabricated by a shadow organization and will never form a relationship with either Calen or Dylan.
- Murder by Cremation: Any Love Interests who go out of line or fail to woo their target are hunted down by Stalkers for a one-way trip to the incinerator. Caden uses this fact to threaten D into submitting to him.
- Pair the Suitors: Caden and Dylan are groomed since birth into the perfect love interests for Juliet, destined to become famous someday, and expected to compete for her affection in a classic "Nice Guy vs. Bad Boy" face-off with the loser being killed off. However, they slowly fall for each other instead and choose to defy the organization so that they can be together.
- Romantic False Lead: Juliet was only ever an option to Caden and Dylan because they would die if she didn't choose either one of them to be her boyfriend and neither is necessarily in love with her on their own accord. The real romance and chemistry happen between the two male leads and ended up with each other in the end while Juliet has a normal dating life with other guys.
- Tagline: "Love Kills."
- Too Good to Be True: Even though Juliet enjoyed dating Caden and watching him fight Dylan over her love, she knew deep down something was amidst but couldn't put her finger on it. After all, only this kind of scenario where the nerdy, socially awkward girl finds love in high school but can't choose between two hot guys with contrasting personalities happens in those cliche trashy romance novels. Once the truth was out, she honestly wasn't mad at both boys deceiving her since their lives depended on it and there were more pressing matters.
- The Voice: Caden and Dylan's handlers are only heard over their earpieces after their initial appearance onwards.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Caden and Dylan's handlers ghosted them the moment the two defected and the stalker was sent after them. It's unknown what happened to them but given the facility they reside in blew up, it's unlikely they survive.
