The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

Solène Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles, is reluctant to take her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favorite boy band. But since her divorce, she’s more eager than ever to be close to Isabelle. The last thing Solène expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. But Hayes Campbell is clever, winning, confident, and posh, and the attraction is immediate.

That he is all of twenty years old further complicates things. What begins as a series of clandestine trysts quickly evolves into a passionate and genuine relationship. It is a journey that spans continents as Solène and Hayes navigate each other’s worlds: from stadium tours to international art fairs to secluded hideaways in Paris and Miami.

For Solène, it is a reclaiming of self, as well as a rediscovery of happiness and love. When Solène and Hayes’ romance becomes a viral sensation, and both she and her daughter become the target of rabid fans and an insatiable media, Solène must face how her romantic life has impacted the lives of those she cares about most.

Thanks for reading Words Like Silver! Subscribe for free to support my work.

Subscribe Now

placeholder

Oh, boy. I decided to read The Idea of You based on the recent release of the movie. (Anne Hathaway can do no wrong.) Plus, lately I've been craving some major escapism—rom-coms, weird microhistories, and the like. The book took me maybe a few hours to read at most. I tend to speed through romances pretty quickly, and I scrolled past pages as I cooked my dinner.

The book focuses on a 39-year-old mother, Solène, roped into taking her 12-year-old daughter and her friends to see a boy band in Vegas after her ex-husband bails. (Many will point out the book mirrors One Direction fanfiction, and that Hayes seems to be a stand-in for Harry Styles.) After hitting it off at a meet-and-greet, Hayes begins to pursue Solène. Despite their attraction and chemistry, factors like their age gap, Solène's responsibility to her daughter, and intense paparazzi pressure threaten to "tear them apart." (Had to throw in a book jacket-copy style phrase in there, of course.)

There was a lot I really liked about The Idea of You.

WRITING & FEEL

Within the first chapter, I noticed the writing style. Unless it's really poetic or literary, this is generally something that will yank me out of the book and keep me from connecting with it. I noticed immediately that the writing was oddly formal. Grammatically correct, sure, but often phrases were organized in a way that felt a little clunky or overly formal. On that note, I always notice when writers don't use contractions, because I believe most people do naturally use contractions in their self-commentary or narration. To me, it feels odd when they don't, unless it's a literal classic work of literature.

While I noticed this quirk and it definitely grated at me during parts of the book, the voice ultimately made sense for Solène's character, so it was ultimately fine. It was just an interesting choice to me.

CHARACTERS

I've realized that I love reading about passionate characters (probably because I'm passionate myself.) When someone's really into one hobby or interest, it reverberates throughout their life, and it was so refreshing to see Solène's love for art affect all aspects of her narration. She was curious and at times a little pretentious, but not in an irritating way. Rather, she was just such an expert on her work and it also emotionally overwhelmed her at times—total awe. The times when Hayes connected with her about her art were the most emotionally compelling to me, whereas at other times I felt like their relationship was straight lust and forbidden fascination. While concerned with appearances and long-term effects, I also didn't always find her to be very logical, but I'll get to that in a second.

Hayes was interesting to me, although I did feel like Solène's narration sometimes stripped him of the ability to be three-dimensional, a quality ironic considering how much of the story hinges on romanticizing the idea of someone versus the person himself. Solène could get so swept away by being attended to in a way—this guy's amazing, he's perfect, so attractive, wow—that I sometimes felt like their relationship was about how he made her feel rather than him as a person. In fairness, that's sort of what the book functions for—an escapist daydream of sorts that also interrogates questions of ageism and desirability, fairness, etc,. While I was rooting for them, I actually caught myself thinking frequently that Hayes maybe did deserve someone who saw him beyond what he could do for them—which is perhaps unfair, but still detracted some from the love story.

RELATIONSHIP & CHEMISTRY

Nowadays in book reviews, you'll often see readers and commenters asking how much "spice" or sexual content a book has. The answer for The Idea of You? A lot, actually. A lot of the scenes of Hayes and Solène together were sexual, which will likely appease the masses.

I did think the book gave us a lot of room and occasions in which to see Solène and Hayes putting in the time and effort to connect meaningfully. Chapters followed them to Paris, Japan, Aspen, the works, and I loved the global component of the book. (I always do—it's why I recently went through a major Crazy Rich Asians phase and devoured the series.)

That being said, my main flaw with the book—besides the ending—was what I stated above from Hayes. The book is a portrait of a relationship, but I didn't feel like Solène saw Hayes in all his complexity; he could feel a little underdeveloped.

PLOT & THEME

As a romance, the plot of course centers on the obstacles of the couple getting together and then what may or may not pull them apart in the end.

Solène's concerns about being with Hayes felt very realistic, and constantly colored their interactions in a way I appreciated. There was simply so much for her to consider in engaging in such a high-profile age gap romance.

I've never actually read an age-gap romance to my recollection, largely because the idea of it myself gives me the ick (some of my friends have a lot of joy dating older people, but it's just never really appealed to me) but I thought The Idea of You was constructed in a considerate way.

The age-gap allowed certain questions to bubble up that will likely appeal to older women reading the book—and frankly, has me reflecting on a lot of the "time disappearing" panic I often feel in my twenties. I often talk to friends about my concern that I haven't had "idiot years" the way you often hear about in your early years; I worry that I'm too responsible and that I might be wasting my years in which the behavior doesn't really carry the same consequences. That same awareness weighed on Solène from the other side. Her flings do carry more consequence. And on that note, there's the frustrating double standard of it all. Men, societally, are allowed to be stupider for longer (sorry, but true) and there's much less of a stigma for an older man dating a younger woman.

I thought these themes were handled beautifully, especially in regards to Solène discussing artists she worked with who were focused on women's position. One of her artists was working on an invisibility piece about the ways in which small favors—opening the door, polite questions, warmth—disappeared for women when they crossed some threshold of youth.

The ending itself spoiled some of the thoughtfulness of this topic for me because I felt like Solène progressed so much in how she viewed herself and her agency while aging, only to make some choices that regressed.

PACING

While I loved the formula of Hayes and Solène having secret trysts in villas in the French Riviera and Manhattan hotels, it did start to drag some. The writing style was really interesting in this way. Often, broader overview-style musings were peppered in the broader events that unfolded in various chapters.

Ex: there'd be five pages of Hayes and Solène arguing over a very specific facet of their relationship and then there'd be a small snippet as a transition paragraph in which Solène reflects on how this moment had a much broader implication.

I tend to love this type of "bookmarked" writing if done well, and I enjoyed the way it unfolded in the book considering that more formal distance of the voice.

The overall scene structures got repetitive for me, so I did wish some for more variety.

THE ENDING

Here's where the book loses me: its ending. For clarity, I enjoyed the book and respect the risks that Robinne Lee took, but I do genuinely feel as though she backed herself into a corner narratively and didn't know where else to go.

I haven't had a book ending make me this mad in (probably) years. I wished I had a physical copy so that I could throw it across the room. It felt gratuitous for shock value, and extremely abrupt. Frankly disrespectful to the characterization established thus far.

Smaller characters like Lulit and Oliver had so much promise in adding tension, and I wanted more from those subplots. I was expecting a lot more from certain other relationships in the book too (like the ex-husband's disapproval of Hayes) because of the thematic implications of the double standard.

I thought the ending overall could have benefited from a lot more execution, because whatever choice Hayes and Solène made would have been justified—but could we at least have gotten more than a page of aftermath? Here's plot-wise where some logic fell apart for me and I thought the book really missed the mark. Keeping spoiler-free of course, but would love to discuss with anyone who's also read it!

OVERALL

Overall, I enjoyed The Idea of You and it was an excellent way to spend an evening. Should I stay in tonight, I'll definitely pour a glass of sauvignon blanc and curl up to watch the movie.

It's definitely Wattpad-esque in plot. I thought Hayes deserved more development in order for me to fully root for them; sometimes the most interesting parts of his character were throwaway lines that could have made their conflict so much juicier. Solène had her flaws but also had a clear, distinctive zest for art that made me love to read about her passions. The themes of femininity, desire, aging, etc,. were handled in a way that seemed considerate.

The writing style will either blend in for you or annoy you. (I recommend reading a sample chapter and seeing if it's for you, as it's clear from the get-go.) While scenes could get repetitive, I'm a sucker for any book that travels the globe and the boy-band angle is so much fun.

The ending ruined so much of the book for me—abrupt and strange—that it's lucky I was loving what I'd been reading or else this could have very easily been a straight-up negative review. Instead, it's one of those books I'll love to talk about: the author certainly made some choices. Now do you think they worked?

If you've read it or plan to read, let me know! I'd love to book club about some of the more specific aspects of the book.