Agreed -- and in GGGB this is handled much differently. There is a ton of setup to get to a point where the MC will try to steal the best friend's boyfriend, so it feels more organic and believable. We see the MC and the boyfriend in numerous situations together where the tension builds up, and we get a lot of internal monologue over it. That doesn't happen in ORS. Which is fine, they don't have to be the same game. But it is a point of interest.
I can sort of buy the Lena routes. She's needy, messy, depressed and anxious and she's using these guys for sex. It kind of paints a dark picture of the Lena character though.
But the Ian/Cindy route in particular just falls completely flat for me. A big part of the issue is that Cindy has the personality of a shoe. We don't get any context for why Ian would suddenly fall in love with her. She's not funny, quirky, they don't have any kind of history together, or mutual interests. Her character is: she's blonde.
It's just not very plausible that Ian would want her so badly that he would toss ALL his other relationships -- both his romances and his friendships -- to get with her.
