Genre: Romance

You, with a View by Jessica Joyce | Book Review

Posted July 14, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 3 Comments

You, With a View by Jessica Joyce
Published by Berkley on July 11, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Two high school enemies must reunite for a road trip inspired by their grandparents’ broken engagement in this electric debut romance.

Noelle Shepherd is unemployed, living with her parents, and grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother when she discovers decades-old photos of Gram and a smitten man, tucked alongside a love letter. She creates a TikTok to search for the mystery man, which goes viral, and she’s shocked when his grandson responds—a man who happens to be her high school nemesis, Theo Spencer.

Noelle refuses to let Theo’s annoying accomplishments in adulthood—or his sexy smirk—stand in the way of meeting his grandfather and unlocking the secrets he knew about her gram as a young woman. When she learns that their plans to elope were thwarted, Noelle decides to take the honeymoon road trip they planned but never got to carry out. There’s a catch, though: Paul, Theo’s grandfather, asks to come with her, and he insists that Theo join them.

It’ll be a miracle if they make it through the trip without Noelle throwing Theo out of the moving car—or the bed they end up sharing. As the miles tick by, the tension simmers hotter between them…until she discovers that Theo’s hiding a secret that could cause their tenuous relationship to end before it can restart.

I’ve been very excited for Jessica Joyce’s debut ever since I found her on Twitter and thought she was hilarious. Seriously, she is so much fun to follow. And I have her to thank for my love of Lisa Kleypas, as she forced me to read the Ravenels and then I binged nearly everything Lisa wrote right after. I almost didn’t even write this review because I like the author so much and would never want to hurt feelings, but I just didn’t enjoy this book. There are parts of it I loved, but I came away from it all with a general sense of not liking it. This makes me so sad. But, since I received this for review I feel I need to share my thoughts.

What I loved:
– Grandpa Paul. I love him so, so much. He completely stole my heart and I read this book for him. I miss my grandpa a lot, so I kind of adopted this one as my own. I think he is the sweetest, most adorable, most heartwarming character I’ve ever read about.
– I loved the relationship between Grandpa Paul and Theo. So, so sweet.
– I loved the story of Grandpa Paul and Kat, Noelle’s grandmother. I loved reading about their romance and the times they shared together. The memories warmed my heart. I loved the idea of incorporating their story into this book, and centering a road trip around the honeymoon Kat and Paul planned to go on together. I’m sad they never got to, and instead went their separate ways.
– I loved the idea of Noelle and Theo coming together to take Grandpa Paul on this trip and then falling in love along the way. I loved the idea of the grandkids ending up together through learning about their grandparents. What a special, magical idea!
– I loved all the photography love, and how the author was able to put into words how much an artist falls in love with their craft.
– I loved the found family aspects of this book, and the way that Grandpa Paul essentially adopted Noelle. He stayed strong for her through her mourning, even though I’m sure it hurt him to know Kat was gone, too. It made me teary to think of him embracing Noelle even though she was born because his first love married someone else. The fact that he could process all of this and come out with only smiles and love made me love him even more.

What I didn’t love:
– Ok, why is there a cell phone camera on the cover? This book is about documenting a special trip through photos and videos, and includes one professional photographer and one who hopes to become one. Why the heck is an iPhone on the cover? It should be one of the professional cameras they take on the trip!
– I didn’t like that the main trope in this is enemies to lovers. When you’re dealing with loss and grief, I don’t also want to deal with the opposition that comes with this trope. There’s a lot of bickering, which we all know gets on my nerves quickly. Friends to lovers or second chance would have been so much better. Or even just let Noelle and Theo meet up for the first time and discover that they’re connected by their grandparents. Even meeting on an online dating site would have been better than this.
– I can’t say that I really liked Noelle or Theo, both individually and together. Even though they’re nearly 30 years old, they act like teenagers with not a lot of depth to them.
– Noelle and Theo didn’t really have the deep, emotional connection that I wanted. There’s not much development of their relationship in the present day. They knew and hated each other ten years ago. Why is that enough of a foundation to build a relationship on when so much has changed since then? There was no build-up or excitement. How do we go from bickering like teenagers to falling in love? It was all physical for them. They’d rather use their stolen moments while Paul is sleeping to be physically intimate than emotionally intimate, and it didn’t work for me. This trip is emotional for Noelle. She’s going through a lot. She’s vulnerable, and I wanted them to spend more time talking than having sex. To me it felt like Noelle was more interested in feeling good in the moment than in developing real feelings for Theo, and is seemed like Theo wanted to make her feel good physically because he didn’t want to take the time to help her process her grief. I know people grieve and fall in love differently, but this isn’t romance to me. I was never swooning or swept off my feet.
– Honestly, I would have preferred to read about Paul’s story with Kat through his own storytelling and flashbacks (or just take me there in real time) than to see it as a backdrop to Noelle’s and Theo’s story. When you compare the two, his story is just so much better and feels more real to me than theirs feels.
– Maybe it’s the travel bug in me, but I wanted more road trip details. I wanted more location descriptions, more info on the things they saw and did, etc. I wanted to be immersed in the settings.
– There actually isn’t much of a plot. We’ve got letters between Paul and Kathleen and we’ve got sex scenes. There’s nothing to really hold on to when the book is over.

So there you have it. I loved the idea of this story, but the execution just didn’t work for me in the end. Grandpa Paul saved everything and kept me reading because his character was a balm for my heart that I didn’t know I needed. I’ll probably always remember him. The rest of this book, not so much.

Ciao For Now by Kate Bromley | Book Review

Posted June 8, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 1 Comment

Ciao for Now by Kate Bromley
Published by Graydon House on June 6, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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When an American interning at a fashion house in Rome butts heads with her professor's surly son, sparks fly!

With her thirties rapidly approaching and a mountain of student debt looming over her, Violet Luciano’s dream of finishing design school and working in fashion has cost her everything. So when she lands an internship at an up-and-coming fashion brand in Rome, she brings her A game to Italy. With nothing left to lose, Violet plans to win the competition among the interns for the ultimate prize—a job at a New York label.

But when a coffee run goes wrong and Violet accidentally destroys a stranger’s laptop, all of the apology Americanos in the world won’t help her. Because it turns out that the man from the café is Matteo, her professor’s eternally grumpy son, who thinks she’s a clumsy American…and maybe a stalker. Their animosity (and undeniable chemistry) grows as together they’re forced to face a summer of chic parties, adventures through Rome and sharing a home…with the person they can’t stand the most.

The more time she spends with him, the more distracted she finds herself. With her chance to win the competition slipping out of her grasp, Violet has to decide whether to say ciao to Matteo—or ciao to her dreams.

I loooooove books set in Italy, so when I saw the title of Ciao for Now my eyebrows immediately shot up and I was interested. I loved the idea of a fashion intern falling for her boss’s grumpy son, and I also really liked the idea of an almost-30-year-old college student. Most college romances involve characters in their early twenties (or maybe 18/19), so I was excited to meet Violet. Ciao for Now also has multiple tropes that I love: grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, and a mild enemies to lovers (just how I like it). While there were a few things that prevented this book from being a brand new favorite of mine, I did enjoy many parts of it and ultimately enjoyed my reading experience. I had so much fun walking the streets of Rome and riding the waves in Capri.

1. Right off the bat, I knew I was going to simply adore Violet’s best friend, Marco. He is a shining, shimmering sunbeam and I could not get enough of him. He’s one of the three interns in this design competition, and I would have been happy if there was no romance at all and the story just focused on him and his friendship with Violet. His snark and humor and personality shot off the page and into my heart, and he was definitely the most dynamic and interesting person in this book. I need a best friend named Marco.

2. Marco and Violet arrive in Rome together and almost immediately Matt enters the scene with one of the cutest and most embarrassing meet-cutes I’ve read. I seriously had so much second-hand embarrassment for Violet, who stumbles and ultimately destroys Matt’s laptop in a cafe. They sit and chat for a while, and the banter was off the charts. My grin was as huge as Marco’s as I read the interactions between Violet and Matt. It was so electric and exciting. Shortly after this unfortunate (yet delightful) encounter, we discover that Matt is the son of Violet’s boss and they will be living in the same house for the entirety of Violet’s one-month stay in Italy. Neither one of them is very happy about it.

3. After the initial meet-cute, though, Violet’s and Matt’s chemistry fizzled and I never got fully back on board with the two of them. What started out as exciting and sexy kind of spiraled down into… well, not much of anything. They really just don’t like each other and I never understood why. Did they not like each other just so the book could be marketed as the ever popular enemies-to-lovers trope? I mean yes, Violet accidentally destroyed his laptop and he lost a lot of his work (he’s a writer for a popular sexy space TV show) but he never gets mad at her for it. He’s actually way nicer than anyone would expect. Because he was so nice, Violet has no reason to hate him. She caused all the problems and he was nice about it. lol. I actually had no idea this was supposed to be enemies-to-lovers. I thought they left the cafe happy to have met, and I assumed they would be happy to run into each other again. This mutual hatred came out of nowhere for me.

4. While Violet and Matt do have some great moments together and some really fun banter, I didn’t feel like the romance was strong enough. These two also seem much younger than the 29 (Violet) and 32 (Matt), neither one of them acted mature enough to convince me they were the ages they were supposed to be. Violet in particular grated on my nerves. Yes, she’s going through a growing phase in her life but she just came off as selfish and immature. We learn about Matt’s past, which I think was supposed to add depth to his character and explain why he’s so surly, but I didn’t buy it. I think their lack of maturity made the inevitable third-act break-up much more dramatic than it needed to be.

5. BUT. I loved the friendships in this book, and that’s what propelled my reading forward. I’ve already mentioned Marco, but there’s also Holly, the third intern. I really liked her, and she gets a cute little side romance that I found myself wishing was the main romance because she is so likeable and the guy is pretty swoony. Violet also becomes close friends with Mina, an employee at the design firm. Mina introduces her to a group of other women who work in fashion, and they have the coolest support system and friendship. Then there’s the woman who own the fabric shop down the street, who has so much wisdom and gives great advice. And Violet’s boss was amazing! She’s like the opposite of Miranda Priestly, with her brightly colored flowing dresses, her bubbly enthusiasm, and her propensity to rain showers of compliments and affection down on everyone around her. Ciao for Now has the strongest cast of secondary characters ever–possibly the strongest cast I’ve ever read about.

6. Italy delivered for me. I loved when the characters were sightseeing, and found it to be so much more entertaining than all the fashion talk. Violet, Marco, and Holly take the city by storm for an assignment and visit so many touristy spots in Rome that I’ve been to, so I could picture everything in my mind so perfectly. Violet and Matt go on a weekend trip to Capri and stay in what sounds like the most magical oceanfront hotel in existence. I loved the descriptions of all the scenery and the things they did. The characters spend time walking the streets and sitting on the balcony working in the evenings. I loved these parts of the story the most.

So all in all, I enjoyed Ciao for Now! I really think my only problem with it was that I didn’t like the two main characters, so the romance didn’t work for me. Sometimes I skimmed their long discussions because I didn’t care about them. But I loved the secondary characters so much that I felt so many happy feelings while reading. Kate Bromley did such a great job with the cast of characters and their friendships and banter and love for one another, and she did such an amazing job writing about Italy that I didn’t even care that the main characters and their journey to find love didn’t work for me. And honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before. So I’m surprised and happy to say I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a kind of Devil Wears Prada-esque fashion story set in Italy, with a slew of characters to fall in love with.

My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh | Book Review

Posted March 9, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh
Series: Holidays With Hart #1
Published by Sweethaven Press on February 8, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 373
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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A chance meeting. A hunky hockey player. A fake romance.
Hardly an ordinary day in the life of Poppy Hart.

My days usually consist of agonizing over my failing restaurant, worrying about my mountain of debt and nursing my broken heart.

Everything changes when I bump into a man in the coffee shop and claim him as my new boyfriend. To my absolute horror, he turns out to be hockey’s most renowned bad boy, Dallas Burke. To my absolute delight, he goes along with my story.

When his no-nonsense manager and meddling grandmother jump in the picture, they see a win-win solution for my failing restaurant and Dallas’s less-than-stellar reputation.

A full-fledged fake romance complete with contract negotiations, pretend dates and phony PDA.

But as I get to know the real Dallas Burke, who is not the man the press says he is, it becomes clear that if this isn’t real. . . someone better tell it to my heart.

My Phony Valentine is my first book by Courtney Walsh, but it definitely will not be my last! I absolutely loved this story! If you’re in the mood for a sweet, romantic, fauxmance between a chef and a bad boy hockey player looking to spruce up his image, look no further! Poppy and Dallas are just the two love birds you need. They have the cutest, cringiest meet-cute ever in a coffee shop, where Poppy grabs onto the first guy she sees and claims him as her boyfriend when the local mean girl decides to rewind all the way back to high school. Dallas plays along, and pretty soon they strike up a deal to fake a romance. Poppy could use a little publicity for her ailing restaurant, and Dallas could use some good news associated with his name for once. It’s the perfect plan, and the small town of Loveland is just the place to get the rumors flying. Throw in a meddling grandmother and a loveable, yet pushy publicist and pretty soon Poppy and Dallas are gracing the front pages of magazines and online gossip columns, and catching some real feelings along the way.

I really loved reading about Poppy and Dallas! They’re both very sweet, wholesome cinnamon rolls who have some trauma in their pasts that give them depth and a reason to root for their happiness. I loved the small town vibes and Poppy’s cute restaurant. I loved Dallas’s Gram, who Poppy cooks for as she recovers from hip replacement surgery. She is spunky and caring. I loved going to hockey games and meeting Dallas’s teammates and their wives. What I loved most of all, though, is the conversations Dallas and Poppy have in the kitchen while she cooks and he watches (and then insists on cleaning up after). I enjoyed their time watching movies and accidentally falling asleep on the couch together. This is a closed-door romance, and I am finding myself loving these more and more as I continually find such lovely ones. There are some pretty amazing, toe-curling kissing scenes, which gave me all the swoons without the steam. And sometimes that’s exactly what I want! There’s also no strong language, another win for me.

All in all, My Phony Valentine was a delight! I loved Poppy’s sisters, and I have a feeling they will each be getting a book in this series in the future. Although. I really hope some of Dallas’s teammates get books as well. I loved them. If you loved The Cheat Sheet, you’ll love this too! Can’t wait for more Courtney Walsh!

Snug in Iceland by Victoria Walker | Book Review

Posted February 23, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 7 Comments

Snug in Iceland by Victoria Walker
Series: Icelandic Romance #1
Published by Ever After Books on October 1, 2021
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 234
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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Rachel Richards is stuck in a rut. Her boyfriend Adam barely notices her most of the time and her life in London isn’t as exciting as it should be. When the company she works for, Snug, asks her to oversee the opening of a new store in Iceland, she jumps at the chance for a change of scenery. Exploring Reykjavik with the help of Icelandic tour guide Jonas, Rachel discovers that life is out there waiting to be lived. As she falls in love with Iceland, she begins to see what is important to her and wonders whether the life she left behind is what she wants after all…

Look at that cover. Iceland! Romance! Snug in Iceland had all the makings of a story made for me. Well… buckle up, friends, because I have things to say. And it’s going to be a big mash of words because my head is all over the place. There’s no organization to this review, and I might repeat myself. There also might be some spoilers. A book that does this to me is not worth it, trust me.

Things I Liked:

The cover.
The setting. In theory (more on this later).

Things I Didn’t Like:

The heroine, Rachel. I couldn’t stand her. She’s a major, major doormat. Her boyfriend walks all over her and she absolutely lets him. She has no spine whatsoever. She’s boring, and she’s extremely bland. There’s absolutely no substance to her.
I have no clue what Jonas is like. He seems nice, but there’s nothing to him. He’s a fuzzy blur against a snowy background. That’s it for me.
The romance between Rachel and Jonas was never developed to a satisfying place. Rachel should have broken up with her boyfriend, Adam, way earlier, because I just kept getting annoyed at the double standard. She suspects Adam of cheating on her while she’s been emotionally cheating on him and even kissed Jonas. But Adam is the only one who is doing something wrong, even though she’s stringing him along while trying to decide if she should dump him. Furthermore, I highly doubt she would have even dumped him if a better option hadn’t come along for her to switch over to, and that made me lose whatever respect I had for her (if any). It’s ok to be alone if you’re unhappy with your partner. You’ll be ok not in a relationship. The back and forth of “oh, but Adam but also Jonas but oh no, Adam and I have been together for so long, but wow Jonas is so hot” got very old.
I can probably now write on my resume that I am qualified to open a retail store on my own. There was page after page after page of what was essentially a how-to manual for working retail and managing a new store opening. I was amazingly bored with it all. Why the floors must be restored instead of replaced, how to stock a stock room, how to interview creators, how much stock to order, how to set up shelving, the scientific reasons for why a cash register should be placed here instead of there, which throw pillows should be seen through the window from the outside, money and expenditures, bottom lines, why companies are acquired by other companies, and on and on. There was more time spent on work related conversations and explanations that on anything any reader would actually want to read about, such as romance, scenery, feelings, and character development. And oh my gosh, it took forever for us to learn how to unlock the tricky front door of this store. Why do I need to know the intricacies of unlocking a door?!
I thought the title “Snug in Iceland” sounded so cute and cozy! I was looking for a snuggly read with cuddling by the fire and snowy landscapes. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that “Snug” is the name of this retail store and there’s nothing snuggly about it. It’s like naming a book “Home Goods in Canada”.
This book takes place in Iceland. I should feel like I’m in Iceland! There was so much that could have been done with this stunning setting. The heroine rides long distances in a car, with no descriptions of what she’s seeing. She goes sightseeing, but no visuals are provided about what anything looks like. When Rachel finally sees the Northern Lights, we get a sentence or two about the green ribbon across the sky. That was IT, after the entire book built up hope that she would see them before she left. There was absolutely no creative writing whatsoever.
There were no descriptions of anything. I have no idea what Rachel or Jonas look like except that they’re hot. A knitted hat got more description than anything else.
SO basically, there was no depth.
The writing is just not good at all. The actual sentences and word choices were not good. The dialogue was flat, cliched, and emotionless. We’ve established that the descriptions were non-existent. There was also no character development, no sense of who anyone was or what their personalities were like, and the plot was extremely empty. The same things keep happening and he same things keep being said.
Other reviewers have indicated that the author seems to have done no research on Iceland apart from going there on vacation. I can’t speak to the validity of that, but I did feel that more could have been done to capture the culture and beauty of Iceland. I felt like I was reading a book set in London, and London is fine. Bu London is not Iceland.
The ending is very rushed and unsatisfying. Obstacles that had been there, preventing Jonas and Rachel from being together, simply melt away as soon as a little thought is put into their situation. It was a simple, basic, very frustrating ending. But at the same time, I was so glad it was over.

Well, there you have it. There’s a lot more I can say, but I’m tired of thinking about this book. I would not recommend Snug in Iceland, and I’m interested in finding another book set in Iceland that will do for me what I wish this one had. Any recommendations for me?

How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss by Jenny Proctor | Book Review

Posted February 2, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 3 Comments

How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss by Jenny Proctor
Series: Hawthorne Brothers #2
Also in this series: How to Kiss You Best Friend
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 337
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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Perry Hawthorne is my boss. Only my boss. And I do NOT have a crush.

When one of THE Hawthorne brothers—known by their chiseled jawlines and their family-run farm and event center—hires me to be his virtual assistant, I do everything I can to keep him firmly in the work zone.

His grumpy demeanor helps.

His smoking hot profile picture does not.

But even if I do have a crush (a very tiny one), I can’t catch real feelings for a million different reasons.

Besides the whole business part of our relationship, I’m a single mom. I have to think about what’s best for my son, Jack. And my grumpy, divorced, humorless boss isn’t exactly giving me “ready to be a stepdad” vibes.

When Perry upgrades me from virtual to in-person assistant, I wonder if I’ve gotten him all wrong. He’s actually pretty great with Jack. And with me? Let’s just say the chemistry crackling between us might vaporize all my reasons for keeping my distance.

Trouble is, after his messy divorce, I’m not sure Perry’s ready to bet on a new relationship. But it isn’t just my heart that’s on the line. It’s Jack’s, too. And after everything we went through before my husband died, I’m not sure that’s a gamble I’m ready to take, no matter how desperate Jack is for a daddy.

How to Kiss Your Best Friend is a sweet romantic comedy with all the sizzling kisses you want in a closed-door romance but no explicit scenes.

Ok. Have you ever REALLY wanted to love a book and it just didn’t happen? I cannot tell you how much I wanted to love How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss. After reading and not loving the first book in this series, How to Kiss Your Best Friend, a couple weeks ago enough groundwork had been laid that I really hoped that this second book would be better for me because there’s just something about these Hawthorne brothers and their family farm. Well, it was actually worse instead. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Just like with How to Kiss Your Best Friend, I loved the setting. And we get to see even more of it in How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss, which means I love it even more! It’s now Fall in Silver Creek, and the Stonebrooke Farm is gearing up for their annual festival. There’s changing leaves, fall decorations, beautiful apple orchards, lots of apple eating, cuddly baby goats, and a troublesome pig. I loved the descriptions of the farm. I felt cozy reading them.

2. But now we get to the hard part. Just like I didn’t like Kate in How to Kiss Your Best Friend, I didn’t like Lila in this book. Again, Lila is so shallow. In the beginning, all readers hear about is how hot/sexy/brother of a hot, sexy celebrity Perry is. She likes his height, his beard, his face, his flannel, his voice, etc. He’s talking about how sweet she is, how smart she is, how her help has done wonders for his business, and yes, the fact that she’s also hot. But at least he mentions more than her looks. Lila takes forever to care about anything but his looks, and has a crush on him as soon as she finds out she’s his virtual assistant. Who cares about his personality, he looks hot in a picture online so clearly it’s time to start figuring out if she’s mourned her dead husband for long enough. I just wanted more substance from her. More depth. I’d like to know she cares more about who he is than what he looks like, but for a very long time that doesn’t seem to be the case. Lila acts like a silly schoolgirl, mooning over and picking apart every interaction she has with him. I also didn’t really like Lila’s son, Jack. He’s precocious and says some cute things, but his personality was a bit too cheesy for me overall.

3. Perry was a pretty flat character, which I wasn’t expecting because of the glimpses of his backstoryI sawi n the first book. He’s supposed to be a grump, but he’s not. lol. I was looking for a super grumpy, hard to like kind of guy who takes time to soften as he learns to trust again. His grump-factor is about equal to “I got 6 hours of sleep instead of 8”. He was grouchy sometimes, but he didn’t have the grump persona so he just came off as occasionally rude. Lila’s curves cure the grumpies for him very quickly, and then he’s a teddy bear. There wasn’t much else to him.

4. Usually with grumpy/sunshine combos in romance, there’s a slow burn that’s so deliciously satisfying. I love watching a grump warm up, but the romance in this goes from 0 to 100 in a heartbeat (much like Kate’s feelings over Brody in the first book). I didn’t even believe this romance. Perry went through a horribly bitter divorce and Lila was in an emotionally abusive marriage that she was days away from ending before her husband was killed in a military training exercise. Lila also has a child. These two people have obstacles and things to work through, but everything becomes so easy for them so quickly. There’s no angst, only instalove. Perry is trying to figure out how to be Jack’s dad after two brief interactions with him. You don’t go from “hey, look at this cute little boy glad he’s not mine” to “hey, I’m this little boy’s instant daddy look how much I love him” in such a short amount of time. Oh, and there’s an ultimatum given very prematurely by one of these characters that rubbed me the wrong way. These two get way ahead of themselves, and I kept rolling my eyes at how unrealistic it was. I’m all for the super cheesy Hallmark, rainbows and sunshine romance but this was too much even for me.

5. Similarly to how I felt with the first book, there’s a lot of repetition in this one. I skimmed a lot during the second half, just to get through it and I feel like I didn’t miss anything. Perry is hot. Lila is hot. Both of them run through exhausting monologues about the same relationship concerns over and over again. And, like the first book, they each have a running list of “what if” questions going through their minds all the time (and we have to read them all the time). And then they hash and re-hash these concerns and questions in their own minds, with each other, and with everyone they know. Multiple times. How is every main character in this series so tied up in knots all the time? It’s exhausting. I understand the reluctance and the worry that comes with a new relationship like this, but their actions do not mesh with their extreme anxiety so why did I have to keep reading the same things about it?

6. Perry and Lila have to do a little bit of a fake dating thing for his overnight high school reunion trip, and I liked parts of that. They have some pillow talk conversations that I enjoyed reading. During those couple chapters I thought maybe the book was turning around for me and that I was getting some real depth. But again, everything happened so fast. It went from fake to real in the blink of an eye. So fast that it didn’t even feel romantic. Oh, and there’s a scene during this part of the story with Perry’s ex-wife, who was so mean that I was actually real life mad about it. And the fact that this issue was “resolved” only because Perry had to go to his ex, a grown woman, and force her to apologize for what she said annoyed me. An apology under duress is not sincere at all, and everyone involved seemed satisfied with it. This isn’t elementary school.

7. I liked the apple puns at first and thought they were a cute flirtation device, but then they got old once the same ones started being reused.

8. I still love the rest of the Hawthorne family. I mean, besides the nauseatingly obvious hints from mama Hawthorne that she wants Perry and Lila to get together (because the family instaloves her too), I still like these people! And seriously, she about as subtle as a freight train. How can I be so torn?? Lennox’s book is next, followed by Flint’s (I’m assuming). And I still really like both these guys. Part of me doesn’t want to continue the series because I feel like plot devices and character traits keep being reused, but a part of me does want to continue because the guys are so great. I just wish these books got better heroines who weren’t so one-dimensional and shallow.

All in all, this book was a disappointment for me. I do think I’ll be continuing with the series, though, since it’s part of Kindle Unlimited. If I had to pay for them individually in order to continue reading, I wouldn’t. I do love those Hawthorne brothers, and there’s a part of me that wants to see how things go for them.