The Particulars: Contemporary romance, St. Martin's Press Swerve, 2016, Digital only, Book 2 in More Than Friends duet
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: It's a long buried ARC that time forgot that I unearthed on my Kindle. My best guess? It was an impulse download from NetGalley because I got sucked in by the blurb. As one does.
The Review: I normally like to focus on my print TBR for the Challenge but for this month's New Year, Who Dis? theme I thought it would be good to unearth a random (ancient) ARC from my Kindle by an author I haven't read before. And since time was of the essence, I wanted something category length.
Marissa Clarke is not that far removed from college and is a burgeoning event planner. She's at her BFF's wedding and like a dope, she let one of their sorority sisters crash in her hotel room when she RSVP'ed at the last minute. Anyway, now Christa is hooking up with a former college "boyfriend" and has essentially kicked Marissa out of her own hotel room. Riding to her rescue is Scott Zimmerman (the blurb names him as Scott Parker but my ARC and the author's afterward say Zimmerman - so way to go St. Martin's copy editors...). Marissa and Scott were friends in college, or so she thought. He was a member of the basketball team, the same team her fiancé was the star player on. Turns out he was a player in more ways than one, cheating on her whenever he was "on the road" and dumping her mere hours before they were set to get married. Marissa was shattered and in the aftermath put some blame on Scott for not giving her a heads up.
Scott realizes he was a first class shit for not telling Marissa her fiancé was a scumbag, but it was complicated. Namely because him squealing would have fractured the team dynamic (not something to take lightly in college sports) and because he's always been more than half in love with her. Well now they're both at this wedding and he decides to shoot his shot. Helping him out in that department? Besides Christa's hormones? Mother nature. He offers her a place to stay (his cabin) after she gets kicked out of her hotel room and showing up shortly after they do? A snow storm. The kind that knocks out power and closes roads.
This starts out pretty great, the getting kicked out of your hotel room by a horndog "friend" is just the kind of thing that could happen when not-far-removed-from-college friends get together. Also the whole wedding hook-up thing is just a fact of life. Unfortunately the whole thing runs very hot and cold after that - namely the heroine. One minute she's prudish, the next she wants to climb the hero like a jungle gym. I'm talking practically salivating to the point of drooling. He keeps pumping the brakes because he wants "more" but eventually they succumb and the tissue-thin plot is propped up by a bunch of filler sex scenes. I'm talking a lot of sex. And it's only a 200 page book.
Once the roads are cleared the author then gets back to some actual conflict. Unfortunately that conflict is entirely Heroine Being Stubborn. Scott is definitely pushing for more and, understandably, Marissa's not ready. She already once twisted herself into a pretzel so her life revolved around a man, and that ended in a spectacular disaster. Nope, she's not doing it again. But here's the thing - is that really what she would be doing? Now that her friend and roommate is married, she can't afford the rent on her own in Portland, Oregon. She has an OK job, but her chances for promotion are stuck behind a boss who needs to leave first. The friend spiffs up her resume and sends it to two places in Bend, Oregon (where she, her new husband and Scott all live). Both jobs want her, pay more, and would be a promotion over what she's doing now. But somehow she sees that as "I'm not uprooting my life for Scott who may break my heart even though I'm crazy about him."
Child, please.
Your BFF lives in town. You've got two job offers that would be a major step up in responsibility, as well as financially. So bloody what if it doesn't work out with Scott?! The author tries to prop this up a bit more by giving Marissa working class parents who have always struggled to get by but that doesn't negate the fact that both jobs in Bend want her, pay more, and would be promotions. Take a flier girl - there's literally nothing keeping you in Portland.
Eventually she comes around but she still wants to pump the brakes with Scott. Yes, they had crazy, wild monkey sex but she wants to get her own place and to actually "date" him. He, of course, gets a little butthurt. While she is stubborn for the sake of being stubborn, he is a railroading hero (my least favorite kind of hero...). Frankly I was annoyed with both of them in equal measure before we even got to the ending.
If you're looking for a snowed in trope with a lot of sex, look no further. This book has both. But I'm well into my Tired Old Sea Hag Era of Romance Reading, and frankly that's just not enough for me anymore.
Final Grade = C
2 comments:
UGH. I hate stories that use hormones like this. The back and forth gets so annoying, especially if the MCs are immature and wishy washy. But I do love forced proximity and a snow storm is perfect for getting to know you!
Ooh, Wendy, I hear ya. Nothing kills a book faster for me than fake conflict and filler sex scenes. I get pickier about that stuff as I get older, but I also respect it more when an author gets it right.
I was a little bit luckier than you in my TBR Challenge (although both the leads were a bit on the frustratingly stubborn side). I decided for the challenge I was going to read an author new to me and something out of my comfort zone. I picked HERE FOR THE RIGHT REASONS by Jodi McAllister. The setting is on a Bachelor-style reality show during the height of quarantine conditions during the pandemic. Yikes, not my usual thing, but I’m really glad I read it.
Cece is a contestant on “Marry Me Juliet.” She bombs badly at the start of filming the show, gets eliminated quickly, but due to quarantine restrictions can’t leave the filming property. She is desperate to make the most of this opportunity. She’s not here for love, she’s in dire financial straits with no real safety net. Dylan (the Romeo aka Bachelor) is a nice guy so they cook up a plan that she will be his “best friend” and sounding board as he makes decisions about who to eliminate from the show. He’s not really there for love either, he wants to promote a charity close to her heart and break boundaries as the first nonwhite “Romeo.” Well, you can see where this is going.
I do feel like the lather, rinse, repeat nature of Cece’s and Dylan’s conflict got a tiny bit tiresome. They definitely both have a bit of a martyr streak. But! I really liked how the world building was set up. The author is an academic who studies romance and clearly has thought about The Bachelor and etc deeply. There are lots of interesting side characters that are setup for the rest of the trilogy. Very few characters are all bad or all good. I also really appreciate that Cece had a pretty rough background as a foster child, but I didn’t feel emotionally manipulated by her backstory. Sometimes I feel like authors pile on the “Cinderella-ness” of it all a bit too thick. Also it was just fun to read something in contemporary Australia that was not a Harlequin (as much as I love them ;-))
Post a Comment