The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Special Edition #2675, 2019, Book 2 in multi-author continuity series, Out of print, available in digital
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I had an autographed print copy in my TBR, which means I picked this up at an RWA conference.
The Review: Reading the author's note in this book I learned this was Teri Wilson's first book writing in a multi-author continuity series, and I'm sad to say it showed. Wilson has written some fine category romances and this could have been one of them - but instead it languished in "OK but with pacing problems" territory for me. I still zipped through it in one sitting, but it wasn't a terribly memorable read for me, and trying to dredge up thoughts one day after finishing the last page is proving to be a challenge.
Amanda Sylvester grew up in small town Spring Forest, North Carolina and now runs the family restaurant. She has dreams of branching out into higher end catering for events like weddings but her parents have proven resistant to the idea, wanting the restaurant to remain the way her grandmother ran it. This is enough for anyone, but lately Amanda has gotten distracted by a handsome new man in town, Ryan Carter, who is now running the local newspaper. Ryan comes into the restaurant a lot for take-out and she soon learns he was once a hotshot reporter for The Washington Post and is a single father.
Ryan left his fast-paced life in D.C. after his wife died in a car accident. Since her death, their young son, Dillion, has stopped speaking. Now a single father needing to change his workaholic ways, Ryan relocates them to Spring Forest, but a tornado that ripped through town in the first book of the series has further rattled Dillion. Ryan is desperate to help his son and decides to take Amanda's advice - maybe visiting the local animal rescue to play with the animals will bring him out of his shell. Next thing he knows, he's adopting a dog and Amanda is teaching him in the ways of pet ownership.
The official back cover blurb says that Ryan proposes to Amanda, which doesn't happen. What does happen? Not much. The local animal rescue was severely damaged by the tornado, Amanda finds out the sisters who run the place don't have insurance, Amanda decides to host a fundraising barbeque, she helps Ryan and Dillion adopt a dog, Ryan and Amanda are attracted to each other. Really, that's about it until the final few chapters when Ryan's in-laws show up, decide to fight for custody of Dillion (a suit with no real teeth to it - but whatever...) and AMANDA proposes to Ryan, because having a fiancée will make Ryan look that much more stable. It's tacked on, rushed conflict for like 3 chapters to get our couple to say their I-love-yous and ride off into the sunset. The problem being I'm not sure they do love each other outside of Ryan being grateful to Amanda for coming up with the dog idea because it gets his son to talk again.
This story could work but the pacing is all off. The first 3/4s of it are tied up in small town shenanigans and continuity series stuff. In order for the romance to work I needed Amanda and Ryan to be in each others' pockets a lot more, and for the conflict in the final 3 chapters to happen a heck of lot sooner. There's no urgency here, which is a problem with category romance when you have a finite word count you're working with.
Is this a terrible read? No. It's just flat, and pretty boring. It's another in a long line of cutesy, non-descript small town romances. If you can't get enough of these and you also love cute animal companions in your romances? Sure. Otherwise, this one is strictly later, rinse, repeat.
Final Grade = C
1 comment:
You know, if Ryan had moved to small town USA *because* he was trying to fend off a custody suit, showing his commitment to his son by leaving a high powered career in favor of more time to parent, etc., that would have added the undercurrent of tension from the start.
Ah well. At least it was quite readable, it seems.
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