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jlaz's review
2.0
**I received this for free from NetGalley**
This is Book 4 in the series. I thought that since it was a short story, I could get away with reading it without reading the previous books. That was not the case. I was so confused! The characters didn't get adequate explanation, so I had to piece together who was who in relation to the other characters as well. I know it's a short, so the author didn't want to spend time explaining the characters, but in other shorts that I have read the authors have do so successfully. One other aspect that I did not like was the formatting switching back and forth so often. First it was formatted as an e-mail, then a phone call, a message board, typical paragraph form, text message. In my opinion it was too much. Pick one or two and stick with it. If you want to read this short, it would be a good idea to read the first three books first.
This is Book 4 in the series. I thought that since it was a short story, I could get away with reading it without reading the previous books. That was not the case. I was so confused! The characters didn't get adequate explanation, so I had to piece together who was who in relation to the other characters as well. I know it's a short, so the author didn't want to spend time explaining the characters, but in other shorts that I have read the authors have do so successfully. One other aspect that I did not like was the formatting switching back and forth so often. First it was formatted as an e-mail, then a phone call, a message board, typical paragraph form, text message. In my opinion it was too much. Pick one or two and stick with it. If you want to read this short, it would be a good idea to read the first three books first.
angie_stl's review
4.0
I was given a copy of this ebook for an honest review from netgalley.
3 1/2 stars
I haven't read any of the other Crossroads Cafe books, so I thought I'd be completely lost. That wasn't really the case. Sure there were people and events that have happened in the past that I don't quite get the full effect of, but it was nothing that left me feeling out in the cold. But it seems with any series that you jump in the middle of, that's going to happen. My biggest pet peeve with this book, and this is a personal thing for me, was that there were no real conversations or real paragraph groupings because the whole book was written as correspondences between people. There were a few phone calls that would be similar to how they would appear in a trial as evidence. By doing it this way, no emotion was revealed or /understood from anything but the words saying "I was having a panic attack" or "you hit a trigger and I had to take some medicine". There's not necessarily anything wrong with this type of writing, it's just not something I like to read. Even with these issues, I enjoyed the book over all. There were some downright hilarious antics by an older cousin of Gus and her husband. I may have to see if there's a book just about her, because I could imagine some comic genius in that.
I would probably recommend this book to fans of the series, or someone trying to find out what the series is about without jumping to far in. This seems to be a romantic series, but in this short story, it was more about getting to know the female main character of the next book, and there was no real romance in it. Throughout the book she is meanwhile getting to know the male lead for the next book.
3 1/2 stars
I haven't read any of the other Crossroads Cafe books, so I thought I'd be completely lost. That wasn't really the case. Sure there were people and events that have happened in the past that I don't quite get the full effect of, but it was nothing that left me feeling out in the cold. But it seems with any series that you jump in the middle of, that's going to happen. My biggest pet peeve with this book, and this is a personal thing for me, was that there were no real conversations or real paragraph groupings because the whole book was written as correspondences between people. There were a few phone calls that would be similar to how they would appear in a trial as evidence. By doing it this way, no emotion was revealed or /understood from anything but the words saying "I was having a panic attack" or "you hit a trigger and I had to take some medicine". There's not necessarily anything wrong with this type of writing, it's just not something I like to read. Even with these issues, I enjoyed the book over all. There were some downright hilarious antics by an older cousin of Gus and her husband. I may have to see if there's a book just about her, because I could imagine some comic genius in that.
I would probably recommend this book to fans of the series, or someone trying to find out what the series is about without jumping to far in. This seems to be a romantic series, but in this short story, it was more about getting to know the female main character of the next book, and there was no real romance in it. Throughout the book she is meanwhile getting to know the male lead for the next book.
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