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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
This was a fun and quick read. Love Lettering is one of my all time fav romances but I think I just didn't really click with this one. The premise is so original and interesting though.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was disappointing, and even at page 200 it felt like nothing had happened. I stopped reading it, which I don't love doing, but it was hard to keep reading!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! I love Kate Clayborn, and one of the reasons I love her is that she does really unique stuff with the romance genre, and this story goes along with her great writing style. This book is about sisters at its core, as well as a love story between Jess and Adam. Jess is the big sister to Tegan, and their mom left them to follow a con artist. The con artist became the subject of a famous podcast, and years later, the podcast host comes back and asks the sisters to help track down the con artist and their mom with the help of the producer Adam. I know this sounds like a lot, and it is! Because on top of all that, there is romance, the mystery of finding the mom, and of course, lots of trauma processing. First and foremost, Kate Clayborn is a GREAT writer. She has a knack for taking heavy topics and making the characters relatable, as well as different from any other characters I have ever read. And I read a lot! I love, love, love her style and voice, and this book did not disappoint. I think this book could ALMOST (but of course not quite) not be classified as a romance, only in that it had a lot going on and there were a lot of complex relationships - mother and daughter, sisters, friends, media representation of trauma, and much more. I think the only reason this book doesn’t get a 5 stars is that I have some heavy things going on in my life and this book just felt VERY heavy (I know I am over using the word heavy), not at all light, but again, very well done. I always recommend Kate Clayborn for everyone - she’s great. I highly recommend this for fans of mystery romance, Kate Clayborn, and great contemporary romance.
Jess has spent the last ten years of her life with her walls up, trying to protect her little sister Tegan from the secrets in their mother Charlotte's past. But one day popular podcaster Salem Durant shows up at their door, and Tegan is ready to go off with Salem and her assistant Adam Hawkins in search of her mother. Jess finds out that Tegan has discover the five postcards sent from Charlotte from different states over the years and realizes that the threesome plan to visit these places to track down clues to Charlotte's whereabouts. But Jess refuses to let Tegan go alone. So off the foursome go in search of Charlotte, who was last seen running away with infamous conman Lynton Baltimore.
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The multiple storylines added depth that you don't always find in contemporary romance books and I liked seeing how the story lines all intertwined. This was a slow burn romance as Jess clearly had a lot of walls that Adam had to work to break through, and I'm always a fan of a story where the guy falls first while the girl has to work through some personal stuff before she can let herself fall. There was a lot of chemistry there between Jess and Adam and it had plenty of time to build as the other story lines progressed. I was fully invested in finding out how all the pieces fit together, but without spoiling anything, I was left feeling a little unsatisfied about all the endings except for the romance storyline. They weren't bad per se but I wanted more meat to the endings. But I would definitely recommend, esp to people who like both romance and true crime.
Overall: 4.5/5
Spice: 1.75/3
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The multiple storylines added depth that you don't always find in contemporary romance books and I liked seeing how the story lines all intertwined. This was a slow burn romance as Jess clearly had a lot of walls that Adam had to work to break through, and I'm always a fan of a story where the guy falls first while the girl has to work through some personal stuff before she can let herself fall. There was a lot of chemistry there between Jess and Adam and it had plenty of time to build as the other story lines progressed. I was fully invested in finding out how all the pieces fit together, but without spoiling anything, I was left feeling a little unsatisfied about all the endings except for the romance storyline. They weren't bad per se but I wanted more meat to the endings. But I would definitely recommend, esp to people who like both romance and true crime.
Overall: 4.5/5
Spice: 1.75/3
3.5 rounded up bc I love Kate Clayborn and always feel so cocooned by her books. This was a classic KC book imo, I always appreciate that her main characters get together way before the 90% mark! The twists were not as twisty as I have come to expect, and I didn’t care deeply about the podcast (I am not a true crime person so maybe the intrigue just doesn’t hit for me). Also I think a few of these characters need to take a Mucinex or use a cough drop or something….too much throat-clearing