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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fun, light hearted and a fast read. However the amount of times and the justifications Ruby came up with to withhold information from Brochan was frustrating beyond a normal miscommunication troupe.
I absolutely LOVED this romance debut by a new to me author! Ruby was so easy to cheer for and relate with - 35 and feeling lost and stuck in her NYC job, she quits and moves to a small town in the Scottish Highlands in order to write a cookbook.
While there she finds a newfound family of close-knit neighbors, a swoony Highland man and inspiration for her book. I couldn't get enough of this story (or the cover!). It was funny and heartfelt with amazing food descriptions and just plain wonderful in all the best ways. Plus all the tongue in cheek Outlander references were spot on!
Great on audio narrated by Nikki Massoud. I can't wait to read more from Rochelle Bilow! Highly recommended for fans of Meghan Quinn's Highland fling or Samantha Young's Much ado about you. Much thanks to @prhaudio for a complimentary audio copy and NetGalley and Berkley Romance for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!
While there she finds a newfound family of close-knit neighbors, a swoony Highland man and inspiration for her book. I couldn't get enough of this story (or the cover!). It was funny and heartfelt with amazing food descriptions and just plain wonderful in all the best ways. Plus all the tongue in cheek Outlander references were spot on!
Great on audio narrated by Nikki Massoud. I can't wait to read more from Rochelle Bilow! Highly recommended for fans of Meghan Quinn's Highland fling or Samantha Young's Much ado about you. Much thanks to @prhaudio for a complimentary audio copy and NetGalley and Berkley Romance for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was so incredibly boring. Oh my god it was a snooze. Like legitimately, so decently written but I didn't have it in me to care about anything going on in the book. Which is so sad because I was hoping it would be a fun read.
2.5 stars.
This was part of the February box for the Happily Ever After Romance Subscription Book Box, and just to be clear, this doesn't affect my overall opinion of the subscription box and I encourage all of you to support an indie book store. But obviously, when you get a subscription box, there's bound to be a book or two you won't enjoy as much as others. C'est la vie, I guess.
The thing is, I feel like this was written for a specific subset of women, and I am definitely not part of it, which is kind of my problem with a lot of contemporary romance out there. There's really nothing wrong with that, but I'm not in the category of "women in their mid-thirties who like Outlander and would like nothing more than to move in a small Scotland town Hallmark-style and meet a hot Scottish guy". At least, not yet. This is a very self-indulgent book, with lots of descriptions (which I noticed because of how wordy they were), and again, there's really nothing wrong with that, but there are things here and there that stop me from rounding it up to 3 stars and just leave it as "it just wasn't for me".
The problem lies with the FMC, and to quote Jennifer Cruisie (special thanks to Jacob Profitt for talking about it in one of his reviews), she has what you call a "negative motivation", which means basically that her entire conflict is based on her not wanting to do something. Obviously I'm not saying it's an impossible thing to do in a story (many a Greek tragedy is based on that), but you have to be careful with that kind of thing since that could easily lead the reader to just want to shake the character to get over themselves and just do the darn thing (why hello, Alina Starkov).
Basically, what little plot there is (because at least 60% of the book is just Vibin' in Scotland) hinges entirely on the FMC befriending the female mayor of the town and learning from her that the restaurant where she's working and staying at is going to get bought by some tacky American guy. Given that won't fly with the MMC and his aunt, who owns the place, and that the town desperately needs the money from said tacky American guy, the mayor basically has the FMC pinky swear to not tell the MMC and his aunt about it. So basically, the FMC keeps her mouth shut about it, despite the aunt being nothing but kind to her and the sale meaning she'll have to find another home, despite her starting to hook up with the MMC who is also nothing but welcoming and helpful to her, because she pinky swore to a lady she literally spoke to once before that reveal, because... girlboss code, I guess. And also, whenever she *does* hesitate, she basically goes: "Oh, but I pinky swore! I can't possibly betray my bestie like that!" Like, what are you, 9? How are you a 35-year-old woman with an adult job???
What also didn't help is that I didn't care much about the romance - not to mention that the MMC also has a negative motivation of his own, namely that he refuses to talk about his ex, which, fine, I can buy that happening, but said ex HAPPENS TO BE THE MAYOR. And honestly, you're not going to make me believe that the FMC will stay in that small town for months on end and never find out through gossip that the MMC and the mayor were seriously dating at some point. People in small towns talk, like A LOT. So that meant that overall, I had no patience for the third act conflict, that also got resolved in a whiff, but I'll admit that I was skimming through the book from the 30% point onwards.
So yeah, as I said, not for me, and despite all my annoyances, I *do* think this will appeal to certain people and if it's up your alley, I do recommend checking it out.
This was part of the February box for the Happily Ever After Romance Subscription Book Box, and just to be clear, this doesn't affect my overall opinion of the subscription box and I encourage all of you to support an indie book store. But obviously, when you get a subscription box, there's bound to be a book or two you won't enjoy as much as others. C'est la vie, I guess.
The thing is, I feel like this was written for a specific subset of women, and I am definitely not part of it, which is kind of my problem with a lot of contemporary romance out there. There's really nothing wrong with that, but I'm not in the category of "women in their mid-thirties who like Outlander and would like nothing more than to move in a small Scotland town Hallmark-style and meet a hot Scottish guy". At least, not yet. This is a very self-indulgent book, with lots of descriptions (which I noticed because of how wordy they were), and again, there's really nothing wrong with that, but there are things here and there that stop me from rounding it up to 3 stars and just leave it as "it just wasn't for me".
The problem lies with the FMC, and to quote Jennifer Cruisie (special thanks to Jacob Profitt for talking about it in one of his reviews), she has what you call a "negative motivation", which means basically that her entire conflict is based on her not wanting to do something. Obviously I'm not saying it's an impossible thing to do in a story (many a Greek tragedy is based on that), but you have to be careful with that kind of thing since that could easily lead the reader to just want to shake the character to get over themselves and just do the darn thing (why hello, Alina Starkov).
Basically, what little plot there is (because at least 60% of the book is just Vibin' in Scotland) hinges entirely on the FMC befriending the female mayor of the town and learning from her that the restaurant where she's working and staying at is going to get bought by some tacky American guy. Given that won't fly with the MMC and his aunt, who owns the place, and that the town desperately needs the money from said tacky American guy, the mayor basically has the FMC pinky swear to not tell the MMC and his aunt about it. So basically, the FMC keeps her mouth shut about it, despite the aunt being nothing but kind to her and the sale meaning she'll have to find another home, despite her starting to hook up with the MMC who is also nothing but welcoming and helpful to her, because she pinky swore to a lady she literally spoke to once before that reveal, because... girlboss code, I guess. And also, whenever she *does* hesitate, she basically goes: "Oh, but I pinky swore! I can't possibly betray my bestie like that!" Like, what are you, 9? How are you a 35-year-old woman with an adult job???
What also didn't help is that I didn't care much about the romance - not to mention that the MMC also has a negative motivation of his own, namely that he refuses to talk about his ex, which, fine, I can buy that happening, but said ex HAPPENS TO BE THE MAYOR. And honestly, you're not going to make me believe that the FMC will stay in that small town for months on end and never find out through gossip that the MMC and the mayor were seriously dating at some point. People in small towns talk, like A LOT. So that meant that overall, I had no patience for the third act conflict, that also got resolved in a whiff, but I'll admit that I was skimming through the book from the 30% point onwards.
So yeah, as I said, not for me, and despite all my annoyances, I *do* think this will appeal to certain people and if it's up your alley, I do recommend checking it out.
This one was fine. There was nothing super wrong with it, I just didn’t connect with Ruby enough. I liked the overall story, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Thx @PRHAudio for the ALC.
Thx @PRHAudio for the ALC.