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gracereadsforlove's review against another edition
4.0
Not as awesome as the previous books in the series.
librarianinperiwinkle's review against another edition
2.0
Dean Robillard is a big-time football star for the fictional Chicago Stars--gorgeous, wealthy, and restlessly unhappy. He decides to drive across the country to the farm he's purchased outside Nashville to check up on his new housekeeper who only communicates with him via email, and along the way he picks up an angry woman in a beaver costume (minus the head). He drives her to confront her weasel of an ex and decides she would make an excellent distraction from his depression during his road trip so capitalizes on her newly broke status to convince her to travel with him.
Blue Bailey is a portrait artist who never stays in one place for long, especially not now that she has discovered her rotten ex doesn't need her help after all: he's found a new (teenage) muse and stolen the $200 she had hidden in her rental room. Her mother recently cleaned out Blue's bank accounts to pay the ransom for a group of girls in Colombia, leaving Blue with a total of $18 to her name, some ratty old clothes, and a car that's given up the ghost. Driving to Garrison, TN, in a fancy car with a handsome man pretending to be gay seems a better option than staying where she is, so she opts to ride. She never expected to grow roots.
I'm giving this one 2 stars because the main romance didn't work for me. I really enjoyed all the secondary characters, especially Nita and Riley. I found April and Jack's relationship plausible, if fraught with emotional scar tissue. However, Dean and Blue's romance...no. It COULD have been believable--the potential was there, and it started off well. Blue fascinated Dean because she didn't fall all over him like all other women. She was zany and unpredictable. She entertained and amused him just by being herself. If Ms. Phillips had kept going with that, had let her characters slowly grow on each other, gradually developing an attraction to one another instead of flipping the lust switch and turning Dean into a controlling jerk and Blue into a spineless ninny, this could have been an outstanding book.
Instead, it lacks internal consistency. Blue and Dean bicker constantly and enjoy doing so. They had difficult childhoods and have built emotional walls around themselves to protect against future heartbreak, so both have a whole lot of maturing to do before they are ready to trust and risk showing vulnerability, yet the arguing gives them a way to safely spend time getting to know each other. So far, so good.
However, Ms. Phillips chose to make Dean determined to have sex with Blue almost from the beginning, despite his open disdain for her appearance, fashion choices, and lifestyle. It was a power and control issue for him, which is decidedly UNsexy and should have been a complete turn-off to Blue, who was fully cognizant that his so-called interest was due to a lack of better options and a need to dominate. Had Ms. Phillips remained consistent with her original characterization of Blue, Blue would have continued to rebuff Dean's advances and called him on his B.S. until he finally grew to actually respect her and show some kindness for a change. Then and only then would the attraction have been plausible and based on a solid foundation.
But that's not what happened. I abandoned hope when I got to the scene where Dean is hurt and angry with his father and bursts into the caravan, waking Blue and demanding--not asking, but demanding--that she have sex with him. He's again a total jerk, she can tell he's upset, but she gives in instead of saying, "You're furious, so your solution is to RAPE ME?!" Had she done that, it would have brought him up short and perhaps triggered his brain to restart. Not how the scene played out, though, and I ended up howling in frustration in my car, wishing I weren't driving and could skip over the too-explicit and ridiculous sex scene that followed ('cause, you know, if she takes her own clothes off when ordered to, & is inexplicably turned on by being used, it doesn't count as rape??). It gets worse from there, although there is a small bit of redemption by the end when Dean FINALLY admits maybe he has some growing up to do. Note to Dean: if someone has lifelong abandonment issues, perhaps you shouldn't abandon her over and over and over again!!
The character development for everyone else is excellent. *sigh* Four stars for them, zero for Dean & Blue, for an average rating of 2 stars.
For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary. There is quite a bit of swearing and some semi-explicit sex scenes. Definitely not suitable for listening to with a toddler in the car. The narrator did an excellent job with the voices--only a couple of times did I get confused as to who was talking. She had totally different voices and accents for all the characters.
Blue Bailey is a portrait artist who never stays in one place for long, especially not now that she has discovered her rotten ex doesn't need her help after all: he's found a new (teenage) muse and stolen the $200 she had hidden in her rental room. Her mother recently cleaned out Blue's bank accounts to pay the ransom for a group of girls in Colombia, leaving Blue with a total of $18 to her name, some ratty old clothes, and a car that's given up the ghost. Driving to Garrison, TN, in a fancy car with a handsome man pretending to be gay seems a better option than staying where she is, so she opts to ride. She never expected to grow roots.
I'm giving this one 2 stars because the main romance didn't work for me. I really enjoyed all the secondary characters, especially Nita and Riley. I found April and Jack's relationship plausible, if fraught with emotional scar tissue. However, Dean and Blue's romance...no. It COULD have been believable--the potential was there, and it started off well. Blue fascinated Dean because she didn't fall all over him like all other women. She was zany and unpredictable. She entertained and amused him just by being herself. If Ms. Phillips had kept going with that, had let her characters slowly grow on each other, gradually developing an attraction to one another instead of flipping the lust switch and turning Dean into a controlling jerk and Blue into a spineless ninny, this could have been an outstanding book.
Instead, it lacks internal consistency. Blue and Dean bicker constantly and enjoy doing so. They had difficult childhoods and have built emotional walls around themselves to protect against future heartbreak, so both have a whole lot of maturing to do before they are ready to trust and risk showing vulnerability, yet the arguing gives them a way to safely spend time getting to know each other. So far, so good.
However, Ms. Phillips chose to make Dean determined to have sex with Blue almost from the beginning, despite his open disdain for her appearance, fashion choices, and lifestyle. It was a power and control issue for him, which is decidedly UNsexy and should have been a complete turn-off to Blue, who was fully cognizant that his so-called interest was due to a lack of better options and a need to dominate. Had Ms. Phillips remained consistent with her original characterization of Blue, Blue would have continued to rebuff Dean's advances and called him on his B.S. until he finally grew to actually respect her and show some kindness for a change. Then and only then would the attraction have been plausible and based on a solid foundation.
But that's not what happened. I abandoned hope when I got to the scene where Dean is hurt and angry with his father and bursts into the caravan, waking Blue and demanding--not asking, but demanding--that she have sex with him. He's again a total jerk, she can tell he's upset, but she gives in instead of saying, "You're furious, so your solution is to RAPE ME?!" Had she done that, it would have brought him up short and perhaps triggered his brain to restart. Not how the scene played out, though, and I ended up howling in frustration in my car, wishing I weren't driving and could skip over the too-explicit and ridiculous sex scene that followed ('cause, you know, if she takes her own clothes off when ordered to, & is inexplicably turned on by being used, it doesn't count as rape??). It gets worse from there, although there is a small bit of redemption by the end when Dean FINALLY admits maybe he has some growing up to do. Note to Dean: if someone has lifelong abandonment issues, perhaps you shouldn't abandon her over and over and over again!!
The character development for everyone else is excellent. *sigh* Four stars for them, zero for Dean & Blue, for an average rating of 2 stars.
For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary. There is quite a bit of swearing and some semi-explicit sex scenes. Definitely not suitable for listening to with a toddler in the car. The narrator did an excellent job with the voices--only a couple of times did I get confused as to who was talking. She had totally different voices and accents for all the characters.
brigii's review against another edition
Again, it was a long time ago and I don't remember enough things about this book to rate.
mbpartlow's review against another edition
4.0
Sooo...romance is not a genre I read widely in. There are a few particular authors I like, but I don't read almost any romance the way I will almost any urban fantasy.
But Susan Elizabeth Phillips is at the top of the list of authors I love to read. Her characters are charming and quirky. Her heroines are almost always plucky and adventurous, and none of them are waiting around for a Prince Charming to rescue them. They fall into love while getting on with the business of their lives.
And how can you not love a book that opens with a woman stomping down the road in a headless beaver costume?
It may be that the loose ends are tied up a little too neatly, and it may be that every character finds someone to love. But who doesn't love a happy ending once in a while? I don't want a steady diet of them, but when I need my fix, Phillips always delivers.
But Susan Elizabeth Phillips is at the top of the list of authors I love to read. Her characters are charming and quirky. Her heroines are almost always plucky and adventurous, and none of them are waiting around for a Prince Charming to rescue them. They fall into love while getting on with the business of their lives.
And how can you not love a book that opens with a woman stomping down the road in a headless beaver costume?
It may be that the loose ends are tied up a little too neatly, and it may be that every character finds someone to love. But who doesn't love a happy ending once in a while? I don't want a steady diet of them, but when I need my fix, Phillips always delivers.
downtown_kb's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-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
3.5
“You can't do extraordinary things in the world if you're spending time criticizing others because they don't look or behave the way you think they should.”
Dean finds Blue stranded on the side of the road and offers to give her a ride. A ride turns into her staying with him for a while.
This of course is another example of SEPs great character development. This has a lot of found family and repairing of past relationships. There is top-notch banter between the fmc and mmc and a lot of just slice of life day to day happenings as several worlds collide and get a bit messy. It was very entertaining and sweet at times. I was not a big fan of the last act split drama because it seemed unnecessarily mean but apparently it worked out. If you don't like your men with an extra dose of machismo (which he is an american footballer so it fits) you probably won't like this guy. But I really loved Blue and her spine.
Written in 2007 I believe, there are some dated jokes but nothing malicious. Anna Fields does great with the audio.
Dean finds Blue stranded on the side of the road and offers to give her a ride. A ride turns into her staying with him for a while.
This of course is another example of SEPs great character development. This has a lot of found family and repairing of past relationships. There is top-notch banter between the fmc and mmc and a lot of just slice of life day to day happenings as several worlds collide and get a bit messy. It was very entertaining and sweet at times. I was not a big fan of the last act split drama because it seemed unnecessarily mean but apparently it worked out. If you don't like your men with an extra dose of machismo (which he is an american footballer so it fits) you probably won't like this guy. But I really loved Blue and her spine.
Written in 2007 I believe, there are some dated jokes but nothing malicious. Anna Fields does great with the audio.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Abandonment
vniemi317's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty predictable romantic comedy, but great characters
jackiehorne's review against another edition
4.0
My favorite SEP book so far, with its quirky untraditional heroine, its football quarterback hero who takes aesthetic pleasure in beautiful clothes, its secondary second-chance romance, and its lack of annoyingly macho male athletes. Hard to believe that the same author wrote this and MATCH ME IF YOU CAN...
420blazeit's review against another edition
5.0
STOPPP leave me alone. this book was so good. i love blue and i love dean and the intro was 10/10, had me hooked immediately!!! i love SEP and mcs who arent doormats <3
minxreads's review against another edition
Skim read. Couldn’t get into it, found it boring. Didn’t find myself giving any shit about any of these characters or their story.
Side note: fade to black and then, one non descriptive seggs scene
Side note: fade to black and then, one non descriptive seggs scene