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A review by corrie
Hooked on You by Jenn Matthews
4.0
Hooked on You is the debut novel from British author Jen Matthews.
It’s a slow burn, slow paced and basically drama free romance story about war veteran Ollie, now owner of a small craft store and English teacher Anna. Both women are middle aged, have grown kids (Anna’s adopted son is on the spectrum). Anna is dating a health and safety inspector (Liam) who proves to be quite an asshole. Her kids don’t like him anyway.
When Anna takes up crochet lessons at Ollies, we pretty much follow her progress from week to week as she takes on more and more advanced projects. Their mutual attraction grows steadily and I find the slow burn approach believable (don’t forget Anna is still dating Liam and not really thinking of women in that way). We get a real in-depth character study of both women (we alternate between their pov’s), a bit à la Susan X. Meagher.
You have to be very patient with these two. There is a lot of baggage to navigate through plus Liam plus Anna's kids plus Ollie’s estranged kids but like I said there is no overt drama. If you don’t like crafting at least a bit I suggest you don’t even start because it is the backbone of this almost 400-page novel (on Scribd anyway). Also, even though there’s sweet cuddles and kissing a plenty (once they have crossed that bridge) the single money shot scene will not happen until the last 50 pages.
I was surprised that it kept me going like it did. I read the whole book in two days, so that’s a good thing. Sure, Ylva could have maybe culled it a bit, but it was still a very enjoyable read and a good debut.
f/f explicit
Themes: London, past time infidelity, war veteran, busted knee, craft shop, crochet lessons, lots of tea and granny squares, workaholics, Liam is a narrow-minded ass hat, the holiday season.
4 stars
It’s a slow burn, slow paced and basically drama free romance story about war veteran Ollie, now owner of a small craft store and English teacher Anna. Both women are middle aged, have grown kids (Anna’s adopted son is on the spectrum). Anna is dating a health and safety inspector (Liam) who proves to be quite an asshole. Her kids don’t like him anyway.
When Anna takes up crochet lessons at Ollies, we pretty much follow her progress from week to week as she takes on more and more advanced projects. Their mutual attraction grows steadily and I find the slow burn approach believable (don’t forget Anna is still dating Liam and not really thinking of women in that way). We get a real in-depth character study of both women (we alternate between their pov’s), a bit à la Susan X. Meagher.
You have to be very patient with these two. There is a lot of baggage to navigate through plus Liam plus Anna's kids plus Ollie’s estranged kids but like I said there is no overt drama. If you don’t like crafting at least a bit I suggest you don’t even start because it is the backbone of this almost 400-page novel (on Scribd anyway). Also, even though there’s sweet cuddles and kissing a plenty (once they have crossed that bridge) the single money shot scene will not happen until the last 50 pages.
I was surprised that it kept me going like it did. I read the whole book in two days, so that’s a good thing. Sure, Ylva could have maybe culled it a bit, but it was still a very enjoyable read and a good debut.
f/f explicit
Themes: London, past time infidelity, war veteran, busted knee, craft shop, crochet lessons, lots of tea and granny squares, workaholics, Liam is a narrow-minded ass hat, the holiday season.
4 stars