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A review by mirrorchaser
Come Away with Me by Kristen Proby
2.0
Alright, so I feel like I have some explaining to do. You know how sometimes you make sweeping statements about things you're not going to do anymore? Like "hey, Goodreads, I'm not going to read self-published romance that is just an excuse for the author to get paid to write nothing but smut anymore"? Well, I obviously lied because I always seem to get wrapped up into these thirty book series and they are never as good as I hope they will be.
How I got here: My library had the new release, [b:The Scandal|60641947|The Scandal (Single in Seattle #2)|Kristen Proby|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1649952600l/60641947._SY75_.jpg|95593524], available and it looked good so I got it. I really liked that one and it was spicy but not extreme spicy. It was so obvious that this was a second generation series once I started reading and I wanted to check out the parent's book. Instead of jumping into Stella's parent's book, I started the With Me in Seattle series from the beginning and that's why I am writing this review.
Proby's writing has SUBSTANCIALLY improved in the ten years between these books. This book is written fine, but is barely concealed pornography which led to a lot of skimming on my part. If I see the word "baby" again, I'm going to vomit, and the hero is hot and cold. There is chemistry for sure but it's just so weird how he was a complete jerk but then I'm supposed to believe that they instantly fell in love. It makes sense why he liked her from the beginning, but it didn't make as much sense on her end.
I also didn't like that the main character, Natalie, was written as the "fat" character when she obviously wasn't. She was able to share clothes with her playboy model best friend, so it doesn't make any sense at all that she would be larger than a size four ABSOLUTE MAX. Further, her boyfriend talks about how he loves to watch her eat like it's a weird kink. It's okay for female characters to be fat, it's also okay for them to not be. But maybe don't pretend she's fat and then write her as though she isn't.
Every character I've met so far is so weakly characterized and I know that's because the point of this book is the smut but it still infuriates me. Samantha in particular, the hero's sister, is such a horrible example of poor characterization. She hates the main character until all the sudden she doesn't anymore. Done, game over, now we are best friends. That makes no sense. Also, how are all of these people insanely rich? ALL of them. It doesn't make any sense. On not making sense - the timeline. What is going on here? This has been like a week. Weird.
Lastly, there's a trope there at the end that I do NOT like, I will NEVER like, and it's in every single self-published romance novel out there. I won't be delving into that deeper here because it made me angry and its also a spoiler. But just be warned. Bad tropes abound.
Now with all of that being said, I finished it and I'm going to read the other one because the next novel is Stella's parents (the one I actually wanted to read in the first place.) The fact that I'm continuing this series means that clearly something about it hooked me, so I'll give an extra star for that.
How I got here: My library had the new release, [b:The Scandal|60641947|The Scandal (Single in Seattle #2)|Kristen Proby|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1649952600l/60641947._SY75_.jpg|95593524], available and it looked good so I got it. I really liked that one and it was spicy but not extreme spicy. It was so obvious that this was a second generation series once I started reading and I wanted to check out the parent's book. Instead of jumping into Stella's parent's book, I started the With Me in Seattle series from the beginning and that's why I am writing this review.
Proby's writing has SUBSTANCIALLY improved in the ten years between these books. This book is written fine, but is barely concealed pornography which led to a lot of skimming on my part. If I see the word "baby" again, I'm going to vomit, and the hero is hot and cold. There is chemistry for sure but it's just so weird how he was a complete jerk but then I'm supposed to believe that they instantly fell in love. It makes sense why he liked her from the beginning, but it didn't make as much sense on her end.
I also didn't like that the main character, Natalie, was written as the "fat" character when she obviously wasn't. She was able to share clothes with her playboy model best friend, so it doesn't make any sense at all that she would be larger than a size four ABSOLUTE MAX. Further, her boyfriend talks about how he loves to watch her eat like it's a weird kink. It's okay for female characters to be fat, it's also okay for them to not be. But maybe don't pretend she's fat and then write her as though she isn't.
Every character I've met so far is so weakly characterized and I know that's because the point of this book is the smut but it still infuriates me. Samantha in particular, the hero's sister, is such a horrible example of poor characterization. She hates the main character until all the sudden she doesn't anymore. Done, game over, now we are best friends. That makes no sense. Also, how are all of these people insanely rich? ALL of them. It doesn't make any sense. On not making sense - the timeline. What is going on here? This has been like a week. Weird.
Lastly, there's a trope there at the end that I do NOT like, I will NEVER like, and it's in every single self-published romance novel out there. I won't be delving into that deeper here because it made me angry and its also a spoiler. But just be warned. Bad tropes abound.
Now with all of that being said, I finished it and I'm going to read the other one because the next novel is Stella's parents (the one I actually wanted to read in the first place.) The fact that I'm continuing this series means that clearly something about it hooked me, so I'll give an extra star for that.