A review by itsme_lori
The Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis

3.0

I think I prefer Shalvis' books when she focuses on just one couple rather than a whole group of people. While I loved the found family and lost sisters and rag-tag groups of characters in this one, I think her individual characters and relationships shine more when she has more time to devote to each one. And I think, for me, the books in this series just have too much going on in each one and there's never really quite enough time to really delve into each character enough for me to become emotionally connected. And then they end up being flat, one-dimensional characters that I don't really care about or feel like I really know.
For this book specifically, I think I needed more time to really understand why Brynn was so broken when except for her jerk ex and some mean kids growing up, it seemed like her life was pretty good. And for Kinsey, I think there was too much change in a very short amount of time. Between that and Brynn's acceptance of their sisterhood and Brynn and Eli's romance, so much felt rushed. There was just too much to deal with in 300ish pages.
Also, I really just wanted more of Kinsey and Deck because they were magical together whereas Brynn and Eli felt pretty bland to me.
The epilogue was a great way to the end book on such a happy note but overall, this was just ok for me.