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A review by libertyreads789
Love, Lacey Donovan by Jill Brashear
3.0
Actual Rating: 3.25 stars.
Well, that was a surprise. I wasn’t intending to read a whole extra novel today but that happened. This was such a fast and quick and easy read that once I started it was hard to stop. This was the second book in the 10 book anthology of rom-com novels I purchased several months back. I will say that I liked this one so much more than the first one in the anthology.
Lacey Donovan is not the kind of girl to put down roots. Her heart was broken 7 years ago and she refuses to ever feel that way again. But Mossy Oak, North Carolina and its residents have a way of worming their way into your heart. And when Beckett sets his sights on Lacey he knows that he has to make her his. Can a romantic guy find a way past this hard hearted girl’s walls?
I was surprised to find this so much more palatable than On the Rox (the first book in this anthology) was. And I think that’s part of the reason I enjoyed it, but I think most of it stems from the setting and the characters. While I wish we had more of the side characters, the love interest in this novel is so swoon worthy. Beckett is a serious guy who runs his family’s company but when he’s not in a boardroom he has a heart of gold. He helps take care of his niece and he reads romance novels. He is still a big beefy piece of love interest, but he is such a softy. The main character can’t help but fall into his orbit. They bond over a love of romance novels. Also, this tiny town is so cute and it has so many wonderful people who live there. I know real small towns aren’t like that, but we can suspend our disbelief a little bit.
I think the main problems I had with the novel were predictability, glossing over a seriously heavy topic, and the unnecessariness of the last conflict. There were certain beats that this author hit throughout the novel that I would predict three or four chapters ahead of time. Not that it makes the book bad, but it never came out and surprised me. There was a scene where a girl ends up getting roofied at a bar. Nothing ends up happening to her because she’s with her friends and they take care of her. But being a girl I cannot imagine getting over it as quickly as this girl does. Even if she wasn’t the one that someone was trying to roofie and it was all a mix up. This is probably one of the bigger things to drag down the novel for me. Also, that final girl fight over Beckett was so unnecessary. I felt like it was added just to up the page count or add a moment of doubt before a solid resolution. It took away from the story in my opinion. Overall these things really make this book slide into the “Good, Not Great” range for me.
Well, that was a surprise. I wasn’t intending to read a whole extra novel today but that happened. This was such a fast and quick and easy read that once I started it was hard to stop. This was the second book in the 10 book anthology of rom-com novels I purchased several months back. I will say that I liked this one so much more than the first one in the anthology.
Lacey Donovan is not the kind of girl to put down roots. Her heart was broken 7 years ago and she refuses to ever feel that way again. But Mossy Oak, North Carolina and its residents have a way of worming their way into your heart. And when Beckett sets his sights on Lacey he knows that he has to make her his. Can a romantic guy find a way past this hard hearted girl’s walls?
I was surprised to find this so much more palatable than On the Rox (the first book in this anthology) was. And I think that’s part of the reason I enjoyed it, but I think most of it stems from the setting and the characters. While I wish we had more of the side characters, the love interest in this novel is so swoon worthy. Beckett is a serious guy who runs his family’s company but when he’s not in a boardroom he has a heart of gold. He helps take care of his niece and he reads romance novels. He is still a big beefy piece of love interest, but he is such a softy. The main character can’t help but fall into his orbit. They bond over a love of romance novels. Also, this tiny town is so cute and it has so many wonderful people who live there. I know real small towns aren’t like that, but we can suspend our disbelief a little bit.
I think the main problems I had with the novel were predictability, glossing over a seriously heavy topic, and the unnecessariness of the last conflict. There were certain beats that this author hit throughout the novel that I would predict three or four chapters ahead of time. Not that it makes the book bad, but it never came out and surprised me. There was a scene where a girl ends up getting roofied at a bar. Nothing ends up happening to her because she’s with her friends and they take care of her. But being a girl I cannot imagine getting over it as quickly as this girl does. Even if she wasn’t the one that someone was trying to roofie and it was all a mix up. This is probably one of the bigger things to drag down the novel for me. Also, that final girl fight over Beckett was so unnecessary. I felt like it was added just to up the page count or add a moment of doubt before a solid resolution. It took away from the story in my opinion. Overall these things really make this book slide into the “Good, Not Great” range for me.