A review by lolasreviews
Goddess of Summer Love by Kelley Armstrong

4.0

I was looking forward to continuing this series and reading book 2, but as this novella takes place between books 1 and 2 I decided to read this first. Goddess of Summer Love is told from the point of view of Vanessa instead of Kennedy like it was in book 1. I wasn't sure what to think of the switch in point of view and I am still a bit mixed about it. On the one hand it was great seeing her point of view, but on the other hand I missed being in Kennedy's head and knowing what she thought as well as seeing more of how she and Aiden solved the mystery.

In this book it's memorial weekend and Vanessa is trying to do some matchmaking in Unstable. She wants to get Kennedy and Aiden together as well as Ani and Jonathan. And make sure Hope and Rian don't end up together. She dives into local history and comes up with a mystery for them to solve to hopefully get them to work together and get that spark to develop. I thought she was trying a bit too hard, but being in her head it's easy to see why she does the things she does and her reasoning for them. I liked seeing how things progressed and why Vanessa acted the way she did, but the highlight was the end when the mystery gets wrapped up and Vanessa has some insights about her behavior as well.

The mystery didn't grip me as much, probably because of the way it was presented with Vanessa looking it up to give Kennedy and Aiden a chance to get closer. The details didn't make as curious and the book isn't long enough for it to get really elaborate. I did like how it progressed and the reveal at the end was well done and I liked how it made sense and wrapped it up.

I like Kelley Armstrong's writing and the story kept my attention throughout. It was fun to be back in this world and spend time with these characters and I could appreciate the additional insight we got into Vanessa's character. I also liked how we get a bit more to hear of her past and her relationship with Marius. I thought the way Marius and Vanessa interacted was great to see and the way Marius is there for her and supports her.

To summarize: Goddess of Summer Love is a novella set between books 1 and 2 and told from Vanessa's point of view as she tries to do some matchmaking when visiting Unstable for memorial weekend. I liked being back in this world and reading about these characters. It was fun to see things from Vanessa's point of view, learn about her past and see her relationship with Marius, but I also missed Kennedy's point of view. The mystery wasn't as gripping to me, but the writing and story still kept my attention. The mystery reveal was well done and I especially liked Vanessa's insights about her own behavior at the end of the book and the way it ended. All in all an enjoyable shorter read to read between the first two books.