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A review by emvy
Calling Me Home by Louise Bay
4.0
I'm very new to the romance genre and my experience doesn't extend much beyond the Fifty Shades series and a couple of the Outlander novels. So I've only seen two extreme sides of the genre. Outlander is not a typical romance series. These books are rich in history and a lot of time is spent on issues other than romance and they are fantastic. I enjoy reading Fifty Shades but I can't keep a straight face while reading those books, even when I'm alone. The writing is horrible and some of the things that get said are so embarrassing I have to set the book down for a moment to compose myself. Then there's the problematic nature of the series which is probably embedded in the American psyche at this point so I don't think I need to mention any of that.
The Calling Me books are quick and light, containing enough of the sexy bits we're all really here for without being embarrassing or excessively problematic. I thought Luke was absolutely adorable* and while I got so frustrated with Ashleigh by the end of the second book I started shaking my Nook (and yelling something about how I would invent a machine that allowed me to enter this fictional world and slap some sense into her), I definitely understood her hesitation.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the direction the story went in the last book. We all saw Ashleigh getting pregnant unexpectedly happening. But I genuinely thought it would go the Fifty Shades Freed route and end up with Luke having a momentary freakout. I wouldn't have even really been that upset about the trope because from the second he figured out his feelings for Ash he was so ready, so confident, and I would have understood the author's decision to let Ash's fears be temporarily justified. But I was so pleased when it went the other way. When he tells Jake that he wants to have nineteen kids with her, like yesterday and I knew that the story wouldn't go that way I got super excited.
And then when Ash decides to leave I got real mad at her for a minute. I get a bit frustrated every time I see this kind of thing. The whole, "I have two options, the sensible one and the absolutely batshit stupid one. I will choose the latter," thing. It's infuriating. And I was relieved to see it squashed immediately and quickly turn into Ash finally fully trusting Luke's love for her.
And the sex scenes! They necessitated almost* no eyerolls or groans. The things they were saying and doing to each other were actually realistic and that's something that almost never happens in books like these. Especially the things they say. I've read snippets from other books aside from Fifty Shades and every time I'm like "Who talks like this during sex? I feel like if someone said this to me during sex my vagina would instantly close for business." But not in these books! And I loved how even during the sex scenes there was a lot of stuff mixed in that was just cute or adorable.
*Luke, at one point, did say he was excited that he would be the first man to "claim" Ashleigh's ass. This happens in like every romance novel and the ass always has to be "claimed" and I always roll my eyes and laugh. Spoiler alert: We never did get to find out if he claimed that ass.
The Calling Me books are quick and light, containing enough of the sexy bits we're all really here for without being embarrassing or excessively problematic. I thought Luke was absolutely adorable* and while I got so frustrated with Ashleigh by the end of the second book I started shaking my Nook (and yelling something about how I would invent a machine that allowed me to enter this fictional world and slap some sense into her), I definitely understood her hesitation.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the direction the story went in the last book. We all saw Ashleigh getting pregnant unexpectedly happening. But I genuinely thought it would go the Fifty Shades Freed route and end up with Luke having a momentary freakout. I wouldn't have even really been that upset about the trope because from the second he figured out his feelings for Ash he was so ready, so confident, and I would have understood the author's decision to let Ash's fears be temporarily justified. But I was so pleased when it went the other way. When he tells Jake that he wants to have nineteen kids with her, like yesterday and I knew that the story wouldn't go that way I got super excited.
And then when Ash decides to leave I got real mad at her for a minute. I get a bit frustrated every time I see this kind of thing. The whole, "I have two options, the sensible one and the absolutely batshit stupid one. I will choose the latter," thing. It's infuriating. And I was relieved to see it squashed immediately and quickly turn into Ash finally fully trusting Luke's love for her.
And the sex scenes! They necessitated almost* no eyerolls or groans. The things they were saying and doing to each other were actually realistic and that's something that almost never happens in books like these. Especially the things they say. I've read snippets from other books aside from Fifty Shades and every time I'm like "Who talks like this during sex? I feel like if someone said this to me during sex my vagina would instantly close for business." But not in these books! And I loved how even during the sex scenes there was a lot of stuff mixed in that was just cute or adorable.
*Luke, at one point, did say he was excited that he would be the first man to "claim" Ashleigh's ass. This happens in like every romance novel and the ass always has to be "claimed" and I always roll my eyes and laugh. Spoiler alert: We never did get to find out if he claimed that ass.