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A review by mjsam
Eyes Like Those by Melissa Brayden
4.0
ARC received via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Melissa Brayden writes good books that are peppered with interesting characters, witty dialogue, and sweet romances.
This book has all of those things, but for some reason, it just didn't hit the sweet spot for me. I don't know if it was just this book, or that I've never noticed it before, but all of her characters here sounded the same for the most part. There was also so much witty banter that I grew tired of it. I also noticed that she constantly has characters referring to each other by their full names (though this mostly happened with Izzy's name) and it was a bit weird.
The friendship between the four main characters also didn't work for me as well as it did in the SoHo series, because there was no background to it, they were just friends by proximity.
Taylor and Izzy were both good characters, although I admit to liking Izzy more for about 4/5s of the book, because much like her, I was annoyed by Taylor's constant appeasing of Aspen, and it bit her in exactly the way I'd assumed it would. Then right at the end of the book there's a switcharoo, and I really didn't like Izzy, the end sort of made up for it, but in all honesty her choice was barren of any actual backbone or character, and I didn't agree with it.
There's also the issue of the two leads spending a fair bit of time together but not really actually getting to know anything about each other, the reader is told this happens at the mid point when they get together, but it all happens in a few paragraphs, 'off-screen' as it were.
Still, it's a sweet romance for the most part, and there is plenty of amusing dialogue to keep readers entertained. As the entry point for a new series, it was enough to keep me intrigued for the next book. It's probably a 3.5 but I've rounded up because it's Melissa Brayden.
Melissa Brayden writes good books that are peppered with interesting characters, witty dialogue, and sweet romances.
This book has all of those things, but for some reason, it just didn't hit the sweet spot for me. I don't know if it was just this book, or that I've never noticed it before, but all of her characters here sounded the same for the most part. There was also so much witty banter that I grew tired of it. I also noticed that she constantly has characters referring to each other by their full names (though this mostly happened with Izzy's name) and it was a bit weird.
The friendship between the four main characters also didn't work for me as well as it did in the SoHo series, because there was no background to it, they were just friends by proximity.
Taylor and Izzy were both good characters, although I admit to liking Izzy more for about 4/5s of the book, because much like her, I was annoyed by Taylor's constant appeasing of Aspen, and it bit her in exactly the way I'd assumed it would. Then right at the end of the book there's a switcharoo, and I really didn't like Izzy, the end sort of made up for it, but in all honesty her choice was barren of any actual backbone or character, and I didn't agree with it.
There's also the issue of the two leads spending a fair bit of time together but not really actually getting to know anything about each other, the reader is told this happens at the mid point when they get together, but it all happens in a few paragraphs, 'off-screen' as it were.
Still, it's a sweet romance for the most part, and there is plenty of amusing dialogue to keep readers entertained. As the entry point for a new series, it was enough to keep me intrigued for the next book. It's probably a 3.5 but I've rounded up because it's Melissa Brayden.