He Falls First - Jill Shalvis (3.75/5)

 

Rating: 3.75/5 rounded up to 4.

Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for providing me the e-ARC. Views are my own.

Tropes: sweet romance, beta-hero, trauma-childhood, family-values, siblings, part-of-a-series, sassy-grandma, working-class-hero, working-class-heroine.

This is a sweet romance. I wish there were any other way to describe it, but sweet really does describe it well. The hero, Ryder, is the oldest sibling, takes cares of his family and all the kids were abused by their dad. Now their dad has had 2 strokes and is the sweetest ever, but the siblings are still reeling from the past abuse of their dad. Together, they own and run Colburn Construction.

Penny's mom is unstable and has left her grandma and younger (half?) brother alone. She gives up her job to help them out. She dreams of opening up her cafe, but is so bogged down from day to day, that she can't think straight. She works for the catering company that supplies lunches and snacks to the Colburn Construction.

I will concede that there is no doubt that the hero likes the heroine. All the people around him ALSO know that he likes her. He waits for her delivery and has (supposedly) bumped into walls because he was watching her. My issue is that I wish there were a little more anticipation between the two. The conflicts that each of them took a back seat, where as a reader you sort of discard their issues (they are not highlighted much at all, in my opinion). Because they kiss so naturally and are already so in tune with each other, it seems hard to understand why they aren't together already.

The about-face that Hank (the dad) had... I'm not sure if that was necessary? The relationship between the heroine's mom and herself could also have been explored much more to give more depth.

It's Different This Time - Joss Richard ( 3.5 stars)

 

3.5 stars

(Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine | Dell for the advanced e-ARC)

Tropes: Second-chance, longtime-friends, best-friends, friends-to-lovers, miscommunication, missed-connections, misunderstanding, beta-hero

3.5 total stars. I give it a 4.5 stars for the writing and 3 for the conflict.

This is Joss Richard's debut novel and her writing is amazing! However, I don't know if it's a new trend to market women's literature as romance but this felt more women's lit for me. Yes, there was romance, but the feelings I got were more complex and confusing. I knew that it had a happy ending but things felt a bit iffy there in the middle.

This is the kind of book where you literally want to shake the heroine/MFC and shout in her face about being dense. She behaved immaturely and it pissed me off so bad. The Hero, on the other hand, was beta but super passive too. Like, hello? Get the words out, dude. Stop fucking around with other women if you love the MFC!!!! What else is she gonna think when you are out each weekend with a different girl?

Also, from a struggling chef to a (apparently) Michelin-star restaurant owner in 5 (6?) years? It's make-belief, but come on. And why did the MFC run to LA? She could have moved out in NYC and kept working in Theatre?

Like I said, the plot and conflict was a mess. The writing and format was stellar. I wish the author had focused more on something tangible as the conflict because as a reader it was super frustrating to see all this time wasted on a non-issue.