Romantic Comedy Review: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All #1) by Alexis Hall

Published: May 18th, 2021

Publisher: Forever

Genre: Romantic Comedy/LGBTQ+

Heat rating: 🔥🔥

# of pages: 448 

My rating: 3.5 stars

Acquired this book: From the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for honest consideration

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Warning: This review contains mild spoilers

Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way...and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.

Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves—and Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory.  Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it’s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs—about herself, her family, and her desires.

Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition—and the ovens—heat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.

It’s no secret Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material was one of my top favourite books of 2020. Because of that, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake was one of my most anticipated books of 2021, and I was extra excited that one of my favourite publishers, Forever, was publishing it. After reading this book, I have so many thoughts and feelings. So many. I will say it started and ended great - I was laughing within the first few pages and I was cheering for Rosaline in the end - but the whole rest of it was a bit of a roller coaster for me.

My main issue with this book was how preachy it felt. Within the first 20%, there were three instances where Rosaline was super preachy, and it continued on throughout the book. I’m here for inclusivity and calling out injustices and wrong assumptions, but the fact so many scenes turned into ‘teachable moments’ where Rosaline climbed up on her soapbox and told people they were wrong and why, it got to be a bit much. All of that was paired with the fact it seemed like nobody in the entire book had ever known someone who’d had a baby at 19 and made a huge deal over the fact Rosaline did. Maybe it’s because I know so many people who had babies in their late teens and early twenties so it’s not a big deal to me, but it was a massive deal to literally everyone in the entire book when they found out. Plus it really irked me that someone Rosaline barely knew - a love interest, no less - asked her why she hadn’t had an abortion. Who asks that of someone they just met?!

I got to a point where I rolled my eyes when a conversation was heading a certain way or someone said something even remotely offensive because I knew Rosaline would dust off the ol’ soapbox and we’d get another lesson. On the one hand, I appreciate that these things were included in an overall lighthearted, fun book, but I think a sprinkling would have worked better than having it dumped in repeatedly. The whole preachy aspect was made even..funnier? Stranger?...by the fact Rosaline herself was incredibly judgemental and often made snap judgments about people the moment they opened their mouths.

I’m also not 100% sure how I feel about the romance(s); Alain quickly revealed himself to be a jerk, yet Rosaline seemed determined to make things work with him because he was everything she thought she should want. I kept wondering at what point the red flags from Alain would smack her on the head and knock some sense into her. Harry was sweet, swoony, and very different from the typical love interest, which I loved. I enjoyed his interactions with Rosaline, but I would have loved to see more of the focus on him and not the guy who turned out to be a completely irredeemable scumbag. I’m not a huge fan of love triangles to begin with and this one fell flat for me because of how obviously wrong one of the guys was for her, plus a general lack of chemistry.

Okay, now that all that’s off my chest, I’ll move into the positive. As with Boyfriend Material, this book had me giggling so much. I love Hall’s wit and humour; the way he writes inner dialogue and banter is genius. Despite my issues with Rosaline’s preachiness, I did like her and connect with her, and I genuinely ended up rooting for her and wanting her to succeed. She reminded me of Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls in a way; despite having rich parents who put a lot of pressure on her, she wanted to forge her own path, raise her daughter on her terms, and find a sustainable (and enjoyable) way to support herself. I enjoyed watching her figure out what mattered to her, and felt like her stumbles along the way were realistic. Even when the things she did made me shake my head or roll my eyes, I still appreciated that more than a perfect, unrealistic character. And even though she came across as preachy, I appreciated how she learned to stand up for herself. 

Overall, despite my issues with Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, I did enjoy it. I was fully invested in Rosaline’s story and felt like she was a friend I was cheering on from the sidelines. This is apparently the first of three books in the Winner Bakes All series, and I’ll be curious to see what Hall has in store for us next.

Read my review of Boyfriend Material

Have you read Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake? Have you ever thought about trying out for a cooking show or any other reality show?

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The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon: STEM, Friendship, and Self-Discovery

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon
Published: June 9th, 2020
Publisher: Forever
# of pages: 386
Tropes: Office romance, friends to lovers
Heat level: 🔥🔥 - 🔥🔥🔥
My rating: 3.5 stars
Acquired this book: From the publisher in exchange for honest consideration
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Samiah Brooks never thought she would be "that" girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she's been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah-along with his two other "girlfriends," London and Taylor-have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men, no dating, and no worrying about their relationship status...

For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she's always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy, honey-eyed Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? When it comes to love, there's no such thing as a coincidence. But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true?

The Boyfriend Project has been on my radar for most of 2020, and I was so excited to finally read it. What I liked best about this book was the heroine, Samiah. She’s the type of woman I’d love to be friends with - smart, funny, driven, independent. I’m so glad to see more and more books featuring women in STEM, and I especially loved seeing a Black woman in the technology field, which is still a male-dominated field. I appreciated learning about the challenges and roadblocks women - especially women of colour - face in that field. Samiah continually had to prove herself, stay on top of everything, and excel in her field to get the attention and respect that was given to other people, especially men, so freely.

My other favourite part of the book was the friendship between Samiah, London, and Taylor. I swear I wanted to applaud when the women all came together after realizing they’d been catfished by the same guy. The typical reaction you see in most books, TV shows, and movies is for the women to turn on and blame each other. Not here. It was so refreshing, and I loved the instant camaraderie and connection between the ladies, despite the strange circumstances of their meeting. I also really appreciated how they made a pact to work on themselves before getting back into the dating world. Of course, Samiah met Daniel a hot minute later, but it worked in this case. So often you see a woman saying she wants to work on herself without a man in her life and then in the next minute she meets a guy and her life becomes about him. That wasn’t the case here. Samiah kept her weekly dates with her friends, she continued to work toward her goals, and, with Daniel, she got to do some of the things she loved doing but didn’t have anyone to do them with. I loved this quote: “He made her feel bold and playful and so many other delicious things. When was the last time she'd felt so carefree, so content? Samiah was falling in love with the person she was when she was with him."

What stopped me from loving this book was how drawn out it felt. There was a LOT of detail, especially about the tech stuff - yay for Samiah being a total boss, but all of that stuff is mostly over my head and had my mind wandering. There was also a lot of inner dialogue and a lot of repetition about why they shouldn’t be together, work stuff, and how Daniel was lying to Samiah. I also kind of wish there’d been more to the relationships. I felt this weird mix of wanting the book to be shorter because there were parts that didn’t hold my interest, while wanting MORE - more of the female friendships, more of the relationship between Samiah and Daniel, and more to the ending.

Overall I enjoyed The Boyfriend Project and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to romance fans. The tease at the end hinted there’s another book to come and which of the friend group it would be about, and I’m looking forward to returning to Austin with these characters.

Have you read The Boyfriend Project? Have you read any books recently featuring women in STEM? How about any great friendship books?

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The Trouble With Hating You by Sajni Patel: A Hate-to-Love Romance With More Hate Than Love

The Trouble With Hating You by Sajni Patel
Published: May 12th, 2020
Publisher: Forever
# of pages: 334
Tropes: Hate-to-love, opposites attract, office romance
Heat level: Steamy (kissing, talk of sex, but no on-page sex)
My rating: 3.5 stars
Acquired this book: From the publisher in exchange for honest consideration
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Liya Thakkar is a successful biochemical engineer, takeout enthusiast, and happily single woman. The moment she realizes her parents' latest dinner party is a setup with the man they want her to marry, she's out the back door in a flash. Imagine her surprise when the same guy shows up at her office a week later -- the new lawyer hired to save her struggling company. What's not surprising: he's not too thrilled to see her either after that humiliating fiasco.

Jay Shah looks good on paper...and off. Especially if you like that whole gorgeous, charming lawyer-in-a-good-suit thing. He's also arrogant and infuriating. As their witty office banter turns into late night chats, Liya starts to think he might be the one man who truly accepts her. But falling for each other means exposing their painful pasts. Will Liya keep running, or will she finally give love a real chance?

It took me a while to get into this book. My main issue was with the heroine, Liya; right from the first page, you could see how angry and defensive she was. On the one hand it made me curious because I wanted to know what made her that way - and seeing the way her dad treated her gave a good indication - but her behavior and attitude in the first chapter just felt like an overall bad first impression. That impression continued for some time and it took me at least half the book to feel like I connected with her in any way.

That being said, I have an appreciation for characters like Liya because they’re realistic. There are a million different kinds of personalities, and it’s only right for different types to be portrayed in books. We get a lot of sweet, quirky female leads, so it’s nice to see something completely different, but this is where reading becomes so subjective; in real life and in books, I’m drawn to those sweet and quirky people, so Liya’s instant anger, rudeness, and disrespect were jarring. She had justifiable reasons for her anger, distrust of men, and annoyance with the community, but because she was so harsh, I felt some of her good attributes were overshadowed. 

Even though it took me a while to get into the book and I never did feel a true connection with the characters, there were plenty of things I did like. I enjoyed Liya’s friend group and Jay’s family - they brought a lot of humour and heart to the story. I liked that despite everything she’d been through and how people saw her, Liya remained strong and independent, and she was determined to live her life how she wanted to, not how others thought she should. She had put up walls to survive and she didn’t need anyone to save her, but what she didn’t know she did need was a champion - someone to stand up for her, believe in her, and show her unconditional love - and she found that in Jay. She also got all of that from her friends, but she never thought she’d find it in a man; from her experience, men were all the same and only wanted certain things: absolute control and sex among them. Through patience and determination (and a bit of stubbornness too) Jay proved Liya wrong and showed her not all men are alike and that she could trust him and finally let down her walls. I also really enjoyed the cultural aspects of the book. Having grown up in a very white community, I always love learning about different cultural and religious practices.

Once I got into the story, I enjoyed The Trouble With Hating You quite a bit. I wish there had been more love than hate in this hate-to-love romance, but once Liya’s walls started to come down, I enjoyed watching the progression of her relationship with Jay. I look forward to more books from Sajni Patel in the future.

Have you read The Trouble With Hating You? Are you a fan of the hate-to-love trope?

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Forever Friends by Sarah Mackenzie: A Look at Friendship and the Struggles and Triumphs of Life

Forever Friends by Sarah Mackenzie
Published: December 10th, 2019
Publisher: Forever
Genre: Women’s fiction
Tropes/themes: Friendship, divorce, motherhood, small town
Heat level: Mostly sweet with a touch of heat
# of pages: 320
My rating: 3.5 stars
Acquired this book: From the publisher in exchange for honest consideration
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Single mom Renee Rhodes seems like a woman who has it all together -- perfect house, perfect kid, perfect yard. But now that her daughter is away at college, she doesn't know what to do next. Without weekly PTA meetings and after-school chauffeur duty, Renee isn't sure who she is anymore. What she is sure of is that she probably shouldn't be crushing on her new boss, who couldn't possibly be interested in a middle-aged mom....

Sadie Landry is drowning in the stay-at-home mom life. With a toddler running wild, a husband who is growing more distant by the day, and a mother-in-law who has a comment on every-little-thing, Sadie is one mommy-and-me class away from losing it. When she learns that she is pregnant again, Sadie knows that something has to change for the sake of her family -- and her sanity.

After a birthday party bake-a-thon nearly turns into a three-alarm fire, Renee comes to her neighbor Sadie's rescue with comfort, competence, and a killer pie recipe. With their unlikely friendship and a newly hatched plan to open a bakery, can Sadie and Renee finally have the lives they've always dreamed of?

Forever Friends is a really lovely story. I don’t read much women’s fiction these days (I’m drawn more to romance), but this book was sweet, funny, entertaining, and had great characters...plus more romance than I expected, which didn’t hurt!

I loved how this book featured two women with very different life experiences and at different points in their lives, and showed how despite the obvious differences, they were actually very similar. Sadie is a young stay-at-home mom to two-year-old Lincoln. She was a career woman who loved her job, but gave it up when she became a mom. Her husband works a lot, is out of town most of the time, and she’s completely overwhelmed. She feels like a bad mother because she can’t seem to get it together, no matter how hard she tries, plus she’s fairly isolated with no friends or family in Cranberry Cove and her husband always away. Renee is in her forties and suffering a case of empty nest syndrome. Her daughter, who's also her best friend, has gone away to college, and despite having a job she enjoys, she’s lonely and a bit aimless. Her husband left her over a decade ago and she hasn’t made much effort to date or move on in any way other than concentrating on being the best mom she can be. 

These characters were so easy to sympathize with. I’m about halfway between them agewise, and I’m not a mother, but I could understand and empathize with both of their struggles. At times I felt like a bit too much was being piled on, but at the same time, it was a realistic portrayal of real life, which I could appreciate. Life is messy and complicated, and this book captured that well. I really enjoyed all the different aspects of life we saw too: new motherhood, having a grown child, navigating marriage, finding it hard to move on after divorce, feeling isolated and lonely, sisterhood, friendship, finding love again when you think you never will, and having the courage to go after what you want. I also really enjoyed all the pie talk and ended up craving pie through most of this book!

Overall, Forever Friends was a heartfelt and heartwarming story. I loved Sadie and Renee, and their friendship is now one of my favourite bookish friendships. I’m excited to return to Cranberry Cove later this year and read more about Bree, Renee’s sister, and hopefully see more of Sadie and Renee.

Have you read Forever Friends? What are some of your favourite books that have strong elements of friendship?

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Review: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

 

This novel was partly inspired by Mackenzi Lee's discovery of the concept of the Grand Tour, something done by many rich people in the 18th century, that would last for months or even years, depending on funds. It's similar to our modern day 'gap year', where young people see the world between high school/college and pursuing further education or employment. I always wished I could have taken a gap year, and I still harbour a not-so-secret fantasy of taking several months or even a year and travelling through my own home country of Canada, plus Europe, so adventure/travel books like this really appeal to me. Plus, as a historical novel, it's interesting to see how difficult it often was to travel back then when people were limited to horse-drawn carriages and boats.   

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The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Series: Standalone
Published: June 27th, 2017
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
528 pages (eARC)
Genre: Historical Fiction/LGBTQ+/Adventure
Acquired this book: Via Edelweiss in exchange for honest consideration
Warning: May contain spoilers
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An unforgettable tale of two friends on their Grand Tour of 18th-century Europe who stumble upon a magical artifact that leads them from Paris to Venice in a dangerous manhunt, fighting pirates, highwaymen, and their feelings for each other along the way.

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his grand tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was one of my most anticipated books of 2017. I was even more excited when I saw a few trusted reader/blogger friends raving about it. When I finally picked it up, I giggled my way through the first 10% and then...well, then the disappointment kicked in. While the book started out funny and set things up nicely, I found myself bored through a lot of the book. I skimmed a lot, which I don’t normally do, and I considered DNFing several times, but by then I’d already dedicated several hours to the story and my mama didn’t raise a quitter!

I’ll start out with the things I liked. I loved Monty’s voice. He was hilarious and irreverent and selfish and hugely flawed, but also really likeable, and experienced great growth throughout the story. I also liked his sister, Felicity (she’s just the type of strong-willed, intelligent, against-the-grain girl I love seeing in historical fiction, and I'm incredibly excited she's getting her own book) and best friend/love interest, Percy. I loved the diversity in the story - Monty was bisexual, Percy was biracial and had a disability (I won’t mention what because I’d consider it a spoiler, but it was fascinating to learn how it was perceived in the 18th century and what the fate of someone with Percy’s condition often was), and they met up with a band of African pirates during the course of their adventures. You so rarely see any diversity in historical fiction, so it was refreshing to see. I also enjoyed the humour and the adventure itself (which was more of a misadventure) with highwaymen, pirates, alchemists, a sinking island, and lots of mishaps that ranged from amusing to tense.

I think this book could have easily been a five-star read for me if it hadn’t been so long. It felt like it took me forever to read and like it was never going to end. I’d be reading for ages and think I must be close to the end only to look down and see I’d only read 10% and was merely halfway through the book with another 3-4 hours to go. A book like this should have been so action-packed and exciting that I didn’t want to put it down, but instead I had to force myself to keep reading. 

I’m so sad and disappointed to say The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue didn’t live up to my expectations. Despite enjoying the adventures and liking the characters, I felt like I was slogging through, and I honestly couldn’t wait to be finished. I did appreciate Monty’s growth, and I was glad to see he got a happy ending after all he went through, plus there were definitely many laugh-out-loud moments, and a sweet romance. I’ve seen plenty of people raving about this book, which could make it a case of ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ or 'right book, wrong time'. As always, I encourage you to give this one a try if it sounds like something that would interest you.

Have you read The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue? What did you think? If you haven't read it, do you plan to? Have you read any other LGBTQ+ historical fiction books?

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Review: That Thing We Call a Heart by Sheba Karim

That Thing We Call a Heart by Sheba Karim
Series: Standalone
Published: May 9th, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
288 pages (eARC)
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Acquired this book: Via Edelweiss in exchange for honest consideration
Warning: This review contains marked spoilers
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Shabnam Qureshi is a funny, imaginative Pakistani-American teen attending a private school in suburban New Jersey. When her feisty best friend, Farah, starts wearing the headscarf without even consulting her, it begins to unravel their friendship. After hooking up with the most racist boy in school and telling a huge lie about a tragedy that happened to her family during the Partition of India in 1947, Shabnam is ready for high school to end. She faces a summer of boredom and regret, but she has a plan: Get through the summer. Get to college. Don’t look back. Begin anew.

Everything changes when she meets Jamie, who scores her a job at his aunt’s pie shack, and meets her there every afternoon. Shabnam begins to see Jamie and herself like the rose and the nightingale of classic Urdu poetry, which, according to her father, is the ultimate language of desire. Jamie finds Shabnam fascinating—her curls, her culture, her awkwardness. Shabnam finds herself falling in love, but Farah finds Jamie worrying.

With Farah’s help, Shabnam uncovers the truth about Jamie, about herself, and what really happened during Partition. As she rebuilds her friendship with Farah and grows closer to her parents, Shabnam learns powerful lessons about the importance of love, in all of its forms.

Featuring complex, Muslim-American characters who defy conventional stereotypes and set against a backdrop of Radiohead’s music and the evocative metaphors of Urdu poetry, THAT THING WE CALL A HEART is an honest, moving story of a young woman's explorations of first love, sexuality, desire, self-worth, her relationship with her parents, the value of friendship, and what it means to be true.

That Thing We Call a Heart can pretty much be summed up in two words: growing up. It’s a character-driven book with a sequence of events over the course of one summer, a lot of self-reflection, and little actual plot. These types of books can be hit or miss for me, but I really enjoyed this one.

Shabnam was a complex, believable character. She was an average girl - awkward, self-conscious at times, intelligent. Through most of the book, she’s incredibly self-centred; she’s aware of some of her faults, aware of the distance with her family and with her best friend, but she mostly just cares about herself, particularly her budding love life. Characters like her make me have that rare feeling of actually being a grown-up because the things they do and say drive me crazy. That being said, I appreciated how flawed she was, because it made her seem more real. I also appreciated the open and honest conversations (and inner monologue) dealing with things like religion, sex, desire, the ignorant and sometimes downright racist comments people make without realizing they’re being ignorant or racist, and natural things of a personal nature (for instance, Shabnam mentioned several times how much she sweated and she worried about BO, which is so rare and yet so refreshing, because honestly who hasn’t worried about that at some point?).

This was the first book I’ve read with a Muslim main character, and I enjoyed learning more about the religion, Pakistani culture, and bits of history. I also enjoyed learning about Urdu poetry, and I liked how it was something that connected Shabnam to her otherwise distant father (who was hilarious, by the way). I loved how the author worked in honest, natural conversations about religion and how Shabnam and Farah differed quite a bit in their thinking, especially when Farah started wearing hijab. This book had a great cast of side characters, from Shabnam’s parents to Farah to Jamie.

Speaking of Jamie...two spoilers ahead...

I never particularly liked Jamie. There was always something about him that made me wary, and as the story went on, I realized I had good reason to be wary. While I love a happily ever after and expect it in most contemporaries, I think the author made an interesting decision, and I’ll be curious to see how other readers feel about Jamie. I’m used to summer romances finding a way to work out, and was surprised when this one not only didn’t work out, but we discovered Jamie was a player who had a less-than-stellar track record with girls. As a romance junkie, I’m surprised by my own reaction to how the romance played out and the fact I actually appreciated it. Getting to see Shabnam heartbroken and working through it, realizing how selfish she’d been, and trying to make things right with Farah and her family made me like her even more. It’s also far more realistic than most YA contemporaries. We’re used to swoonworthy, mature boys, and while I’m a sucker for them in fiction, they’re extremely rare in real life. How things worked out - plus Jamie’s general personality and behaviour - was so much more realistic.  

It didn’t bother me that Shabnam and Jamie drank or that they and Farah smoked pot. Part of me even appreciated seeing it because some kids do it, and I don’t like to pretend they don’t (same with sex in YA - it happens!). However, what I was 100% not okay with was the fact Farah and Jamie both drove while high. Farah even said something to the effect of ‘I drive better when I’m high’. NOPE. Impaired driving is impaired driving, and I hate that it’s in a book, especially a YA book, as if it’s completely normal and okay. It pissed me off to the point I almost stopped reading. I get that some things happen in a book and it doesn’t mean the author necessarily condones it or agrees with it, but in this case - maybe because I’ve been in an accident with a drunk driver (a drunk driver hit us, and my toddler nephew was in the vehicle) and have driven with a person who was high and feared for my safety - it rubbed me the wrong way.

<end spoilers>

That Thing We Call a Heart is a story about love in its many forms. It’s about growing up, figuring things out, and trying to understand the world around you and your place in it. By the end of the book, I was impressed with and proud of Shabnam’s growth. She learned a lot of hard, painful lessons over the course of the summer, and she came out a better person for it. This is a funny, touching, realistic story, and I’d recommend it to fans of contemporary YA.

Have you read That Thing We Call a Heart? What did you think? If you haven't read it, do you plan to? Can you recommend any books with Muslim main characters?

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Review: How Not to Fall in Love by Deirdre Riordan Hall

How Not to Fall in Love by Deirdre Riordan Hall
Series: Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told 1.5
Published: February 14th, 2017
Publisher: Self-published
146 pages (ebook)
Genre: Contemporary women’s fiction
Acquired this book: Gift
Warning: May contain spoilers
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Katya's middle name may be Aphrodite, but she has no interest in relationships. In fact, she has three rules she lives by:

1. Never spend the night.

2. Never sleep with the same guy twice.

3. Never fall in love.

Oh, and number 3.1 is never order the same coffee two days in a row.

That's a lot of nevers, but when she breaks every single one of them, repeatedly (her undoing was a vanilla latte with a heart in the foam, BTW), she begins to wonder…

Actually, it was a batch of chocolate chip cookies that started her downward spiral. Never mind, scratch that, it was Spencer—her neighbor. He's also a banker, a player, and seems to know just what Kat wants, which isn't love.

Until they start to spend a lot of time together…

Until she finds one of his socks at her place...

Until they go to a ski resort for a long weekend…

Until he has a snowboarding injury…

As Kat struggles with the part of her that wants to be strong, single, and on the scene and the mushy, melty, romantic within, she tries desperately not to fall in love. But what's wrong with falling if you have someone with dark tousled hair, refined yet ruggedly handsome features, and chiseled abs to catch you?

Nothing. Nothing at all.
 

When I read Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told, I found myself as interested in Katya as I was in Navy. She seemed to lead an interesting life, and she clearly had some issues in her past that caused her to be the way she was. I was happy to hear she was getting her own story with How Not to Fall in Love.

I liked Katya a lot. She was an interesting mixture - on the one hand, she seemed to have it together, but underneath she was damaged by things that happened in her past and was struggling. She seemed happy with her life of no commitments and didn’t have plans to change, but deep down she was a romantic who needed to learn a few lessons about life and love in order to open up her heart. I enjoyed watching her growth and found myself cheering her on. Of course, it didn't hurt that Spencer was hot and swoony and ended up being really good for Katya in a lot of ways. Their romance was believable and enjoyable.

How Not to Fall in Love is a sweet, funny, romantic novella that can be read as a standalone. If you’re looking for a something light and feel-good, be sure to give this one a try!

 

{Read my review of Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told}

 

 

{My review of Sugar || My review of Pearl} 

 

Have you read How Not to Fall in Love or Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told? What did you think? If you haven't read them, do you plan to? Have you read any women's fiction lately that you'd recommend?

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