Tag: celebrity romance

TSM Book Club Book #27: Will They Or Won’t They by Ava Wilder

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Started: July 1st
Finished: July 6th
TSM Rating: 5/5

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m going to be honest, I loved Shane instantly, but it took awhile for Lilah to grow on me. She was such a frustrating character to root for. And this is coming from someone who can get lost in her own mind and feelings from time to time.

These two had such an epic meet cute at the beginning. Eyes meeting across a room, instant “this-one-is-going-to-be-different” attraction.

She realized belatedly that she’d gone too long staring at him without saying anything. He was still watching her, the corner of his mouth quirking up in amusement. Dimple, she thought stupidly, involuntarily.

WTOWT, pg. 10

Then a slow burn get together that goes down in flames. Which for most relationships is just the end, but the rebuilding of that fire from the cinder was epic. Ava Wilder really makes you work for their reconnection. She makes them work for it.

It would have been so easy for her to have these two characters fall right back into bed with angry, hateful sex right at the beginning, but that’s not what this couple is about. That first meeting was epic and life altering. It’s not something you want to mess up twice.

While Lilah is tough and emotionally reserved, Shane is softer and kinder, and emotionally available. He’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, his reaction to Lilah abruptly dumping him was immature at best. Most of his actions come from a place of hurt and fear.

What Ava Wilder does best with this and her first novel, How to Fake it in Hollywood, is building the anticipation and allowing her character space to grow and work on their flaws.

She suddenly understood, with a nauseating surge or regret, what a precious thing she’d been so careless with all those years ago, too blinded by distrust and self-loathing to see it standing right in front of her, if only been brave enough to reach for it.

WTOWT, pg. 182

I enjoyed this book so much. It was totally worth the wait.

TSM Book Club Book #29: The Duchess Effect by Tracey Livesay

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Started: July 11th
Finished: July 22nd
TSM Rating: 4/5

Another highly anticipated read for me. While I liked it, I was so frustrated with Dani in this book. I understood her motivations, but I wanted her to make different choices. Prince Jameson wins by being charming, kind, and sexy.

The Duchess Effect is the sequel to American Royalty. Jameson and Duchess are still riding high in the early stages of their romance, although they’ve spent most of their time behind closed doors and away from the public. It’s easy to be in love and make promises when you aren’t putting your relationship to the test by letting it exist in the real world.

It’s the test and how Duchess responds to it that almost breaks them. Instead of trusting that Jameson would help her and show up for her, she decides to hide the truth from him.

At the beginning of the book, they make a pact to stay out of each other’s professional lives. To keep their relationship solely about them, but when Duchess’s professional future becomes unfortunately tied to Jameson, she does. There are several moments when she can come clean but chooses not to out of a misguided — albeit based on past trauma — belief that he’ll leave her.

For his part, Jameson is a little bit obtuse about certain things. He publicly declared to the media that he and Duchess were in love but then tried to put them back in the box by avoiding the press. Jameson doesn’t fully grasp what kind of pressure truly being together puts on Duchess. Also, there are points where different parts of her personality come out — Spades, anyone — and he internally balks as if she doesn’t contain multitudes.

Overall, I liked the book. It was a worthy follow-up and answered many questions left open in the first book.

TSM Book Club Book #17: When In Rome by Sarah Adams

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Started: April 20th
Finished: April 25th
TSM Rating: 4/5

This was so cute. From Amelia and Noah’s meet-cute to their many attempts to keep their hands off each other to Amelia’s ongoing struggle to make the perfect pancake, I enjoyed When In Rome so much.

Sometimes romance novels can be a bit cringey with how the main characters behave. The sunshine character always comes off like an airhead who needs to be rescued. While Amelia did need rescuing initially, it was out of her control. When it comes to her relationship with Noah, she makes mature, adult decisions at every turn, making her one of the most relatable heroines that I’ve come across in a long while.

For his part as the grump, Noah fits the trope. Though, I would say he is more cautious and guarded than grumpy. He’s been burned by love before. He chose poorly in the past and is overcompensating by taking himself out of the game, even though he really, really wants to play.

I loved the dynamic between Noah and his sisters — Annie, Madison, and Emily. He is basically a lamb to the slaughter any time the four of them are together. They rule the Walker family, but you get the vibe that he would do anything for them. Practice Makes Perfect, the next book in the series, comes out next week, and I can’t wait to read Annie’s story and spend more time with the Walker clan.