Book Review: The Bookshop of Second Chances

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Publisher’s description for The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser:

Set in a charming little Scottish town, The Bookshop of Second Chances is an uplifting story of fresh starts and new beginnings by a hugely talented debut author.
 
Thea’s having a bad month. Not only has she been made redundant, she’s also discovered her husband of nearly twenty years is sleeping with one of her friends. And he’s not sorry – he’s leaving.
 
Bewildered and lost, Thea doesn’t know what to do. But, when she learns the great-uncle she barely knew has died and left her his huge collection of second-hand books and a house in the Scottish Lowlands, she seems to have been offered a second chance.
 
Running away to a little town where no one knows her seems like exactly what Thea needs. But when she meets the aristocratic Maltravers brothers – grumpy bookshop owner Edward and his estranged brother Charles, Lord Hollinshaw – her new life quickly becomes just as complicated as the life she was running from...

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3/5 stars

What happens when Evvie Drake lands in a Jenny Colgan novel? This book. A recently divorced middle-aged woman finds herself in a tiny Scotland town where she has inherited a house and starts working in a bookshop. It was a cozy read I devoured in a few days. I love sinking in to a small town British setting like this book has. On paper it has everything I like in a book!

But I had a couple of fairly major issues with it that ultimately bring down the rating. First, everything happens far too fast in the first chapter. The pacing was off. Come to find out, the first chapter was submitted to publishers as part of a contest, and once I knew that it made perfect sense. That uneven feeling carried through the book. I wanted more emotion and background about the main character's relationship with her ex-husband, more about her sorting through her feelings rather than brushing them off. Her response to his cheating and suddenly dumping her after decades largely comes across as 'Eh, I wasn't happy about it but I didn't want to be a jerk to him.' ?!?! And then, finally, and the reason I can't give this more than three stars even though there was a lot of it I enjoyed, is that the reader is asked to not only overlook abusive and discriminatory behavior from a character who literally forbids women working for him, but to ultimately somehow find it charming and fall in love with him a little. I am very over giving hateful men a pass. We can understand the reasons for this behavior without condoning it or needing it in our life. And the thing is, at times he was very charming and I did like him! So this aspect of his character just seemed like an unnecessary plot device.

All of which is to say, I read fast because I like the setting and the concept and I couldn’t figure out how I felt about the book. Ultimately, the character development was uneven and at times frustrating, and I ended the book with a lot of questions and some irritation. I think with sharper editing, tightened pacing, and cutting out some of the unnecessary extreme behavior, this book could be great.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC!

Book Review: In a Holidaze

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Publisher’s Description for In a Holidaze, by Christina Lauren:

One Christmas wish, two brothers, and a lifetime of hope are on the line for hapless Maelyn Jones in In a Holidaze, the quintessential holiday romantic novel by Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: “Please. Show me what will make me happy.”

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.
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4/5 stars

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Christina Lauren and a fan of the holidays, so when In a Holidaze appeared on NetGalley I jumped at the chance to review. I was thrilled when my request was granted for this holiday offering from the prolific writing duo who puts out some of the best light, fluffy romantic fiction with heart. It’s the best escapism and we all need that now more than ever. I knew a holiday book from them would be a warm, cozy treat and indeed it was. I devoured this in a couple of days, and I love how they captured family dynamics and holiday nostalgia so perfectly. This is a book you’ll want to sink into in front of a fire place with a festive holiday drink. My small quibble is that I don’t think it actually needed the time loop plot line. It didn’t really add to the story, which is at its heart about the relationships, and about Mae figuring out who she is and what she wants. The authors are so good at drawing characters, it’s one of the reasons I always come back to them. And I think a little more of that and less of making the plot device work would have taken this up to five stars for me. But it was fun and delightful and if you’ve been waiting for a Christina Lauren holiday book, this it! It would make a fun gift for a friend or a stocking stuffer.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Book Review: Boyfriend Material

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Publisher’s description for Boyfriend Material, by Alexis Hall:

Luc O'Donnell is tangentially—and reluctantly—famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he's never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad's making a comeback, Luc's back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything.

To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship...and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He's a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he's never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened.

But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that's when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don't ever want to let them go.

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I liked Boyfriend Material. The characters are fun, it’s set in London, and it’s a romcom. I love a romcom with a big boisterous friend group and it had a lot of funny moments. This was a very serviceable, heartwarming distraction with all the elements for a fluffy read—what’s not to like, right?

Well, I did have some quibbles. I yearned for clear consistent writing that didn’t take me on a loop de loop through the author’s meandering thoughts. I found myself confused and annoyed at times reading paragraphs like this: ‘The constantly being in the main character’s head and the...you know...thoughts? That like he expressed in a way that was a way a thought would be expressed if I knew how to express it? Was so tiring.’ A TOUCH of that would have added to the character but doing it so often took me out of the book multiple times.

And while I liked the characters (mostly) and the story arc, the real tender raw moments didn’t have me feeling fully invested. Some of the bits, like how stupid one of the characters was, also would have been much funnier in smaller doses. When it was drawn out and repetitive it was too much. It also didn’t seem real and thus took me out of the moment. The main character was also such a jerk, repeatedly and deeply, that it made me not care much about him. His redemption arc didn’t quite get there for me.

In short, I was not invested in the way I should have been. I will happily overlook plot holes in a romcom but the plot for this one was just a little too thin and didn’t have the motivation it needed—and then suffocated under the weight of the main character.

Final Verdict: Would I pick up Boyfriend Material for a beach read? Go for it. Something tells me it would also be good on audio, where someone can act out all the main character’s thoughts so you don’t have to do the work of wading through them. I also might have been expecting this to be Red, White & Royal Blue and we all know that is just not a fair comparison!

I received a copy of Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for letting me review!