From Goodreads:
My opinion on this book varies. On the one hand, it's a chick-lit love story type that I love. Girl gets heartbroken, girl vows wanting nothing to do with boy, girl meets another boy but fights her attraction to him, boy and girl briefly get together, some disaster happens and boy and girl break up, and then boy and girl realize breakup is a mistake and get back together.
But there was something about the writing that was off-putting to me. It was a little too graphic in the sex area. I don't mind that, if that's the type of book that it is. But the rest of the book appeared chick-lit-like, not romance novel-like (or at least at the time I didn't think so. Now looking back, it did kind of seem like a romance novel.)
I mostly liked Lucy. There were some things that she thought/said/did that I rolled my eyes at, but for the most part, I enjoyed her character. Josh was just okay for me. Nothing really great stood out. I loved the teeny side characters of the two dogs though :)
Overall, an okay novel. I think I would give Phillipa Ashley another chance.
I gave this book a rating of 3/5.
This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 52
2012 ARC Reading Challenge: 44
Completely Contemp Challenge 2012: 2012-11
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free from Sourcebooks Landmark for an honest review.
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ReplyDeleteHi Andrea,
ReplyDeleteI've reposted my comment as it was full of typos!
Thank you for your review and so glad the book kept you entertained on such a long flight!That is an epic journey..
Re the sex scenes: I think you've highlighted a very interesting point that's not often discussed: I do think one of the differences between UK romantic fiction and US romance/women's fiction is the specific genre stranding. I don't think we tend to have such specific genre distinctions in the UK when it comes to Women's fiction. We do have Mills & Boon but by and large, that is the only 'pure' romance line that is well known here. Most other novels with romantic content are shelved either under women's fiction or on the general fiction shelves. I am a British author and when I wrote JSY and my other Sourcebooks published books, I never thought for a second they might be published in the US - that's been a huge and unexpected bonus. The books were originallly published by Little Black Dress - a romantic imprint with a deliberately wide brief that covered chick lit and romance. LBD wanted a broad range of authors and stories within their stable. That imprint suited me perfectly as I wrote my first book, Decent Exposure, just as I wanted it to be - with romance and chick lit elements (although I wasn't aware of that at the time as it was my very first novel.) I simply wrote the book I wanted, which as it turned out, happened to combine the two genres.
In fact, all seven of my books cross over the romance and chick lit genres - including the new one, Miranda's Mount, which is out in October with Piatkus Entice, a new UK based romantic imprint.
Interestingly, although I have a very British voice, my novels have ended up with an international audience including many readers in Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, America, Thailand, Russia, Bulgaria and Turkey as well as the USA.
Interestingly, on Amazon UK, they are bought with US style contemporary romance such as Rachel Gibson, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julie James etc as well as UK chick lit.
I would recommend British authors Veronica Henry, Tasmina Perry, Jilly Cooper and Kate Lace's new book Cox if you did want to explore more British authors who write sexier romantic fiction. The Little Black Dress series is well worth checking out, although the 'heat' level ranges across the books.
Thank you again for the review and happy travelling!