She Reads Too Much

The book was not awful but, for me, it wasn't very good.

In general, I don't mind books with kids in them because I love to read about families in most of their incarnations. However there was way too much child in this one. And the child was not cute, clever or sweet. She was spoiled, selfish and a brat who was throwing temper tantrums pretty much every time we saw her on page. Which was most of the pages. Too many of the pages. She cock blocked several times and totally killed the book.

I've had a 7-year old and if she had behaved in this manner she would have spent WAY more time in her room and grounded.

In fact, I remember more about the kid, and her mother (who was badly behaved for most of the book and then we are expected to believe that one crying jag later she's a wonderful person) than I recall about Gavin and Brody - the two main characters of the book.

Brody, as a character, fell pretty flat for me. He was lifeless on the page. Gavin was a pushover for his kid which actually made him very unattractive to me.

There were several things, like Brody saying Evie (the brat kid) was good in small doses and he wouldn't want to deal with her full time, that made me unhappy with him in terms of being a step-parent to a child.

Now that I think about it, there was actually very little time with just Gavin and Brody on the page. It was pretty much alone or with Evie. And the times they were together Evie was still in the house. Cock blocking. So I didn't really buy into their relationship.

Also, they meet and a chapter or so later we're told it's several months later and I totally missed the development of relationship. In fact, what the hell was this story about anyway?

It was about Evie and how they interacted with her.

And for a romance, it fell flat. And the sex was mostly off page. Ugh.

I wanted it to work. I have a blended family and I understand the unique challenges in bringing someone who is not the parent into a relationship with your children. I also understand the fine line you walk in parenting a child who is not your own. The whole thing is a set up for strife and angst.

Not here though. The relationship was solid and loving. Which was wonderful. But made for boring reading.

And way too much Evie. WAY. TOO. MUCH.

So it was simply okay for me. Because it was well written and I did finish it. But it's not memorable and doesn't make me want to run out and by more by this author. And that? That's kinda sad.