One Star

I put this book off for a long time, and now I know why. It just didn’t work for me. I love marriage in trouble books. Seeing a couple fight for their HEA is deeply appealing to me as a romance reader and realist. Reading about a couple stepping back and examining their whirlwind romance? I love it. Or I would have loved it if the heroine had done a little (or a lot) more self-reflection.

Okay, if you’ve read this book you might say, “Girl, the last 5% of the book the heroine realizes the hero isn’t the complete POS she makes him out to be the whole story and feels a little bit of guilt for her own actions.” Okay. Cool. I saw it. I wasn’t convinced. Yes, the hero contributed to the problems in their marriage, but so did the heroine. I love some good old-fashioned groveling… when it’s deserved. I felt like the hero was groveling the whole book and the heroine was sitting on her high horse kicking him.

The heroine had major communication and trust issues that are basically glossed over. I hate it when a heroine expects the hero to read her mind. I marked it down, there were two times in the book where the heroine said, “you should KNOW” as if the hero has some kind of divine insight into the inner workings of her mind. Spoiler, he doesn’t. Plus even when the heroine realizes she has some “small” part in the whole fiasco of their marriage, she doesn’t deliver on the grand gesture because she has to deal with her own emotional baggage.

I don’t want to go “full rant mode” on this book because I do understand why so many readers fell in love. But the sub-par plot and unlikeable characters ruined any “cute” moments derived from the men-reading-romance subplot. I was distressed about the whole situation and the book actually made me upset for a few days. In fact, I was going to give this book a generous two star rating, but writing this review upset me all over again and I knocked off a star.

Overall, I clearly had large problems with this book, but I know it worked with tons of other readers, and I’m glad! I am going to try and move on from this book and maybe, maybe read book two… but probably not because don’t even get me started on the sister in this book and she’s the heroine of book two.

**I received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**

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