BOOK REVIEW: Maid in England by Brenda St. John Brown

~Blurb~

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Except almost. That one time. 

TO: The guy who dumped me
FROM: The woman hired to advance your career
RE: I am 150,000% over you.
Alastair,

I’m on the 11:14 train out of London, so I’ll be there by 3:00. To make this as painless as possible, I thought it would help to establish key ground rules:
1. No rehashing our past relationship. Yes, we were engaged, but it’s been twelve years and I’m over you.
2. I’m very good at my job and that job is to help you shed the “reclusive” part of the whole “reclusive rock star” vibe you’ve got going on. Brace yourself.
3. My plan is to have this wrapped up by Friday, so save your smoldering looks until I’m gone, please. (I assume you still smolder?) I’m immune now. See item #1.

I’ll see you in a few hours.
Remi

P.S. My cousin is getting married at the beginning of August. Guess who’s a bridesmaid? Funny, huh? Almost as funny as the fiancée you dumped because you thought she was married to her job now saving yours. Have I mentioned I’m totally, completely 150,000% over you? 

GOODREADS

~Review~

3.75 Stars

Remi Cooper, 34, is a workaholic publicist. Alastair Wells, 32, is a songwriter and up-and-coming musician whose agent has just hired his ex-fiancé to advance his career. Back in each other’s orbit, the two have the chance to revisit old mistakes and future possibilities.

“All it would take is a kiss to ignite this spark flickering between us. Like a match in the middle of a California summer, I’m pretty sure we could burn for days.”

This is a slow burn romance with low steam. I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t spicier as I think it might have helped enhance their chemistry.  None the less, I appreciated that it avoided many romance clichés as well as OW/OM drama. The writing is solid, and both the premise and characters had potential.

Alastair isn’t a romance rockstar stereotype. Refreshingly, he’s quiet, low key, and not a manwhore. He seemed like a pretty genuine and down-to-earth guy.

Remi is dedicated and hard-working.  That’s both a strength and a flaw for her. There’s a lot of focus on Remi reevaluating her career and doing some soul-searching with her 35^th birthday approaching, and the story is told from her sole first person POV. 

I would have really liked to have read some chapters from Alastair’s POV and more scenes of Remi and Alastair together. I think both would have gone a long way in showing what he was feeling through this process of them getting a second chance, but also to feel the connection between them more fully. It was clear they shared a past; more development of them in the present would have benefited the romantic angle.

The blurb made this title look like a lot of fun. I wish the story would have captured more of that. While the majority of it kept me engaged, there was a little zing that just felt like it was missing. In places there’s more ‘tell’ than ‘show.’

I was also left feeling a little unsatisfied with the Sarah factor. For the role she played in Alastair’s life, I felt like she should have been more central to the story, as in I needed to see more development of her relationship with Remi if I was going to truly envision their HEA, which I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced of based off the pacing of the story combined with their lack of time together in the present. Ultimately I envisioned them more of a casual couple than a family.

AMAZON

*ARC received from the author. All reviews written by Book-Bosomed Book Blog are honest opinions.