Genre: Contemporary Romance
~Blurb~
An unspoken rule.
A friendship that will be tested.
Quinn
He was my crush at thirteen and ten years later that feeling never ceased.
I thought that time and distance would change us but I never expected the feelings to grow.
Now things are complicated.
His sister is my best friend.
She’s also his twin.
And I’m stuck in the middle.
Trevor
She was always my fantasy come to life and I knew even at sixteen that girls like her were rare.
Soft, feminine, sweet to her core - she was my complete opposite.
I knew how to keep her away when we were young, but I’m finding it hard to keep her out of reach when everyone is pushing us together.
My sister can never know the things I plan to do to her best friend.
~Book Review~
2.75 Stars
Quinn Miller, 24, has returned to her
Texas hometown to get a break from L.A., and to visit with her childhood best
friend, Izzy, when she discovers she still has a crush on Izzy’s twin brother, Trevor
Shaw.
I side-eyed Quinn’s celebrity status many
times and not just because I prefer plots about average people. I might have bought that she was simply an
actress, a profession that’s a dime a dozen in LA and would have explained her
relocating after high school; but, it was the fact that she became an instant
star upon arrival in LA, appearing on dozens of magazine covers and walking the
red carpet, that was unrealistic and inconsistent. She travels without a bodyguard; thinks she
can’t get into a small but busy local club; and when she does, she gets drunk, taken
out by a cop in uniform, pukes, and passes out. Yet this never makes social
media or the tabloids???
The paparazzi later appears and then
seems to disappear. Again, it’s really inconsistent. And made Quinn difficult
to connect with. I think there was
potential to make Quinn a fuller character, especially if the issue with her
parents would have been more fully developed, but her parents and that side
plot felt flat.
As for Trevor, well I could have done
without the “there is never a shortage of women to finish the job for me”
comment following his assertion that he wasn’t hasn’t taken care of it himself
in years. I find a man who can take care of it himself instead of whoring
around a lot more attractive. But then
later, Trevor monologues that he didn’t actually practice his playboy
reputation; he just never squelched the rumors. Again, inconsistency.
I was also bothered by this line:
“…she doesn’t need to be treated like the women I’m normally with. She needs to be treated with the care she deserves.”
So other women don't deserve to be
treated with care and respect?
I
get the message this statement was going for—the heroine is special; but
there’s no need to degrade other women simply to prop the heroine.
I also eye-rolled a few instances of romance
world trite vernacular. Oh and he calls her “sweetheart” 37 times.
(Trust me, it felt like he said it every time he opened his mouth.)
On the plus side, there are plenty of
detailed steamy encounters and the reader gets to experience their romance.
Trevor was actually pretty sweet when he was taking her out. The story is
overall safe without any real OW/OM drama. That’s always a plus!
But there’s something about their
interactions, including Trevor’s sister’s opinion on it all, that came across rather
high schoolish.
“‘Oh my God, how could we forget about Izzy? She’s going to flip out…she can not know about this. It would kill her.’”
Told via Quinn and Trevor’s alternating
first person point of view, this is a best friend’s sibling “forbidden”
romance. The whole “forbidden” angle
felt forced/contrived. I couldn’t help
but feel that if someone was really your best friend, you should be comfortable
confiding in them, whether it is her brother or not when you’re all TWENTY-FOUR
YEARS OLD, not twelve. And I’d also hope
that said sibling would handle the situation more supportively. The way it
played out, I thought Quinn and Izzy’s friendship seemed somewhat superficial,
though I don’t think that was the intent. A mature conversation between everyone
involved would have gone a long way.
Last but not least, there’s a strange
continuity error when Quinn can’t wash her vibrator because “we have no water
without the power on.” Umm, when my
power goes out I still have water. Those
lines are totally separate. Still, I’m
sure she could have improvised.
All in all, it was just an okay read, and
if you can get past the above issues which distracted me, you might enjoy it.
AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
Renee Harless, her husband, and children live in Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She studied Communication, specifically Public Relations, at Radford University.
Growing up, Renee always found a way to pursue her creativity. It began by watching endless runs of White Christmas- yes even in the summer – and learning every word and dance from the movie. She could still sing Sister Sister if requested. In high school she joined the show choir and a community theatre group, The Troubadours. After marrying the man of her dreams and moving from her hometown she sought out a different artistic outlet – writing.
To say that Renee is a romance addict would be an understatement. When she isn’t chasing her toddler around the house, working her day job, or writing, she delves head first into a romance novel.
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