The Particulars: Contemporary Romance, Carina Press, ebook.
The source: Purchased at Books on board
The Grade: A
The blurb:
Grace has taken care of her widowed father her entire adult life and the ornery old goat has finally died. She has no job, no skills and very little money, and has heard her father's prediction that no decent man would ever want her so often she accepts it as fact.
But she does have a big old house on Lawyers Row in Peacock, Tennessee. She opens a rooming house and quickly gathers a motley crew of tenants: Promise, Grace's best friend since kindergarten, who's fighting cancer; Maxie, an aging soap opera actress who hasn't lost her flair for the dramatic; Jonah, a sweet, gullible old man with a crush on Maxie.
And Dillon, Grace's brother's best friend, who stood her up on the night of her senior prom and has regretted it ever since. Dillon rents Grace's guest house for the summer and hopes to make up for lost time and past hurts—but first, he'll have to convince Grace that she's worth loving.
The review:
This book... I am not sure how to describe it. According to Carina Press, it is a contemporary romance. Which is true, there are romance, several in fact, but there are so much more in it.
There are the old hurts between Dillon and Gwen. There are the on and off again relationship between Promise and Stephen. There are the mature love between Jonah and Maxie. The relationships are shadowed by old hurts, guilt, and secrets.
I'll admit it. I went teary eyed several times when I read this book.
My heart went soft when Dillon and Gwen started to rebuild their relationship. I wept when the secrets were revealed, all of them. But most of all, I cheered when Gwen started to regain her confidence, and believe that maybe, just maybe, her father had been wrong.
I understood Dillon's fury. I wanted to strangle her father too, for being a cruel insensitive bastard. Yet, during the book it was explained why he hated Gwen so much.
The novel takes place in a small town. The sense of community were a red thread through the book, both through happy and sad times. I loved the story telling times, especially the Magpie stories. Just.. aw. Sometimes, the setting felt so real that I could feel the sweltering summer of Tennessee. I could almost see the Elliot House in front of me.
I cannot find anything to pick on when it comes to this book. Except for one thing. I regret that this book is published by Carina Press since it deserve to be read a wide audience, no matter if they read e-books or not. I am crossing my fingers that I'll read a similar announcement for this book, as the one I read for Shannon Stacey's Kowalski series.
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