A romance novel should be about the couple. They can have trials and tribulations, and fight or whatever conflict propels the growth of their relationship. That’s how I view romances. I get frustrated when a plot takes over and draws attention from the main characters. That is the way I feel about this book.
There was a little bit of a Sixteen Candles vibe to it at the beginning, but when the family started treating Eileen terribly instead of just “forgetting” her birthday, it turned me off. Her sister was beyond awful from the beginning, but I just couldn’t understand how both Eileen and Jason let their families manipulate them so easily. It totally distracted me from their budding romance.
I also thought there were a few places where logic took a leap beyond the two of them running all over creation and spending their money for a shotgun wedding. For example, there was one scene when Jason and Eileen were looking at wedding venues. Eileen observes that there is one place that would be perfect at sunset, but then continues with “…especially if we take this place up on that discount for doing Friday morning…” Huh?
It may seem nitpicky, but things like this just took me away from them as a couple. I never really got that he was the womanizer and awful person that he was supposed to be; he actually didn’t seem all that bad, considering everything he was doing for his cousin.
At any rate, this one just wasn’t for me. I look forward to giving this author another try next time, though.
Then He Happened by Claudia Y. BurgoaMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really wanted to like this book, as I have enjoyed past books by this author. But this one seemed very uneven to me. I liked the premise that the couple (Jason and Eileen) meet over the shared misery of helping family members plan a wedding. But the story seemed uneven and disjointed. I never got the full feeling of Jason being the cad that he was supposed to be. And to be perfectly frank, I couldn’t understand why both of them didn’t tell their relatives to take a flying leap – they both took way too much abuse to be believable, and the hideousness of the relatives took over the romance. Visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks Fiction Reviews for more thoughts. This review was written based on a complimentary pre-release digital ARC.
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