There’s nothing quotable about this book…
Carpool uses an enemies to lover’s trope in a forced proximity situation. I found the premise interesting, thought it would be a charming, fun read. But it suffered from numerous issues in my opinion and even though it was less than 200 pages, I still ended up skimming.
Jennifer’s grandmother had always warned her away from the youngest Greene son as she was growing up in the small town of Sterling, Virginia. Marcus Greene was known as the motorcycle riding “bad” boy. She had always felt a surge of “excitement, dislike, and danger” when she saw him. Being the responsible rule follower, her grandmother raised, she stayed clear of him.
Now 30ish and financing her grandmother’s care, Jennifer’s strapped for cash to repair her car. Instead of using an auto shop, her retired mechanic friend will fix it in his spare time, but that will take several weeks. She needs a ride to work at Milford College, a 45-miutes drive from her house. The only option she has is to asks her neighbor, Marcus Greene, to carpool since he works at the same place.
She wants to feel secure and not have to hold her world together alone, and he wants someone to know him for real.
The MCs were subpar. Jennifer’s was a door mat who whined (financial woes, grandmother’s health woes, insecurity woes, responsibility woes). Marcus didn’t fit the bad guy rep. He lived on his parents’ property, and it was said that he helped with things on the farm they could no longer do themselves. He had a steady job and a truck. The MCs cycled through the same activities. Go to work, get food, watch T.V., have sex. Jennifer’s friend, Beck, called this dating. I know I’m an older reviewer, but this seems like a crappy example of my idea of dating. Unfortunately, Marcus was a frequent serial dater who never had a relationship last past a month. There was no mention of OW, nor when his last “date” occurred before he hooked up with Jennifer.
The only conflict came from the couple’s miscommunication issues. After the first time they hooked up, he told her he “had a good time” and to let him know if she wanted “to let go like that again.” Aside from Marcus not sounding like much of a prize, this set the first in a series of miscommunications into play. The worst one was when Marcus gave Jennifer advice about a man she dated a few times at the beginning of the book, she really took it to heart. Much later, Marcus was slow to act on his advice causing Jennifer heart ache. This plot device grew tiresome. I wanted the couple to interact without second guessing their feelings or misreading the situation. By the time I got what I wanted, the book was over, literally over.
I wanted more relationship time with the couple, but at least 35ish% of the book was devoted to ho-hum sex scenes that lacked chemistry. I couldn’t take it; I had to skim pages.
Overall, it was a fast, low-angst read, but had bland dialogue and too much sex . Where was the romance? Where was the swoon-worthy hero? Where was the airy humor? Even the epilogue fell short. It was mostly used to set up the next book in the series about Jennifer’s friend, Beck.