2.5 stars
The second book in the Meet Me series, we follow Malie who is a surfer in Hawaii. Malie loves her job, and her life but often misses her family back in Devon who are still grieving the loss of her brother Koa from cancer years before which has put a strain on Malie's relationship with her parents. When Malie helps out a youth charity, she meets businessman Todd Masters whom she has an immediate connection with, and also suffers from family losses and strain. Can the two of them help heal each other and show that falling in love isn't as scary as they think?
This book had a beautiful setting, a gorgeous cover but I have to say I was so let down by it as I felt I didn't really care that much about what was going on, and the overall premise and pace of the story was so, so boring. One of my favourite things about Meet Me in London was the friendship group between Victoria, Malie, Lils and Zoe (also absolute LOL that for some reason Lils just isn't getting her own book?) and while this is still a thing in this book, I don't think it came across as strongly as the first one. I did like seeing little glimpses of Victoria and Oliver from Meet Me in London and how they are getting on.
I did believe the connection and chemistry between Malie and Todd in this book - there was definitely a sizzling and a sexual chemistry between them from the first scene when Malie pulled a Little Mermaid and saved Todd from drowning. The problem was the constant back and forth going on with Malie, and it got to a point where it was frustrating and boring to read about again. She was the definition of the kombucha girl meme when it came to Todd - no, yes, no, but actually maybe yes? I understood the two characters had a lot going on with family grief, trauma and strain and fear of becoming attached in case you lose that connection but with Malie, she was so all over the place, it was ridiculous and the girl just really needed to talk to a professional.
A few side notes of things that kind of irritated me too - Todd is a very wealthy businessman who started from the ground up having grown up in foster homes with an alcoholic father. He's only 33 yet we never find out what exactly he does for a business and considering he's a millionaire more or less, I would have liked to know. Also every time Malie and Todd kiss or do anything steamy, the author kept describing her as 'whimpering' or 'she whimpered' and it just creeped me out.