2.5 stars. Between “okay” and “I liked it.”
Here’s the deal. The Hero is a legit grumpy, anal jerk. Like, there’s no way on this green Earth I would ever continue to be attracted to him after seeing his true colors. So that put a damper on things.
He supposedly had a traumatic experience as a 7-year old when his 2-year old sister fell in the pool without anyone noticing but himself. She was rescued and was fine, but it caused him to have a phobia of water and well, a phobia of lightheartedness and fun. In essence, he comes across as a mean, selfish, grinchy, horrible man. Who also has panic attacks (literally) when he imagines deviating from his rigid routine and fussy lifestyle.
Let’s just say I didn’t like him much.
The heroine is charming. The fact that she continues to like him when he is so incredibly difficult is rather surprising. Anyway, somehow I was able to sorta believe they will work out together. He does give very nice apologies, which went a long way for me (and for the heroine). And he did seem to want to change to some degree, so that’s a relief.
This ended with a HEA. I think other people might really enjoy it. Especially if you like romances that have dual perspective (which I actually don’t) and a lot of emotional baggage that both characters overanalyze and work through. It was too much therapy for me. I’m more attracted to the teasing, fun, flirty, confident heroes myself.
Side note: the heroine states how drop-dead gorgeous he is multiple times, and yet I couldn’t imagine it. I was not attracted to his personality at all, so it was hard to imagine him being physically attractive either.
Content:
Language- no swearing at all
Sex- no talk of sex or innuendo whatsoever. A couple kisses. The chemistry was meh.
Cover is okay.
I read this on KU