Come Away With Me by Kristen Proby

Synopsis:
Being confronted on the beach by a sexy stranger wasn’t part of Natalie Conner’s plans for a peaceful morning taking photos. And why on earth would he think she’s taking pictures of him, anyway? Who is he? One thing’s for sure, he’s hot, and incredibly romantic, feeding Natalie’s wounded soul.

Luke Williams just wants the world to give him a break, so seeing yet another camera aimed at his face has him ready to pounce on the beauty behind the lens. When he finds out she has no idea who he is, he’s intrigued and more than a little tempted by her. Natalie has a body made for sex, a sassy mouth and Luke can’t get enough of her, but he’s not ready to tell her who he really his.

Natalie is a no nonsense girl who doesn’t do well with lies and secrets. What will happen to this new relationship when she discovers what Luke’s hiding?

    

My Review:
2.5 stars — So I’m reading books in preparation for an upcoming author event, and this book was on my list…except I was sure I’d read it.  But Goodreads doesn’t lie my friends, so I picked it up and started it.  And again, everything sounds SOOOOOO familiar.  So I go back to my trusty Goodreads, only to see the status for this book is 30% — but I never update those.  Well, turns out this must have been before I started DNFing books for real, b/c I left a note saying I abandoned it almost 3 years ago saying “*sigh* I don’t know why, but this book isn’t doing it for me. I don’t hate it by any means, I just can’t get into it. SO I shall set it aside and maybe one day I’ll come back…. Everything just feels so perfunctory, I’m not sympathizing with the characters much at all….“.  Turns out it wasn’t just a mood thing, I really just did not feel this book.

I honestly probably should have just DNF’d this book.  I really ended up having to concentrate on reading it instead of having it just flow over me.  I found myself bored.  I’m not sure if this book was supposed to be an erotica, I really didn’t get that impression from the blurb…but quite honestly, this book was mostly just sex scenes.  Now don’t get me wrong, I like erotica as much as I like everything else, but I guess since it wasn’t what I was expecting it just wasn’t working for me.  Maybe there wasn’t much variety (though they did try to have sex in every conceivable location — limo? check. airplane? check. desk? check.)?  Maybe I just didn’t feel that explosion of chemistry?  Whatever my problem, it wasn’t enough to save this book.

I actually really enjoyed the premise, b/c I enjoy reading Harlequins and this sounded like so many of those — movie star meets normal girl who doesn’t know who he is…  But their love affair progressed incredibly quickly…especially considering their histories.  She’s a serial one-night-stand girl (b/c of things in her past that honestly didn’t feel like they were necessary to the plot, since they didn’t come into play AT ALL).  He’s a burned movie star who’s been used for his money and fame.  And yet in 2 days they’re having sex without a condom, hanging out all the time, and even meeting parents.  I guess I just didn’t buy it.

And in the end, not much happens plot wise.  They get into some seriously stupid fights and she behaves childishly while he starts to scare me with his sudden tempers and jealousy.  Quite honestly, I know the author tried to explain away his jealousy as cute, but that didn’t work for me at all.  And I guess b/c of these flaws in their characters, they just felt shallow and I never really liked either one of them that much.  And on a stupid note (stupid about me), I just don’t get the appeal of spending so much money and having that be equated with love — the ridiculous amount of flowers, the expensive shopping spree (thousands of dollars spent when she didn’t really want to accept his credit card in the first place?  Um, ok), the impromptu Tahiti vacation on a private jet…  But I’ve never seen the appeal of these brand name shoes and handbags, so that’s totally a me thing…but it’s yet another way in which I didn’t connect with Nat.

So yeah.  Another fairly popular book that just did not work for me.  I’ve said it before and I stick with it — I’m a hipster reader folks.