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My Review:Title: The Rule Maker
Author: Jennifer Blackwood
Series: The Rule Breakers #2
Published by: Entangled: Embrace
Release Date: January 16th 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 194
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter Switch 2017/18
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:
Blurb:Things I'd love to say to Ryder Covington...
I hate you more than a hole in my favorite pair of leggings.
Your smirk makes me want to yell in all shouty caps.
You're really gorgeous...until you open your mouth.
Stop looking at me like that. You're not ripping my panties off.
Saying those things to him would be the whipped cream on top of my rocky road ice cream, but I can't, because he's my client. And I'm up for a promotion. Oh, and the little fact that my boss told me to give Mr. Covington everything he wants. But the only thing he wants is me. And he can't have that.
3 stars — I think I wanted to like this one more than I did, I’m bummed that books that are hits with others don’t seem to be working for me. Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy myself, but I did find myself avoiding reading, and at times having to read paragraphs over and over to keep my mind from wandering, which is just not a good sign for a book. I actually hate that the most, b/c it’s hard to pinpoint what didn’t work for me, other than I guess I just wasn’t captured.
Characters tend to make or break a book, and neither Zoey nor Ryder made me fall in love. Which is not to say I didn’t like them, but it wasn’t over the top. I just read a few other reviews to see if I was alone, and it seems most people had a problem with Ryder…which is funny, b/c of the two of them, I liked him more! There was depth there I wasn’t expecting, and for the most part I appreciated how he struggled with his career. I liked seeing him help others on the hill, but it made it obvious to me what he should be doing, so the ending was no surprise. I LOVED how he cared about his brother and truly tried to help him, and I was pissed at his grandparents for the way they treated him and made him doubt himself. I wouldn’t have minded him growing a backbone with them earlier, but I get that it’s family.
Zoey had her ups and downs for me. I think she’s just not my kind of girl. Something about her rubbed me the wrong way on occasion, like the whole hair incident…she felt kind of high maintenance there. I don’t know, I honestly don’t know how to quantify it other than to say I just didn’t connect with her. She definitely had her good qualities, I enjoyed her sass, and her determination to succeed at her work.
I think the romance is where I was let down. You know those parts where I said I had a hard time not letting my mind wander? Those happened most in the steamy scenes. Like for real. I just didn’t feel their chemistry in that area. I also didn’t understand what made Ryder do a 180 on relationships…I just didn’t feel that change. HOWEVER, I ADORED their banter, they made me laugh so much at times!! They really connected on that level. And there were moments, more towards the end, where I felt like Ryder was really swoony with Zoey.
Another area that just felt odd to me was the pacing and layout of the plot…there was something missing. It just didn’t feel like it followed a normal story arc. And I wasn’t as impressed with the comedy at times, it felt forced…like I wasn’t surprised, I could see the set up coming from a mile away. The banter was where the author hit comedy gold for me.
Damnit, this is feeling like such a negative review. Sorry guys. Honestly, it’s not like it was a bad book, I swear. It just wasn’t the one for me unfortunately. Ah well.
Sorry this one wasn’t for you. I liked it, but I can’t remember much about it now.