This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.
My Review:Title: Mr. Fantasy
Author: Cambria Hebert
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 2, 2019
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 318
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Better than your reality…
A Caribbean island.
A rich CEO.
A woman thrown overboard.
A delicious one-night stand.
Want to know what happens next?
Find all the answers and more between the pages of this sizzling standalone romance—Mr. Fantasy.*Mr. Fantasy is a standalone contemporary romance novel and contains an HEA.*
4 stars — I had a few problems with some things that happened in the shorter fantasy part of the story, but once we got into the reality section, I was sucked in and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It had a lot of the elements that I enjoy about other books by Ms. Hebert…and some of those elements I actually don’t actively seek out, because on the surface they’re not really my thing. But somehow Ms. Hebert always manages to get me to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the ride.
So what are these odd elements that normally I don’t seek out, but that I enjoy from this author? Over the top villains and crazy schemes. Ridiculously alpha guys that are super overprotective with the women they love (and occasionally high-handed), and who have a strange teddy bear soft center. Feisty crazy heroines that honestly make some super silly decisions, but I end up loving anyways. Seriously, usually those things would just make me groan and I wouldn’t connect, but there’s this element of escapism in these books, where I don’t mind that they’re kind of unrealistic, because I connect and I’m entertained. I also don’t actively seek out romantic suspense type books as often, but I enjoy the elements in these ones.
I will warn that when Nora and Carter get together after her rescue (in the fantasy), I wasn’t super impressed with Carter’s romantic timing…I mean, she just gets assaulted and almost killed, and he decides it’s a good time to make the moves? Ummm…inappropriate. So if that’s the kind of thing that will bother you, this is your warning. Once I just let that go and moved on, damn was their chemistry steamy!! I mean, that whole bossy thing doesn’t usually work for me, but I feel like Nora had just enough feistiness to call him on some of that that I was like “OK fine…it’s kinda hot.”
I honestly wasn’t sure how things were going to progress after that fantasy section, but it went in a myriad of strange directions that kept me on my toes! And what can I say? I was invested. I loved Nora and Carter individually, and Nora and Carter together. I thoroughly enjoyed quite a few of the secondary characters (Knox and Aaron being at the top, but even Val grew on me).
Basically, this one was a success, and it gave me mild Hashtag and GearShark vibes, so if you’re a fan of those, I think you’d enjoy this one too.
I still haven’t read anything by this author, but I’m loving your descriptions of the things you don’t normally love but liked in this one. It’s making me want to read this. Maybe I can swing it in 2020.