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Each week Stephanie, Lillian and I will be featuring a SUMMER OF LOVE review on our blogs. I think Stephanie’s post was also late this week, but watch for it at Once Upon a Chapter. And look for Lillian’s review tomorrow at Mom With a Reading Problem.
Welcome to my seventh review for the SUMMER OF LOVE! As I mentioned in week one, I actually already read a lot of contemporary romance, but there’s just something about summer reading that screams contemp for me. And I’m using these 12 weeks to showcase books in different categories. The seventh category is:
Pulp Romance
Okay, so here’s the thing about pulp romance…I cut my teeth on pulp romance. My first adult romances were my Mom’s Danielle Steele books and I DEVOURED them. And during my summers off in University, and after graduating, I got MAJORLY into Harlequins. Like, just went through the whole library, and started waiting for the new books each month. It’s what got me back into crazy reading. It preceded my Kindle/Indie craziness. And so I’m just ridiculously fond of them. They’re like comfort reading, you know? I’m not saying that there are a lot of 5 star reads in them, but that’s not why I read them. I read them because in general I know what to expect. And there are little twists here and there, but I don’t have to think too much. And I can read them SO FAST. Saying all that, I do have 5 star reads from them — there are always those that just go that extra mile and surprise the shit out of me. And if I want a good chance for a high star read, I go to Sarah Mayberry every time…that author just gets it. She gives me my comfort, but she levels it up. So that’s what I went to for this week. It’s actually a reread, but I’m hoping to finally finish the duology, and since it’d been like 10 years since I read it, it kind of felt new again.
Recommendations:
- Ms. Match by Jo Leigh — I reread this one at least once a year…I don’t know why I love it, but I do.
- Most books by Sarah Mayberry — I haven’t reread them in a long time, but I remember Her Best Friend being my favourite.
- I have quite a few more, but it’s been so long, it would take me forever to figure out which one’s were my faves. My fave publishers: Harlequin, Tule Publishing, Entangled, Avon.
My Review:Title: The Last Goodbye
Author: Sarah Mayberry
Series: Adamson Brothers #1
Published by: Harlequin Superromance
Release Date: February 8, 2011
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Summer
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:
Blurb:Ally Bishop knows the settling kind when she sees one. And Tyler Adamson is definitely one. Ordinarily this never-in-one-place-long girl would stay far, far away. Maybe it's the way he looks in jeans, or the way he looks at her, but suddenly Ally is breaking her own rules with dizzying speed. All that Australian temptation right next door...well, there's only so much resistance one girl can have.
As she dives into a fling with Tyler, Ally assures herself she can maintain perspective. After all, he's only here long enough to care for his ailing father. That gives them a time limit, right? With each passing day, however, she falls for Tyler more. And soon she has the strongest urge to unpack her suitcase and stay a while.
4.5 stars — I vaguely remember this one, but not so much that I wasn’t excited to read it again.
Yet again, Ms. Mayberry surprises me with the depth and realness to her characters and their situations. Tyler’s relationship with his father took me COMPLETELY by surprise. It’s like nobody ever tackles how you deal with the death of an abusive parent. Normally I want clean and wrapped up in a bow, but Ms. Mayberry always convinces me to try reality instead, and because I get the awesomeness of the romance, I don’t mind a bit of hard truth in the side story.
In general I loved Tyler, but there were a few moments where he made me give him grumpy face…so basically he wasn’t perfect. But I appreciated the immense struggle he was dealing with, and I was impressed with how he dealt with all the things happening in his life. He could have driven me crazy, but Ally was able to open him up and get to his heart. I really appreciated how he didn’t give up on Ally either, how he saw to the heart of her as well.
Ally was her own kind of messed up, and while it was frustrating at times, I really appreciated her personal climax and resolution. Sometimes it’s hard to understand how traumatizing some childhoods can be, and how influential…especially when you didn’t have a traumatic childhood yourself. And the thing is, outside of her clinging to the gypsy thing, I really loved who she was. Basically who she really was underneath if she’d just let herself see it. She was compassionate, caring, cheeky…and when she made a mistake or overstepped, she apologized and reevaluated her own perspective. That’s not easy, and not a common trait…I sure as shit don’t have that trait.
And damn, they were hot together. Just an immense physical chemistry backed up by a palpable emotional connection as well. I liked seeing them get to each other outside of the steamy stuff…they took the time to learn about one another, and I believed the progression of their relationship.
Super excited to finally read Jon’s story. We barely get a glimpse of him, but I still want to know about him.
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