Welcome to another Bite Sized Books post where I talk about a couple of arcs I received where each had me ready to book a plane ticket abroad somewhere whilst also making me swoon over an adorable romance.
Mismatched in Manhattan – Tash Skilton
Published: 26th May 2020
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
My Rating:
Leave it to the experts - to break all the rules.
Online Dating Ghostwriting Rules to Live by
Dumped by his fiancée, not only is Miles couch-surfing across New York City, but downsizing has forced him to set up shop at a café. Also, he no longer believes in love. Not a good look in his line of work . . .
Do not present a 'perfect' image. No one will trust it. Nor should they.
Zoey's eccentric L.A. boss sent her packing to New York to 'grow'. But beneath her chill Cali demeanor, Zoey's terrified to venture beyond the café across the street . . .
Think of your quirks - such as cosplaying B-movies from the 1980s - as a 'Future Honesty'. Save these as a reward only for those who prove worthy.
The only thing Miles and Zoey share is their daily battle for Café Crudite's last day-old biscotti. They don't know they're both ghostwriting 'authentic' client profiles for rival online dating services. Nope, they have absolutely nothing in common. . . . Until they meet anonymously online, texting on the clock . . .
Never remind the client you're their Cyrano. Once you've attracted a good match, let the client take over ASAP.
Soon, with their clients headed for dating disaster, both Miles and Zoey's jobs are at stake. And once they find out their lines have crossed, will their love connection be the real thing - or vanish into the ether?
The perfect love letter to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher and all the wonderful rom-coms that act as a pick-me-up when we most need it.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Where to start? I enjoyed it. It was swoony and fun and the perfect rom-com read. I loved Miles and Zoey instantly, they were fun and awkward and brilliant. Hell, I liked Miles immediately and I knew I'd connected with him when I was cringing when he made a rookie mistake at his job. And Zoey? When she was ready to argue and pay for a free day-old biscotti at the coffee shop? That's how I knew she was my kind of girl, she was competitive and never willing to give in, even when she knew she'd lost. The person she was arguing over a day old biscotti with was obviously Miles and when he took the best seat in the coffee shop as well? Well, that just meant it was war for Zoey, she had to make sure she got that table and beat him. She was my level of petty.
So the premise is simple on this one. Both Zoey and Miles work at competing ghostwriting dating agencies. They help their clients draft their online dating profile and even help them with those awkward initial first contact to help them make the best first impression and weed out the duds. It actually sounds perfect, why can't I have someone do this for me it would definitely make dating sound way more appealing if someone took half the work away from me. I think it's obvious that Miles and Zoey will start working for client's who start dating each other, right? It gives this You've Got Mail type premise a slightly different take as it's almost like a love square as each Miles and Zoey fall for their client's date without realising they weren't even speaking to them.
I want to get my negative out of the way and it ties in with the above. This book dragged in the middle, it felt way too long even though it wasn't that long and the reason? I got fed up of the pair mooning after the wrong person. I wanted one of them to catch on to the other or for them to start speaking more in real life which wasn't them glaring at over a table. It got a little dull for a while. I told myself at 50% I would give myself another half an hour of reading and if it didn't pick up I'd have to DNF. Thankfully, it got moving not too long after that so it was worth it, but no book should have you contemplating giving up on it, I hate when you notice how long you've been reading, that shows the book hasn't grabbed enough of your attention.
Now on to the good stuff because I really did enjoy a lot of this book. If it hadn't had some squiffy pacing issues towards the middle I would have been able to push the rating up a touch higher. I had a great time bouncing between the perspectives of Miles and Zoey. As I said, they were both easy to like from the beginning. They were flawed, but I got them. Miles was a die-hard romantic who was coming off an awful breakup. It left him a bit jaded and rough around the edges but he comes back from it. And Zoey's an LA transplant who hate New York, and change... and is also too scared travel than a few blocks away from her apartment. She was forced to move to New York by her ex-boss (who she was still friends with) and is being slow about adjusting. I actually thought Zoey would be one I would struggle with liking but she's just hella stubborn and I respect that. I quite enjoyed seeing her slowly discovering there were good things in New York and when she finally rode the subway (she has legit reasons of being scared of it ok) and she was with Miles when she did? Honestly, it was so cute. Those are the moments which made this book worth reading.
I think I read it at exactly the right time for me to enjoy the rom-com vibes of this one. It transported me back to the streets of New York where cars never seem to stop at the lights (seriously, US traffic lights confuse me, what is this whole turning on red business?) and it made me want to walk the streets again and discover new things to love there. I don't know if lockdown has just made me more susceptible to wanting to travel after reading books are what but it definitely had me wanting to book a ticket to New York… except there's a global pandemic. It was good, it wasn't a perfect book but it was good and I am glad I read.
Marrying His Runaway Heiress – Therese Beharrie
Published: 28th May 2020 (UK)
Source: Netgalley
Genre: Romance
My Rating:
A diamond isn’t forever…
…until it’s from the right man!
For journalist and heiress Elena John, heading to Italy on assignment is her chance to avoid her impending arranged marriage. But Micah Williams, the star of her article, is nothing like the uptight tycoon she’s been told to expect, and alone in Italy she falls under his charming spell. Their time’s almost over, but Micah’s not ready to let her walk away… His proposal? A convenient counteroffer!
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Therese Beharrie does it again. This book swept me away and had me swooning at Micah and his effortlessly charming ways and had me ready to break lockdown and fly to Italy so I could hang out with Elena and do me some sightseeing... and see if the European pigeons are more civilized (UK ones aren't so I won't delude myself). It was rather unfair this book was released in the middle of a global pandemic as Therese always has me wanting to jet off to whatever location she has set her books in. She had me wanting to holiday in Greece (genuinely, before lockdown happened I had hoped to holiday there this year) and you know she's had me wanting to go to South Africa with her previous books. She always has me googling the price of plane tickets after finishing one of her books, she just makes every location sound so wonderful so how could I not? Her descriptions of Italy were there having me crying because I couldn't go on holiday but it also meant I got to add another country to my future holiday list.
The book centres around Micah and Elena. Elena is a journalist who will be travelling to Italy with Micah for a story about him and his business. What she doesn’t realise until she’s stepped on the plane is that Micah specifically requested her to write the story because her dad is rich and she’s part of the John family. It’s kind of a slap in the face when she knows she is good enough to write the story and she’d rather that not be another thing she got simply because of her family. It meant the two got off to a frosty start, but don’t worry Therese soon had sparks flying between the two. Micah obviously wanted to know Elena wanted to know more about why Elena doesn’t want to succeed due to her family name and Elena knows there has to be a reason Micah requested her, why did her family name make a difference?
The pair were obviously at odds from the start so it was fun seeing them fight the attraction between them. Along with them not wanting to like each other they each had a heap of family baggage too, which plays a significant role in the story. They each strove to have love and approval from their parents and pursued it at the detriment of other areas of their lives. That is until they met one another and noticed the tension between and they slowly found that their attraction to the other actually held more of their attention than trying to get their families approval. Of course, they each came to that realisation at different points and that led a to a big stumbling block in their relationship. I suppose it didn’t help they negotiated themselves into a marriage which was meant to be of convenience except feelings totally got in the way.
This was an example of characters who didn't use their words (a pet peeve of mine) but it never bothered me as we had backstory and explanation and I got it. They had issues to get through. Even when Elena revealed her love and said she needed to step back because she couldn't strive for love from another man and not get it. I got it. She was growing and learning she deserved to be loved. I was cheering her on just as I was cursing her for the hurt it caused Micah. And Micah by saying he loved her than even though he did? Yeah, I wanted to smack him upside the head but I was also waiting for him to take that final step. He was protecting himself and I knew he would be slower to realise he needed to open himself up to pain in the hope of also receiving love.
Basically, this was a really great read. I loved reading this during a little UK heatwave out in the sun (didn't get sunburnt) an excellent summer read. Hopefully, I'll be able to read her next release chilling by a pool as that was the only thing missing for me.
Have you read either of these books? What did you think? And what was the last book you read which had you wanting to book a plane ticket?
Posts
Social Icons