Keeping Mr. Right Now by Robin Bielman (Kisses in the Sand #1)
Contemporary Romance
August 18, 2014
Entangled (Bliss)
Reviewed by Helyce
Zane Hollander is a pro surfer at the top of his game. He’s being considered as a spokesperson for a non-profit organization called SHE, but his management team feels that his reputation as a playboy might hurt his chances of being given the position. In an effort to rectify that and give him the best chance, they tell him he needs to lay low with the ladies and keep himself out of of a negative spotlight while they are in White Strand Grove for a film festival.
When Sophie Birch’s boss is injured and she is finds herself solely in charge of the events at the film festival in White Strand Grove she is determined to succeed. She tries to hide the fact that she is completely out of her element in the beautiful coastal town by taking a surf lesson with the gorgeous and talented Zane Hollander. When Zane rescues her from almost drowning, his management team see Sophie as the ‘perfect’ chance for Zane to upgrade his reputation by asking Sophie to be his date for several film festivities. Not a beach bunny, Sophie is unlike any woman that Zane has dated before.
Sophie agrees, seeing it as a chance to be involved in the festival from another aspect and additionally prove that she is capable of handling large scale events such as the festival on her own. But as Zane and Sophie are thrown together over and over, she finds it hard to resist Zane’s charms. Zane, too, begins to see Sophie in a different light-but when old family pressures remind him of his past he pulls away, possibly ruining everything.
Keeping Mr. Right Now was a cute story that combines the ugly duckling and opposites attract tropes well. I love a story where the plain Jane gets the hot, sexy man. While Sophie was not truly a plain Jane, she saw herself that way. As a very intelligent young woman who graduated college at 20 and had been working for a huge research facility, she sees herself as a the geeky nerd type. Having not been too successful in the romance department either, she imagines that Zane is totally out of her league. Unhappy in her job, she dropped everything there to take a job doing something completely out of character for her, Events Coordinator. Now completely out of her comfort zone in almost every way, she finds herself in charge at the film festival.
Zane has been in the pro-surfer circuit since he was 17. Having taken to the water and the waves at a very young age, his talent clear to anyone who watched him, he took the chance when it was given to him. It didn’t help that his father was never supportive having led him to believe that he’d never amount to anything much so he should take advantage of what was being offered to him. Being so young and impressionable, Zane takes the offer and has been surfing and traveling all over the world for ten years. Unfortunately, he’s never dealt with what happened with his dad and in his head he still sees himself as that young man who won’t amount to anything.
As Sophie and Zane spend more time together, Zane starts to see Sophie differently. She is not a woman that he’d have taken a second look at, but not because of her looks or personality. He’s attracted to her, but it’s clear from the get go that Sophie is intelligent and while an attractive quality, Zane’s old confidence issues are a constant in his head and he begins to think he is not good enough for her.
Of course authors always seem to feel that there has to be some sort of conflict so that characters can have some big make up scene and establish their HEA. I felt what the author used here was a bit predictable and it kind of ruined the story a bit for me. Zane’s past begins to weigh heavily on him and it ruins everything beautiful that had started between him and Sophie. Ugly words and hurt feelings at this point in the story seemed unnecessary and I would have been content to see Sophie and Zane move forward and try to work out their relationship with his surf schedule and her job being in Montana. Up until this point the story had been light hearted, no heavy angst filled moments-and just figuring out how they could make it work while on opposites sides of the world would have been conflict enough. In the end, the author does just that, but again, we already knew that was what was going to happen.
Secondary characters play small roles as the story moves along but really didn’t make too much of an impact with me. Zane’s management team consists of his two best friends, Bryce and Danny. Sophie meets a woman named Honor who is from the mayors office and their friendship sparks early on. Honor helping Sophie with girl stuff as she encourages Sophie to let Zane be her “Mr. Right Now”. Zane’s mom and sister were included as well as Sophie’s mom, who’s annoying phone calls always seemed to come at inopportune moments.
I enjoyed seeing both Zane and Sophie’s characters grow and change in this story. Zane makes some important revelations and is able to leave a lot he’d held onto behind and move forward rather than always regressing and believing what his father had tried to shove down his throat. Sophie changes as well. She goes from a sort of corporate chic and begins to relax, finding a confidence in herself as she succeeds at every turn both in her job and with her relationship with Zane. As I mentioned above, it all comes together quite nicely for our couple, bit I felt the brief break in the relationship was unnecessary.
Rating: C
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