Hide Your Heart by Tracey Alvarez (Far North #1)
Released: April 18, 2015
Contemporary Romance
Self Published
Reviewed by Mandi
Lauren Taylor had a very busy modeling career and a husband in New York City, until said husband abused her one too many times. Fleeing, she takes her young son back to her home country of New Zealand. She has become a car mechanic and restorer of classic cars and has moved onto a large piece of property she will share with her brother….and to her surprise, one other gentleman.
This gentleman is Nate, a photojournalist who is looking for something else in life so he bought a ramshackle building he hopes to renovate and then sell to a developer and make a lot of money. Nate comes across Lauren one night when her car is stuck in the mud, and she hurts her ankle. Helping her back to her house, they realize they are neighbors. Nate also realizes Lauren doesn’t have many people to help her out, so he sticks around.
I’ve read this author in the past and enjoyed her voice. I liked both Lauren and Nate, but my main complaint is that we don’t dive deep enough into either character to really allow the reader to become invested.
Let’s start with Lauren. I never felt Lauren was a former supermodel or a current car mechanic. I’m not saying a supermodel can’t become a car mechanic, but neither profession came across as realistic. I think we needed more details to how her past life with her abusive husband in New York actually was. What was her modeling career like? And now she works on cars? I needed many more details about her careers.
Nate is a photojournalist turned home renovator. It seems both Nate and Lauren have a lot of skills. I could picture him being a photojournalist at least but I wanted to see him get down and dirty more with the home renovations.
When it comes to the romance, it felt more as if they were good friends, rather than lovers. Part of that is because the actual sex scenes are extremely short, and the other part is the romance just lacked. I needed more stolen glances and kisses and hand holding. I needed more courtship. Lauren’s son has a lot of page time and he was cute but I didn’t need him in the book as much as he appeared.
This was an okay read but it could have been much more
Rating: C
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