The Military Wife by Laura Trentham- The blurb on this got me because it sounded like a tortured love story. And it was, but there wasn’t enough of it. I would have liked to have seen more of Bennett’s hesitation over getting in to a relationship with Harper.
The heroine is an accountant but we never see her actually work. She lives in Nags Head, NC and travels a lot to Virginia Beach and Fort Bragg, but this is never an issue with her job. These are things I notice when I am not fully invested in the story.
The biggest issue was that Harper is not like other girls. She is deemed so by her deceased husband, Noah, early on in the book. Bennett obviously thinks so as well. This is one of my least favorite things in romance. We don’t have to tear other women down in order to make the heroine shine. It doesn’t work that way. 7 of the 8 highlights I noted were about this. I only stuck through with this book because I really, really wanted to know how the author would let the tortured/unrequited love play out. It missed the mark for me.
Grade: D
E-tailers
Lost in Paradise by Rachel Lacey- I don’t read a lot of romantic suspense but this blurb really spoke to me. Especially because I don’t read enough f/f stories. The heroines in this book were both pretty good. Slightly “older” and I loved that aspect.
The heroines, Nicole and Fiona, meet on a cruise and both are instantly drawn to each other. They venture out on the deck and pirates board the ship. Nicole and Fiona have to act quickly to try to save themselves. They are successful and make their way to a deserted island. There was definitely some eye-rolling moments during the escape and island time. A few things were very convenient, but also I didn’t hate it.
The depth in this book really comes when they are back on land, in their respective homes, and trying to figure out how to make a romance work. I love seeing characters be a little tortured and figuring out their shit. The second half of the book was stronger than the first half, in my opinion.
This was a fairly quick and enjoyable read. I was invested in the characters and was rooting for them to find their HEA.
Grade: C+
E-tailers
I loved the Trentham book. I got the opinion heroine worked p/t and could adjust her schedule to raising her young son. She did feel her degree was going to waste, but in the end that worked out. I did not feel Harper was so different from other women. To each his own. LOL.