I enjoyed this VERY small town romance and the characters including the quirky town residents, but to be honest I wanted more from this book. ~ Slick – Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
Synopsis:
When life sets fire to your happily ever after, you ditch your cheating boyfriend, trade in the city life for the off-the-grid seclusion of your mother’s bookstore in the mountains…and try to resist your attraction to the brooding town mechanic you accidentally got into a fender bender with outside the local bar. Sydney Walsh might be falling head over heels for the romance novels she’s stocking up to rebuild The Loving Page, but she has no delusions about actually starring in one. That chapter has closed.
Beneath Sam Kirkland’s gruff mountain-man exterior lies a gentle heart and a burning desire for the woman he knows he can’t have. He’s made promises that anchor him to the past, making romance off-limits. And he accepted that—until Sydney came crashing into his life.
Sam can’t do a relationship right now. Sydney doesn’t have the wherewithal to believe in one. But when you meet the right person, the wrong circumstances don’t matter. Even when the world seems to be doing its best to keep them apart, their real, one-of-a-kind love is worth fighting for.
I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book; there were many aspects of it I enjoyed but there were a lot of aspects that left me with questions so I feel like it was unfinished. I enjoyed this VERY small town romance and the characters including the quirky town residents, but to be honest I wanted more from this book.
Sydney Walsh finds her long time boyfriend banging a woman in their apartment and in their bed. She leaves New York City for the town of Pine Ridge in the Adirondacks of New York where her mother currently lives. Sydney quite frankly is a bit of a mess; she has a law degree but a year ago she left her firm and spent the time being the best girlfriend to her successful boyfriend (basically being arm candy). There was a bit of a hint that she had worked herself into a bad spot, but it was never really discussed and to be honest it needed to be because she ditches law totally, she apparently has no money to her name (?), and decides to revamp her mother’s failing bookstore in the small town. It all just felt “off” and like there was something big missing from the story because of it. On her first night in town after knocking back a couple of beers in a bar waiting for food she literally backs into Sam Kirkland the town’s mechanic and all around good guy.
Sydney and Sam don’t really get off on the best foot mainly because they are both fighting the attraction between them. Sydney is still reeling and likes the way Sam makes her feel but worries it’s wrong on the heels of her break-up. Sam fights it because he’s dedicated himself to a woman and her child because he feels gratitude to what she did for his dying mom and because he sees himself in the young boy. It takes way to long for that situation to come to a head especially when the woman was trying to remain sober for her son and not because she wanted to. This could have really been a great look at alcoholism and the consequences and treatment but it was glossed over and just became this big fog over what could have been a nice romance.
I did love that Sydney decided to turn her Mom’s bookstore into one that promoted romance books when she discovered so many people in the town enjoyed them as well as the tourists. I enjoyed watching Sydney and Sam’s friendship grow and turn into more. It was fun watching Sydney be accepted into the town and I was happy that she and her mother found their footing with one another which led to a much better relationship and a lot of understanding. I just found the actual romance lacking which was sad considering the whole romance bookstore theme, the time they spent together was in secret because of the promise Sam had made to his woman friend and considering most of the town realized something was happening between them I had to wonder why? Again that whole situation was dragged out way too long and instead of a satisfying romance, this was more of a small town women’s fiction novel with sex.
I’ve read a lot of first novels; some fantastic, some awful, and quite a few that were pretty good and that’s where Wild Love fell. I enjoyed the book but unfortunately the lack of character development, the lack of actual romance, and the unanswered questions left me feeling like something was missing. That being said, there was enough about this town that peaked my interest and I’d be happy to read the next book in this series.
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