Tina's Reading Books

I think my book was missing some pages.  I am sure the part that explains this is actually a time travel book and Josie, the heroine, was transported forward in time from the 1700s was somehow mysteriously missing from my copy because, how else does one explain this:

Josie: "Amber's comment pleased me greatly, thus, I turned my head back to Jake and smiled."

Josie: "Alas, I could not beleaguer him with this information."

Josie: "My mind harked back and noted that he took and inordinate amount of pictures of me."

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  She talked like this all the time.  And it was odd enough that is completely took me out of the story.  Not only that, she didn't know what a DVR was. 

I could have rolled with Josie's dialogue if I felt it had context, but I have no idea what KA was trying to say by giving Josie such anachronistic speech patterns.  For over 20 years, Josie traveled the world and rubbed elbows with models and photographers and rap stars.  The way she spoke simply did not fit with her presented lifestyle.  Why does a 45 year old well traveled woman who grew up in Maine, USA speak like that? Tell me she was imprisoned in a basement for years with only Jane Austen novels and Byronic Poetry to keep her sane.  Then I'll buy it.  Tell me nothing and I am rolling my eyes.

Alas, poor reader, lest you think this was my sole botheration with this tome  (ha!)  It wasn't.  I had two major issues with this book and this was just one of them

The other issue is how frakkin perfect Josie was.  She was beautiful, classy, every guy loved her -- really -- every man who came in contact with Josie wanted her and at least two men were really in love with her.  She was a fabulous cook.  She was perfect with Jake's children.  She dressed beautifully.  She made friends easily.  She was the best sex Jake ever had.  She always instinctively knew the best response in  every situation.  At least once a chapter we had to hear about how Josie was 'The Bomb!'

Joise really needed a flaw.  In the worst way.  Early on she mentioned how she didn't like children.  This would have been the perfect place to introduce an area that she didn't immediately excel.  Since there was  little to no conflict between Josie and Jake, some of the tension could have been introduced by the hesitancy of the kids accepting her or her awkwardness and uncomfortableness around them.  Barring that it would have been nice if for once in a KA novel, the natural mother wasn't painted as a selfish bitch.

Alas, dear reader, lest you deem from my previous statements that this book had no gratifying elements (ha!) this is not true.

Jake was a good hero.  He is a typical Ashley hero, which, oddly, always works for me. He's a super alpha who doesn't quite cross the line into total Alpha-hole.

I also like the time she took with letting the romance build.  Jake and Josie become friends and spend time together getting to know each other.  I find that more and more I appreciate a slower build to a romance.  The book was long as hell but she did use the page space to build the relationship.

Weirdly, I liked the concept of The Taylors.  There were two characters who were best friends to one of Jake's kids.  They were both named Taylor, one was a boy and one was a girl.  Whenever they were referred to by anyone it was always either 'Boy Taylor' or "Girl Taylor'.  For some reason this just tickled me.

Overall the bones of this book was good.  If it hadn't been for those two major things, I think I would have enjoyed this a bit more. 

Hardcore KA fans will love this though because all her regular hallmarks are there in technicolor.  By that same token, readers who may have gotten a bit weary with her style would probably find this book a little too familiar.