Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Review: To Katie with Love





To Katie with Love by Erica Lucke Dean
Genre: Romance, Chick-Lit
Pages: 225 (ebook)
Source:  Red Adept Publishing
Author's Website | Pinterest | Wattpad
Buy it: Kindle | B&N

Description:
Banker Katie James has a serious thing for romance novels. She’d almost rather settle for a fictional boyfriend than risk her heart on a flesh-and-blood man. Besides, the only real guy she’s remotely interested in is her rich, unattainable client, the mysterious Cooper Maxwell. Looking less like the ultra-conservative man she knows and more like a drop-dead sexy character from one of her books, Cooper crashes Katie’s 29th birthday party. But one too many drinks lands Katie in uncharted territory… Cooper’s bedroom! Drunk on love, Katie dives headfirst into the relationship only to discover that Cooper is keeping secrets… dangerous ones. As if things couldn’t get worse, her meddling mother makes a surprise visit, digging up a whole new set of problems. Who would have guessed having an assassin for a boyfriend would be the least of her worries?

My Rating:


My Review:
Katie James finds the perfect guy in Cooper Maxwell.  He's handsome rich and has been secretly in love with her for a year.  Katie falls head-over-heels but soon finds that Cooper has too many secrets.  Getting few answers, she attempts to discover Cooper's secrets on her own leading to a few quirky situations.  Then Katie's mom shows up and adventures occur at work.

The best part of this read was the last 25 pages or so.  The rest was mildly entertaining at best and irritating at its worst.  My biggest issue is that it took till about page 100 for the conflict to pop up.  Until then we get lots of insta-love and a lot of back and forth where nothing really happens.  Characters run into each other, fall in love, and go to work (at least Katie does).  Even when Katie is at work, nothing really happens.  Things progress a little better as soon as Katie starts to wonder about Cooper's job.  The conclusions she jumps to is a bit flimsy for my taste.  The irritating mom component didn't entertain me either.  Or maybe the problem is that Cooper was too perfect and too nice that he didn't seem real.  I enjoyed the end because it was unexpected and liked that Cooper's secret was actually a reasonable secret.  I could understand why he needed to keep it a secret and I found his secret pretty fun.  For me, this read needed better character and plot development to make this one entertaining and remotely believable. Overall, the end prevented this from being a complete wash for me.
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13 comments:

  1. Thank you for taking the time to read and review my book.

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  2. Sorry you did not enjoy the book more. Books that are slow build can be hard to get into but this one does sound interesting. I will have to check it out and read an excerpt or two. I do love the cover :)

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  3. I am not a person who usually reads Chick-Lit but I actually read this book and I enjoyed it. It was fun, it was flirty, it made me laugh. I am sorry it did not click for you as well as it did for me, but I guess that is mostly a matter of preference. I personally loved it.

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  4. Mehhhh, doesn't sound great. =( I'm so sick of insta-love... I really want to find a slow-burn romance to read sometime soon.

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    1. I think insta-love can work if done well but otherwise it drives me crazy. Let me know if you find that slow-burn romance! I'd jump on one of those in a hot second.

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  5. Wow, I loved the book. I really thought I was going to not like it, and I am not a romance reader. I felt totally caught off guard and was so pleasantly surprised by the cleverness of it all and since insta-love is part of the conventions of contemporary romance she did something different by making their relationship NOT NEW and yet still staying within the prescription/genre framework of romance. If you are not into insta-love why in the world would you read contemporary romance? I joined the tour planning on just having her on for an interview and ended up buying it after reading a couple of reviews and being caught off guard. So, you asked for it - http://cabingoddess.com/2013/05/to-katie-with-love-by-ericaluckedean-review-a-recipe/ here it is.

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  6. Hi There!
    I just stumbled on this post, and I have to say I'm surprised by your opinion! I love, love, loved this book! Not my usual read, but like Kriss, I was caught off guard by how clever it was and how different it seemed to be from the other books of this genre. I also agree with Kriss when she said, if you aren't into "insta-love" why in the world would you read contemporary romance? Just my 2 cents!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Sugarbeat! I value your opinion. I've read insta-love that works and insta-love that's just silly. I prefer the kind that works for me. Glad you enjoyed it more than I did.

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