Book Description: It was harmless enough: her best friend’s wedding. But for California girl Phoebe, forty-eight hours in North Carolina changed her life.
No one is more surprised than Phoebe when she falls hopelessly in love with her dad’s much older, very married friend. Although she wants nothing more than to jump headfirst into an affair with Mitch, he refrains, telling her she’s just a kid.
Determined to prove him wrong, young Phoebe learns the irony of best laid plans. She travels to North Carolina for a wedding and accidentally falls head-over-heels for two very different men: Mason, the hotel concierge, and Frankie, a captain in the Merchant Marines. Throw in two old flames and a hunky masseur and you’ve got a most complicated love hexagon in this cautionary tale of love, sex, grief, and growing up.
I am excited that I am finally getting into doing some ARC requests and want to thank E.H. Nolan for giving me the opportunity to review this book.
I thought the book was an interesting twist in the sense that the ending isn’t like a typical romance in the sense of how it ends with Phoebe not happy. Also the sex scenes are not quite typical either in the fact that it is obvious that Phoebe is not enjoying her romps very much. I thought overall the book was interesting and I was curious on what was going to happen with Phoebe and all her men :-). I really wanted her to find someone who she could talk to about what had happened to her and have them help her gain the pleasure back in the bedroom.
However, there were a few parts that I just wasn’t a big fan of. I felt like because of what happened to Phoebe she did have some problems in the sex part of her life. However, it seems that for someone that was raped that she would not want to even continue trying to have sex with these men she was meeting. It was clear she wasn’t enjoying it and the way she acted while it was happening I can’t believe the men would stay nor want to try it again. She was like forcing herself to do something she clearly wasn’t ready to do. I also felt she was a bit childish for her age. It was like reading a teenager’s diary of he texted me omg he loves me. He didn’t answer me now he hates me. Oh wait he texted he loves me. Oh this other guy texted and he loves me. I felt that part got a little old, however it also brought me back to thinking wow that is like me in middle school or high school with I have this crush omg he is talking to me yay! Then to being crushed when he didn’t like me. So I definitely could relate to her on this, I just felt she was a little old to be doing it.
I really wanted Phoebe to end up with someone that treated her right or for her to finally just realize that she doesn’t need a man to be happy that she can go on with her life and make herself happy first. I was happy that when Justin stepped up she had forgotten about Mitch because that was just odd, I wouldn’t want my dad knowing I was dating his 53 year old friend. Then everything moved fast with Justin and I was like whoa wait what happened here is she going to finally get a good guy?! Then bam everything comes crashing down for her again, she just couldn’t catch a break. I felt bad for her and thought okay her tap dance teaching was a step forward now 2 steps back for her. Then Mitch came along again and she was like I love you and want to have you cheat on your wife with me still. I really then felt a little less sorry for her because I just don’t think a marriage needs to be broken up.
I did think the idea of the story was good I think there were just certain things that could have been changed to make it better. I did like how her and her dad could really talk about anything. I mean I sure didn’t talk like that with my dad about my dating life when I was younger! I think it is good though she has this relationship with her dad. I also liked that he finally stepped up towards the end and was like enough feeling sorry for yourself you need to do something besides chase men and have sex. Phoebe needed that push and he helped her. I think with what happened to her mom it brought them closer together and she had pushed him to join baseball and then he helps her by bringing tap back in her life. So I liked their dynamic a lot in the story.
I did enjoy reading this book and did like it for the most part, with just a few things I would change. I thought the writing was good and the story was well thought out and made sense.
I received an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Book Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
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