Review: 3 1/4 stars- Wanted to like Faye more, but she is a little 'weird'
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 28, 2013
Storyline in a nutshell:If you are even remotely familiar with most of KA's books, it runs like this: Alpha male falls for woman and vice versa. Scary things happen, typically heroine is abducted or attacked.The heroine varies, some are kick-butt strong, independent women, some are just plain saints, and some are super-innocent/shy. Faye falls under the 'super shy, super innocent' category. Chace is strong, gorgeous, alpha-male with a checkered past and even more checkered family.  Married to a horrible woman for five years, Chace is a bit bitter and is resigned to living his life without anyone loving him.In waltzes Faye (who has loved him from afar since...forever...since they knew each other for awhile in the small little town that has a higher crime rate than NYC). Faye is the town librarian. Sweet. Innocent. Shy. Geek.KA is wonderful at incorporating a lot of characters in her books (and she can b/c the books are LONG) with various parallel stories going. She is able to draw you in and become vested in various characters beyond just the main ones.This story is good because the other storylines are interesting. Characters are flawed, but for some reason, we can like them. Heart strings are pulled.No major misunderstandings that carry on forever. No major angst. No cliffhangers. This book is in a series, but can be read as a standalone, but I recommend reading it in order b/c the characters appear in each other's books.Also, KA has kick-butt epilogues. I LOVE having my HEA wrapped up in a nice neat and gorgeous bow.What I loved about this book:- Chace is gorgeous. Alpha male, but not as bad as some other ones- Faye IS cute. She is quirky and adorable. Except when she becomes too nerdy and weird.- The other characters from other books. Love reading about how so-and-so had a kid, etc.- The second storyline involves an abused child. Was so sad to read - but it was a strong and well written piece- Okay - yes, the steamy scenes- NO cliff hangers- HEA epilogue- they are the best.What I didn't love:- How geeky and silly Faye got.I LOVE Joss Wheedon and agree that he walks on water. LOVE Star Wars. LOVE Psych. Watched Battlestar Gallactica when I was a kid. But I DO NOT quote ANY of those shows. I do not talk about characters in the show and draw parallels to them with people in my life. When Faye would do this, she went from being a sweet, adorable, somewhat quirky woman to a strange, too far off center woman. It wasn't cute - it was strange. Thankfully Chace thought it was cute. He is a better person than I.- The male outbursts. In KA books, the males are allowed to totally freak out on their girlfriends, throw stuff around, swear like crazy, scream and shout and insult the woman. Then when they figure out their mistake they jump on the woman, have mad passionate sex in lieu of a MAJOR groveling session of "I am a steroid-ladened idiot...sorry sorry sorry." Make up sex is their apology. (hrumpf)- The online friends that Faye has. How do they know so much? It was too nebulous and too easy for them to 'fix' things. Was a bit over the top.Did I like this book?  YesWould I read it again? Not sure- Faye got on my nerves a bitWould I recommend it? Yes It was fun to read, just gloss over the weird Faye rantings when she references the shows that she loves.4 solid stars without the Faye references to all the shows she likes.Enjoy!