Review: 4 sweet stars for Sweet Forty-Two
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 10, 2013
In Sweet Forty-Two, the third novel in the November Blue series, the focus shifts to Regan. After the events in Reckless Abandon, he returns to the US recognizing that running away isn't lessening his grief. Georgia has her own secrets from everyone except CJ, who has known her since they were children. Both Regan and Georgia have to take some pretty big steps for themselves before they can even try to make anything work between them.Regan is one of my favorite side characters from the first two November Blue books, so I was so glad to see this book focus on him. He is a very emotional man, and his loss in Reckless Abandon crippled him, hence the run-away trip to Ireland. Now that he's back, I love that he doesn't shy away from feeling the good and bad in life, even while he's living with so much grief and regret. I love his banter with CJ, when he's in town, and Ember. I think I love him even more because he is so open about what he is feeling at any given time and not afraid to share that with those around him.Georgia is described as a female version of CJ, which makes sense because he is her connection to the original November Blue cast. That being said, I didn't really see the comparison continued through the storyline very far, or explained as to why she projects that image. She is a very closed off person, keeping herself from getting close to anyone around her, with the exception of CJ. She's got a lot going on in her life, though she keeps everything at a holding pattern waiting for the other shoe to drop. This made it hard as a reader to connect with her. Once those things she hides from everyone start to come to light, my ability to sympathize and connect with her expanded and I ended up liking her as a character.If I'm going to gripe about anything, it would be that while the characters connect, the story felt more like two people coming to terms with their lives and situations in parallel lines rather than in an interconnected way. They hang out and live across the hall from each other, but other than one almost kiss, they spend a lot of time in the friend zone and I just didn't feel a lot of chemistry or sexual tension for much of the story. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not quite what I expected after having read the first two books.The addition of Alice in Wonderland references throughout was a great little detail that kept me guessing their significance as soon as I recognized they were there. Not just in the chapter titles, but sprinkled throughout Georgia's life: her bakery, the tattoos, conversations with her mom. I can't call this a light read when both characters are working through some fairly dark emotions to get to light and happy, but I enjoyed the story regardless.Thanks to Andrea Randall for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.