Review: fun one off read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 2, 2014
Aloha Also Means Goodbye.  Jessica RosenbergReview from Jeannie Zelos Book reviews.I love romance novels but they need to have something different to lure me in, and the tropical setting of this one did it for me. So we meet Jo and her friends who're there having a batchelorette party a few days before her wedding...and then we meet Jo's ex, Andy, who's there with his two kids, on a holiday without his wife. She's done a runner, but he's come on the holiday anyway. Seeing them is rubbing salt into the wound for Jo, her original marriage in Africa she's just discovered isn't legal, she and Jordan haven't been getting on so well since they returned to the US, they've been trying unsuccessfully to have a family, she still hasn't told him about the Zambian license, and seeing Andy and the children brings all her doubts and jealousies to the front. Lucky she's got her two best friends with her...So, Jo, I felt for her, with her past tragedy and the more we learned about it the sadder it became. She'd been through such a lot and she was a really sweet girl.  I didn't really like Jordan from the beginning, and like her wondered if they were really right for each other.  Andy, his side of the story when they parted was so different from what she'd been told, and once they talked a different light was shed on the past. Sadie, the friend who was forever getting her heart broken, was really soft and gentle. She was just a sucker for the sob story, fixed the problems and then each time the men dumped her once they were problem free again. She meets the lovely bartender Kona and falls for him quickly, then after they spend the night together she sees things that make her wonder if once again she's been tricked ....and then Roxie, friend number two. Roxie is one of those hard outside, soft inside people, she's something of a man eater, having decided love is just a sham, and a short good time then goodbye is the best she can expect. Protects herself from heartbreak that way. Jo's mum, she was first class bitch to begin but mellowed. I did find her behaviour turnaround difficult to accept, and also the things she's been hiding – her reasons didn’t sit well with me, and I just don't think she could have not let something slip over all those years.Soi a good cast of characters, a puzzle over who Jo would choose, secrets from the  past revealed, Sadie's possible heartbreak, Roxie's brittle self protection, the wedding that's rapidly turning  from paradise perfection into beach front bedlam, a kidnapping... its a story full of action and drama, all packed into 303 pages for 4.42. Its a whirl a minute, some quick sexy moments, and lots of choices to be made for everyone. I didn't expect what resulted, which was good, unpredictable novels are so much more interesting. I did find that the non stop action at times became too much, and the romance side took a back seat to the rest of the drama.Stars: Four, a fun read but not one I’d re read. .ARC supplied by Netgalley