Review: Reading Haven Review
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 26, 2013
Book two in the New York Leopards series by Allison Parr.Natalie is a young woman who is finishing up her graduate work and is being mentored by one of the greatest men in her field. She is an archeologist and she is looking for a long lost city in Ireland. Natalie has had a rough go of it. Her mother and father don't understand her. They believe her schooling is a "hobby" that she will outgrow.Natalie does not believe in love. She has seen her mother and father together in a loveless marriage for years. She has resigned herself to a fate of being alone and focusing on her career. The one and only thing that makes her happy.Michael is a football player. He has recently inherited a large mount of land in his native Ireland. He hasn't been back there in a long time. His father was born and raised there but Michael was born in the US. He has made a good career as a professional football player. When a young woman comes into his office asking to dig up the land he just inherited, he is intrigued, but he can't say yes.This is land that has been in his family for generations. If he allowed her in, she might dig up more than just old artifacts. Michael is not interested in that complication.Eventually Natalie gets a dig. It just might not be the one she was interested in. She finds herself more and more interested in the feisty redhead who owns the land. The pressure builds to a breaking point and Natalie must choose to trust. She has to have faith and believe that love can last. But she is so afraid to take the plunge.She is going to have to choose. Either a life with only a career to keep her warm at night, or opening her heart to the man who is right in front of her.I wanted to love this book so much. I requested this book after reading and falling in love with Rush Me, the first in this series. Allison Parr writes smart and witty main characters. She also knows how to show a good romance that smolders and ignites. This one just wasn't as good for me. It seemed to get too caught up in the technical aspects of Natalie and her dig. I just had a hard time staying interested. This book was about 229 pages. It could have been edited down to get rid of the extraneous bits.I really liked Michael, I enjoyed his character but I would have liked to learn more about him and what he went through growing up. Natalie's story was not that unique, but that made it more real. The thing that was unique was her mother's past fame. I struggled a bit to connect with Natalie. She was very stubborn!  She was very determined but extremely jaded.So overall, this was a 3.5 (rounding up to four) star read for me. Book one was a definite 5 stars. I will continue to read this series as it comes out because Parr is an amazing writer.