Review: Mother Nature!!!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 31, 2012
I will first begin by saying that I was given No Experience Required (A Summer Rains Novel) in exchange for an honest review.This story is about Summer Light Rains, (yes...that is her real name), grew up in a simple living commune with her parents and a few other couples outside of San Francisco, CA. Summer's best friend, Gandhi Willow Rhys, (I swear I'm not making these names up...*snicker*) is two years older than her but the two of them are inseparable in their youth. As they reach adolescence they recognize their budding attraction for one another but Gandhi quickly puts a kibosh on it. Once they reach college age, Gandhi goes to Yale University and Summer goes to Hale University (yep, there is a LOL story there). The two friends lose touch and Summer settles her adult life in San Francisco.For Summer, her life moves along at a mediocre pace. She has no "real" job and takes odd jobs like being a video hoochie to support herself. Enter rock star: Dustin Wiles. Dustin decides that Summer must be his and stops at nothing to get her. And THAT is where all her problems begin.After reading her paranormal books, Lauren Stewart has quickly become one of my favorite authors so I jumped at the opportunity to review this book when asked. Let me tell you that about 50% into the story, I started to get a bit frustrated with it. Why you ask? Because, frankly, Summer irritated the snot out of me with her hijinks and sarcastic rejoinders to mostly everything. But, I kept reading, because of my commitment to the review.When I reached 65% in the story, I had a mindset shift. I "GOT IT". Summer was absolutely created that way for a reason. She is an unlikely "heroine" because she just couldn't seem to stay out of trouble...trouble that she often created...but trouble nonetheless. So, in that respect, Stewart's writing is genius because I was as irritated with Summer as Detective Ronin was. She raised my blood pressure. LOL.With my new mindset, I reflected on the first half of the story as I read the rest of it and thoroughly enjoyed the story's direction. It was very well done and it was masterful the way that Summer stumbled into who done it! Stewart created a story that was, in fact, witty, detailed, and highly engaging. I never expected the story to end as it did but it was an excellent and fitting.Lovers of comedic mysteries will greatly enjoy this story. I look forward to seeing what's next for Ms. Summer.