Review: A Sweet and Lighthearted Read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2014
Kate Adams expected to arrive back home from Paris in time for her high school reunion with a fiancé in tow.  Unfortunately, for the “planning life down to a t” Kate, she now has to embarrassingly attend that reunion alone, after responding that she would be bringing her partner.Desperate, dateless and utterly shattered that her marriage plans, and therefore her life, have fallen apart, when Jo’s brother Josh arrives on the scene, plans are hastily made for Josh to go along as Kate’s date … and pretend to be her fiancé.Josh is gorgeous.  Having just flown in from the USA where he has been working, he’s eager to spend some time with Kate as, unbeknownst to her, he’s always had a soft spot for his sister’s best friend.Kate soon realises that she couldn’t have asked for a better partner to attend the reunion with her.  He is attentive, funny and shares all kinds of memories from their teenage years with their former peers.  And their first kiss … it’s earth shattering.However their new found friendship appears about to blow up in their faces when they can’t keep their lips off one another and rather embarrassingly get caught in the lift, after which she remembers that she was meant to tell her mother about the surprise that she had for her.When Kate’s ex-fiancé arrives in Australia and Josh makes some startling revelations and an unexpected proposal, we see Kate floundering and can only hope that she will realise that not even she can plan love.I first met Kate Adams in Imelda Evans’ debut novel, Rules are for Breaking (my review here) which tells the story about the “three strikes and you’re out” Jo Marchant and how she met Declan.  I was therefore thrilled when Imelda contacted me and requested a review on Playing by the Rules and immediately sank my teeth into it.Imelda's characters are well-crafted and Kate, who is seriously flawed, managed to annoy me intensely with her constant planning for everything in her life.  Josh, on the other hand, is the total opposite, being almost flawless and just so darned nice and there were a few times in the novel where I really felt sorry for him and wanted to shake some common sense into Kate with all her little insecurities.  The story about the rabbit, was just fabulous!Once again, Imelda hasn’t disappointed with her humour and wit bringing us this sweet and light-hearted read which kept me entertained and one which I would recommend to those lovers of romance looking for a bit of escapism.