Review: March Hair by Stephanie Erickson

March Hair

by Stephanie Erickson

Release Date: March 1st, 2024

2024 Pickles Press

Ebook ARC; 304 Pages

ISBN: 978-1944793326

ASIN: B0CRPVTQ42

Genre: Fiction / Romance / Magical Realism

Source: Review copy from author

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

March Wilson doesn’t take no for an answer. So, when a man she assumed was homeless wandered into her salon, she didn’t even listen to what he had to say. She just plopped him down in her chair and transformed him. 

Robin Heart knew the transformation was only on the surface, and he couldn’t let himself get close to March. But she’s so maddeningly easy to be around. And his daughter loved her. It’s a problem he doesn’t know how to fix.

All March knew is Robin was mysterious, maybe a little too grouchy, and his daughter, Alice, was an absolute joy. Can March allow her life to be transformed by him? Or was she destined to sit on the sidelines while someone else walked a path she cleared for them?

 

My Thoughts

March Hair is a fun romantic comedy with a touch of magical realism floating throughout its pages. I enjoyed the story, thought the characters and the plot were fun and interesting, but to be honest, found it simplistic and fairly predictable.  

 

While March was an interesting character, there was nothing that really stood out about her, even her hair. Although I loved the concept that everyone has a little magic in them, the fact that her hair would change constantly must have raised some questions from the people in her life and those around her. If the hue changes from one hour to the next because of your emotions, how do you explain that? Her hair would be falling out from the number of dye jobs she supposedly would have had.  I felt like I needed more insight into her character, who she was, and why she would be attracted to someone like Robin.

Alice was my favourite character in the book, but she was ten going on twenty. I loved her insights into other people, but for someone who was in hiding, she was certainly very trusting. I also didn't mind Robin too much, but the grumpy male lead is something that is overdone in romance novels and can get quite tiresome. You can be worried about what is happening to you and your child without being slotted into the 'grumpy' box. I just find it somewhat immature sometimes and as a trope, it's not one of my favourites.  There is surely a better way to get across to people that you are a private person without being grumpy. 

The plot itself was fine. Personally, I didn't really feel the connection between March and Robin, or why she was so drawn to him in the beginning. So, while I empathized with both of these characters, I didn't really empathize with their relationship even if it was fun to see it develop. I can't even pinpoint the reason why. I'm not opposed to slow-burn romances because life is difficult and challenging, but I do have a problem when someone keeps probing into someone's life as if they are entitled to know everything about them. People reveal information about themselves when they trust someone, it's not an instantaneous thing, especially if you've been burned once or twice before. I did like the inner monologues from both of them questioning whether it was a good idea to push for a relationship. 

Verdict

March Hair was an enjoyable romantic novel about two people who needed to figure out what they really wanted in their lives. I thought the plot was fun, if predictable, and I liked the characters, even if I would have liked to have seen more development. Overall, if you like slow-burn small-town romance, this one is definitely for you.

 

 

 

Review: Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read

by Emily Henry

Release Date: May 19th 2020

2020 Berkley

Kindle Edition; 384 Pages

ISBN: 978-1984806734

ASIN: B07XNKRV83

Genre: Fiction / Romance / Contemporary

Source: Review copy from publisher

3 / 5 Stars

Summary

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They're polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

 

My Thoughts

Beach Read was a fun, easy read, but it was simply that.  After reading the description, I thought there would be more, maybe much more of an electric enemy to friendship to lover scenario, but while the friendship developed nicely, I didn't really feel that zing or zap I would have expected.  This is not a genre I read a lot of although I did go through a huge phase as a teenager (I mean, who doesn't?), but I would think there would still be that sexual tension that should exist between two people. I was a little sad about not liking it as much as other people did as the scenario seemed right up my alley; I mean who doesn't love a book about books and authors?

 

I will admit that I am not really all that into romance stories so maybe I am biased in that regard.  I enjoyed the earlier and the later parts of the the book as they were much more interesting, but I will admit I thought the middle section lagged a little bit.  It wasn't that it wasn't interesting, but you can only read so much about them looking at each other through their windows and writing cute notes to each other before you want to actually read about something happening, or see some dialogue, you know? I did like seeing how they each approached their own writing though as that kind of thing fascinates me as a writer myself. It would have been nice to see exactly what the two characters wrote though, as not a lot of detail was mentioned about their own books.  That was disappointing. 

 

I do feel like the author didn't really know where she wanted to take this novel in terms of plot though as it seemed like it was all over the place.  Was it supposed to be light and fluffy or dark and serious? Hard to say as both themes kind of ran contradictory to themselves.  You've got the two main characters sharing banter and spending time together writing their novels, but then you have January discovering this dark secret about her dad and Gus doing research on another dark and disturbing topic. There is nothing wrong with having all of these themes running through a romance novel, the problem lies when the author doesn't know what to do with those themes, and this is exactly what happened here.  All of a sudden, everything starts resolving itself, with little explanation, writer's blocks are fixed, books are finished within the time lines, and are sold with little problem. Whoa, wait! What happened?  Maybe that's why I don't read a lot of romance?

 

I also really liked January as a character (second book this year with a main character named January, love it!!!) as she was funny, witty, and vulnerable.  Gus though, was a bit pretentious and annoying, a bit too stereotypical a man for my liking.  He doesn't believe in romance or romance novels and thinks those types of novels are not great writing.  

Verdict

Beach Read is definitely the book for you if you want something that is light and summery.  January was far more appealing a character than Gus who was aloof and then took chivalry to annoying levels towards the end. I do feel like the author had too many threads going in this story and didn't quite know what to do with all of them so the story felt disjointed and definitely rushed towards the end.  I do feel like this book was over-hyped in its marketing, but I'll leave you to judge for yourself. 

 

 

 

Review: The Next Always by Nora Roberts

The Next Always (Inn Boonsboro Trilogy, Book #1)

by Nora Roberts
Release Date: November 1st, 2011
2011 Berkley Books
Softcover Edition; 341 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-425-24321-3
ASIN: B0052RDH6K
Genre: Fiction / Romance
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

3 / 5 Stars

Summary
The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett's social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there's another project he's got his eye on: the girl he's been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen...

My Thoughts
The Next Always is one of those books you can always count on from Nora Roberts, fun, lighthearted, and enjoyable.  This is one those books that I always look upon as a filler for those deeper, heavier, more philosophical books that I read; it's a novel about second chances, with an element of the paranormal thrown in, as well as a second storyline that you know will lead into the sequel.  It's formulaic, fairly predictable, but sometimes that's exactly what is needed to fill an afternoon when you are looking for something to take you away from a stressful world.

I really liked Clare as well as her friends Hope and Avery.  Clare's relationship with her three boys seemed warm and close; it also seemed very real as the boys were very rambunctious, and I loved how they would negotiate all the time with her over every little thing (felt quite a bit like home, actually!).  Beckett was a very likeable character, and although the relationship between Clare and Beckett felt real, it didn't really seem to have that sizzle.  And the whole stalking episode felt like something that was just thrown in for good measure; it's not that I don't believe it can't happen as I have seen it happen to people, it just didn't seem to fit into the novel the way the events unfolded. I would have liked to have seen more developed characters, ones that were more fully fleshed out, but the focus on the restoration did not allow for this development.  I did really enjoy the scenes where the three boys were involved as they were often funny and touching; I loved how the oldest boy, Harry, really looked out for his mom and was very protective, it was so sweet.

The Next Always is the first in a trilogy that follows the Montgomery brothers as they restore an old inn back to life.  While the story is intriguing, I felt like I was in the middle of a promotion for an actual inn a lot of the time as the details for each room went a bit overboard, and took away somewhat from the story.  And then I read that the author herself was in fact restoring an old inn, so the story made perfect sense at that point.  (If you're interested in the Inn BoonsBoro and the history, and how Nora Roberts became involved, click here.)  Unfortunately, while I really enjoyed the details personally, and loved the idea of restoration, including the little bit of paranormal that was introduced in the form of a ghost, I still think a lot of the story got swallowed up in these details.

Verdict
The Next Always was one of those lighthearted reads that you need, but there was really no depth to this novel and the romance was fairly predictable and formulaic.  While I have always been a huge fan of Nora Roberts, I thought the continuous discussions surrounding the restoration of the Inn went on for too long, and just weren't the place for a romance novel.   Hopefully more emphasis will be put on the romance and the greater development of the characters, the more richly textured and developed backgrounds to which readers of Nora Roberts are used to, in the next two novels of this trilogy.  Will I read the next two novels?  Probably, but I won't run out to get them.