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simplysapir's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Devoured this!
xcaity's review
2.0
This is a decently written novel for the genre, or maybe just decently proofread. It's lacking detail for me, though. We were told that Abby likes to sketch and loves art, but that was never part of her personality...it was a passing thing that was mentioned almost only for the sake of a jealous fight, and then hardly brought up again. Tucker apparently has no hobbies, likes or dislikes, outside of Abby and his job.
Anyway, it just seemed like one dimensional characters. Not a bad story, and I'm actually interested in the rest of the Simon clan, but I think I would be disappointed if I read more of the series.
Anyway, it just seemed like one dimensional characters. Not a bad story, and I'm actually interested in the rest of the Simon clan, but I think I would be disappointed if I read more of the series.
romancejunkie1025's review
4.0
wow a plot twist of a plot twist! loved it. can't wait for the rest of the clan to get stories
jen286's review
3.0
Tucker is one of those books that is good, but forgettable. It has a very familiar storyline and is not bad, but not amazing either. It is a light summer read.
Tucker's wife disappeared three years ago. She got on a plane and was never seen again. He has given up on finding her alive and given up on loving anyone else. He has a string of random women he doesn't get attached to. When a family wedding comes up and his date backs out on him at the last minute he asks Abby, his friend, to come with him just so he doesn't have to go alone.
Abby has always be a little bit in love with Tucker. Ever since he walked into her family's bar she has been drawn to him. They are friends and they talk about everything and know a lot about each other. When he needs someone to go to a wedding with she agrees to go as just friends.
Of course once they get there Tucker starts seeing Abby as more than friends and Abby starts trying to make him jealous and realize that he actually does care for her. By the end of the weekend of course they are together. But the book doesn't stop there. You get Tucker trying to deal with his wife and have her pronounced dead even though it hasn't been 7 years. You have some other drama with that, and telling his wife's parents he is moving on with someone else, and then just Abby and him working things out. It was an entertaining read, but not remarkable.
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
Tucker's wife disappeared three years ago. She got on a plane and was never seen again. He has given up on finding her alive and given up on loving anyone else. He has a string of random women he doesn't get attached to. When a family wedding comes up and his date backs out on him at the last minute he asks Abby, his friend, to come with him just so he doesn't have to go alone.
Abby has always be a little bit in love with Tucker. Ever since he walked into her family's bar she has been drawn to him. They are friends and they talk about everything and know a lot about each other. When he needs someone to go to a wedding with she agrees to go as just friends.
Of course once they get there Tucker starts seeing Abby as more than friends and Abby starts trying to make him jealous and realize that he actually does care for her. By the end of the weekend of course they are together. But the book doesn't stop there. You get Tucker trying to deal with his wife and have her pronounced dead even though it hasn't been 7 years. You have some other drama with that, and telling his wife's parents he is moving on with someone else, and then just Abby and him working things out. It was an entertaining read, but not remarkable.
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
blodeuedd's review
3.0
I have no idea how the Simons's are rich, I guess that was in the Barker books? Eh, who knows. Seems they have money.
Tucker has issues. His wife went missing. He loves them and leaves them now.
Abby has issues. She has been in love with Tucker for months now. They are just friends, which is good, but she loves him.
He needs a date to get his mum off his back. Abby says yes.
We meet a bunch of Simons at a wedding. Sparks fly between Abby and Tucker. But can they get over the whole, my wife is missing!? Can I love again?! Duh, it's a romance, of course he can love again. And so they lived happily ever after. The end.
Cute.
Tucker has issues. His wife went missing. He loves them and leaves them now.
Abby has issues. She has been in love with Tucker for months now. They are just friends, which is good, but she loves him.
He needs a date to get his mum off his back. Abby says yes.
We meet a bunch of Simons at a wedding. Sparks fly between Abby and Tucker. But can they get over the whole, my wife is missing!? Can I love again?! Duh, it's a romance, of course he can love again. And so they lived happily ever after. The end.
Cute.
joyousreads132's review
4.0
I found Juliana Stone last year when I was browsing through iBooks and a couple of her books were free at the time. I read her books and found them to be so much fun. The kind of romance novels that were easy to read with men who were easy on the eyes, but terror to the hearts of their female counterparts. I could not get enough. Needless to say, I went on a stretch when all I did was read her books. This past week, I was yet again, ensconced in nothing but Juliana Stone. And yep. The obsessive personality reared its head again.
IN A NUTSHELL
Friends to lovers trope. Who can resist them? I’m not typically a fan. But I must admit that there’s something exciting about two people realizing how dense they’ve been the whole time. That exact moment when they realize that happiness was staring at them in the face, because they were an oblivious couple made in heaven. In Abby’s defence, she already has feelings for Tucker. But Tucker was too busy living in the past and screwing every available woman within a ten-mile radius. Anyway…
Tucker’s wife disappeared years ago. And while he’s not living with the illusion that she might still be alive, he hasn’t really been too open for the possibility of moving on. He’s been friends with Abby for months, but lately, he’s looking at her in a different light. When they finally decided to take their friendship to no man’s land, things didn’t really change. I mean, they’re still friends. But now, they also know each other in the biblical sense. Things are looking up…until news that his wife resurfaced in a Cuban hospital reached him.
Tucker has the propensity to be an asshole, but Abby do not take his asshole-ry sitting down. She tells it like it is and she stands up to him. They’re the perfect match, to be honest. And while you may have read your share of this kind of stories, these books has one going for it: I am a fan of familial series. The Simon family consists of 4 boys and 1 girl. But the series is also about their cousins, Maverick and Cooper. I love reading about the entire clan. Their back stories and the family dynamics. There’s Jack who’s well on his way to a Presidential nomination; there’s Teague, Tucker’s twin brother who spent much of his career chasing the next dangerous story. There’s brothers Maverick and Cooper; and then there’s the lone girl amongst the boys, Grace. I like reading about their romantic entanglements. It’s always something to look forward to.
Fans of romance novels will find this enjoyable. It was fun, bittersweet, and in a Juliana Stone fashion, highly addictive.
IN A NUTSHELL
Friends to lovers trope. Who can resist them? I’m not typically a fan. But I must admit that there’s something exciting about two people realizing how dense they’ve been the whole time. That exact moment when they realize that happiness was staring at them in the face, because they were an oblivious couple made in heaven. In Abby’s defence, she already has feelings for Tucker. But Tucker was too busy living in the past and screwing every available woman within a ten-mile radius. Anyway…
Tucker’s wife disappeared years ago. And while he’s not living with the illusion that she might still be alive, he hasn’t really been too open for the possibility of moving on. He’s been friends with Abby for months, but lately, he’s looking at her in a different light. When they finally decided to take their friendship to no man’s land, things didn’t really change. I mean, they’re still friends. But now, they also know each other in the biblical sense. Things are looking up…until news that his wife resurfaced in a Cuban hospital reached him.
Tucker has the propensity to be an asshole, but Abby do not take his asshole-ry sitting down. She tells it like it is and she stands up to him. They’re the perfect match, to be honest. And while you may have read your share of this kind of stories, these books has one going for it: I am a fan of familial series. The Simon family consists of 4 boys and 1 girl. But the series is also about their cousins, Maverick and Cooper. I love reading about the entire clan. Their back stories and the family dynamics. There’s Jack who’s well on his way to a Presidential nomination; there’s Teague, Tucker’s twin brother who spent much of his career chasing the next dangerous story. There’s brothers Maverick and Cooper; and then there’s the lone girl amongst the boys, Grace. I like reading about their romantic entanglements. It’s always something to look forward to.
Fans of romance novels will find this enjoyable. It was fun, bittersweet, and in a Juliana Stone fashion, highly addictive.
elenajohansen's review
1.0
Great sexual tension between the leads, terrible plot.
Let's apply a core piece of romance-writing advice to this story: Why aren't they together now?
1. At first, Tucker and Abby aren't a thing because they're "friends." Of course, this friendship is presented as incredibly shallow for most of the book; she's a bartender at his favorite drinking spot and they talk. Eventually it's revealed that he's stayed after hours a few times and they played darts. So that's "friends" to him? Because she's literally paid to be nice to you as her job, and to get tips from you. Now, it's revealed pretty quickly that Abby's had a crush on him since day one, but still. None of this strikes me as being actual friends.
2. Tucker's not ready to move on from his missing/dead wife. It's been three years, and yeah, a presumed-dead wife isn't the same thing as an actually dead one, so I get it. That's an entirely reasonable span of time for someone to let go, or to still be torn up--IRL that would depend on the person. I don't have a problem with that. I do, however, have a problem when it's revealed that his wife intentionally got pregnant without his consent, while he believed she was taking her birth control, because she was baby-crazy. Of course she lost the baby before she disappeared--adding a child to this bizarre plot would make the simple closure we get at the end impossible--but apparently Tucker's grief at her disappearance apparently made him forget that betrayal, which is on a deal-breaker level for me personally.
So in spite of all this, Abby agrees to be his last-minute date for a wedding, and everyone in his family there assumes they're together, despite BOTH of them constantly insisting they're not. Terrible family, that won't take anyone's word for it, because of course they know better! Anyone can see the tension and attraction between them, right? So that makes it totally okay to mock them when they swear they're not a couple!
But of course before the wedding weekend is over, they're having sex in the hotel room they were forced to share. Way to prove the fam right.
When they return home, we get to reason #3: Abby's older brother is a completely toxic jerk. This story takes the "protective older brother" trope to an extreme, though in a way, since Tucker is a terrible person, it's almost justified. Mick gives Tucker so much shit for dating/having sex with Abby, and while Tucker might be the kind of man who needs reminding not to be an ass, Abby is an adult who doesn't need her family insulating her from having a life. But hey, it's okay, boys will be boys, right?
So eventually Tucker and Abby sort themselves out into a reasonable relationship, the depiction of which is totally unsatisfying (the narrative even says "they fell into a comfortable routine," which is just what I want--a romance that goes from sixty to zero in the space of a few weeks and a couple pages /sarcasm.) Then! Tucker's wife is found in Cuba! Maybe!
I honestly expected that not to happen. Like, a missing person is gone for three years, then magically shows back up at the most inconvenient time for the plot? She didn't have to. Tucker was moving on without that spur, and she could have just stayed missing. Or even been found dead, for real closure. But no, he has to fly down there to see if it's really her--and it's not, and the woman it really is gives the authorities evidence of where her plane crashed--and discover the story himself, jeopardizing his new, boring relationship with Abby. And then when he's back and super sure his wife is really gone, he can finally say "I love you."
I did like the banter between Abby and Tucker, and the sex scenes weren't terrible. But mostly everything else was. Including the text itself--and I know this had an editor, because they're listed on the copyright page. But throughout the book, there was frequently missing punctuation, as well as a sprinkling of commas "inserte,d" into words instead of after them, which is a mistake so obvious a simple spell-check will catch it. It's minor, compared with the story issues, but nothing screams "unprofessional" like a poorly-edited book.
Let's apply a core piece of romance-writing advice to this story: Why aren't they together now?
1. At first, Tucker and Abby aren't a thing because they're "friends." Of course, this friendship is presented as incredibly shallow for most of the book; she's a bartender at his favorite drinking spot and they talk. Eventually it's revealed that he's stayed after hours a few times and they played darts. So that's "friends" to him? Because she's literally paid to be nice to you as her job, and to get tips from you. Now, it's revealed pretty quickly that Abby's had a crush on him since day one, but still. None of this strikes me as being actual friends.
2. Tucker's not ready to move on from his missing/dead wife. It's been three years, and yeah, a presumed-dead wife isn't the same thing as an actually dead one, so I get it. That's an entirely reasonable span of time for someone to let go, or to still be torn up--IRL that would depend on the person. I don't have a problem with that. I do, however, have a problem when it's revealed that his wife intentionally got pregnant without his consent, while he believed she was taking her birth control, because she was baby-crazy. Of course she lost the baby before she disappeared--adding a child to this bizarre plot would make the simple closure we get at the end impossible--but apparently Tucker's grief at her disappearance apparently made him forget that betrayal, which is on a deal-breaker level for me personally.
So in spite of all this, Abby agrees to be his last-minute date for a wedding, and everyone in his family there assumes they're together, despite BOTH of them constantly insisting they're not. Terrible family, that won't take anyone's word for it, because of course they know better! Anyone can see the tension and attraction between them, right? So that makes it totally okay to mock them when they swear they're not a couple!
But of course before the wedding weekend is over, they're having sex in the hotel room they were forced to share. Way to prove the fam right.
When they return home, we get to reason #3: Abby's older brother is a completely toxic jerk. This story takes the "protective older brother" trope to an extreme, though in a way, since Tucker is a terrible person, it's almost justified. Mick gives Tucker so much shit for dating/having sex with Abby, and while Tucker might be the kind of man who needs reminding not to be an ass, Abby is an adult who doesn't need her family insulating her from having a life. But hey, it's okay, boys will be boys, right?
So eventually Tucker and Abby sort themselves out into a reasonable relationship, the depiction of which is totally unsatisfying (the narrative even says "they fell into a comfortable routine," which is just what I want--a romance that goes from sixty to zero in the space of a few weeks and a couple pages /sarcasm.) Then! Tucker's wife is found in Cuba! Maybe!
I honestly expected that not to happen. Like, a missing person is gone for three years, then magically shows back up at the most inconvenient time for the plot? She didn't have to. Tucker was moving on without that spur, and she could have just stayed missing. Or even been found dead, for real closure. But no, he has to fly down there to see if it's really her--and it's not, and the woman it really is gives the authorities evidence of where her plane crashed--and discover the story himself, jeopardizing his new, boring relationship with Abby. And then when he's back and super sure his wife is really gone, he can finally say "I love you."
I did like the banter between Abby and Tucker, and the sex scenes weren't terrible. But mostly everything else was. Including the text itself--and I know this had an editor, because they're listed on the copyright page. But throughout the book, there was frequently missing punctuation, as well as a sprinkling of commas "inserte,d" into words instead of after them, which is a mistake so obvious a simple spell-check will catch it. It's minor, compared with the story issues, but nothing screams "unprofessional" like a poorly-edited book.