A review by teasilly
Home to Stay by Terri Osburn

3.0

Overall, it's an okay book! It isn't a page turner, but it also didn't make me wish the author was within reach so I could strangle her. *cough cough* Sarah J. Maas. It's a little cheesy at times, and one of the lovemaking scenes made me roll my eyes a little, but overall, it's an okay read!

I think in general, since I'm used to reading books where romance is a subplot instead of the main plot, I might've been a little hard on this book. But I didn't have any issues with the prose itself or the writing style. Osburn seems to possess a good handle of language.

However, one thing -- okay, two, now that I'm thinking about it -- that I could've done without is the unfulfilling dropping of hints about her past throughout most of the book. It made Will's paranoia hard to sympathize with, because she said things and acted (sometimes unfairly) because of her past. And since I, as the reader, only had a vague inkling of things, it lessened my potential liking of her. (To be honest, I think I like Sid more than I like Will, and it isn't even Sid's book! I think I may go and read about Sid after this, though.) And as such, the ending was more than a little anticlimactic. I expected something big to happen, like a confrontation of some sorts, but nope! Everything's solved, happy ending, and there's even a bonus of cash at the end.

The second thing I have a problem with is that Randy seems like this incredibly attractive man with no flaws: he's kind, he knows when to push and when to back off, he's understanding, he's physically appealing -- he's basically the perfect man. And though Will has emotional baggage and there were slights about the size of her hips and boobs at points in the book, Will's pretty much perfect too. I didn't see many character flaws or personal growth between them, and the problems that arose were circumstantial.

Am I being too hard on this book? Maybe. Are my standards too high? Maybe. (I am an English major, after all.) I did enjoy Sid as a character. She intrigued me. She seems like she has quite a bit of depth, and her own romance might be right up my alley. Will was just... okay for me, I suppose. Nothing stood out!

All in all, an okay read.