Scan barcode
A review by bee_thebibliophile
Parks and Provocation by Juliette Cross
3.0
Heading back to Green Valley is always a good time and Lola and Jed’s story was no different. While it was a quick read in one of my favorite story settings, I found myself wanting more.
Lola Landry a little lost after losing her job in New Orleans and having to move back to Green Valley to live with her aunt. She’s working as a waitress and hosting and producing a dating podcast with her best friend Marly to keep her marketing skills sharp for when she finds her next dream job. Lola’s a planner in every sense of the word who struggles to give up control and is always thinking five steps ahead instead of living in the moment. Her goals have always been to be successful and she thinks the only way to do that is to leave Green Valley and work for an impressive company, something that really bothered me. Her pride and selfishness really turned me off to her as a character and her deception on dates for her podcast made me like her even less.
Jedediah (Jed) Lawson is a Green Valley firefighter who was a high school and college football star and ended up giving it all up to take care of his family. He makes dinner for his dad every night, tutors his niece every week, picks his other niece up from daycare every Wednesday and takes his grandma to the grocery store monthly on a Friday night. He’s the sweetest, most caring guy, so genuine and passionate - I loved him so much. Jed’s been interested in Lola since their freshman year of high school and now that she’s back in town, he’s made it his mission to make up for lost time and make her his.
These two had a lot of history to overcome before getting together. They’re kind of enemies but there’s lots of chemistry simmering under the surface. Jed always had his mind set on Lola, even when Lola was completely oblivious to his interest. Once Lola gets out of her own head and sees the truth in Jed’s intentions, these two are sweet together. But I hated Lola’s insistence on leaving Jed out of her decisions, keeping him in the dark and hurting him by taking his opinions completely out of the equation. It ended up working out for them but Lola’s pride really got in the way of their relationship and caused a lot of unnecessary heartache.
I really didn’t love the concept of Lola and Marly’s podcast - it felt really disingenuous that Lola would go on dates with men and then throw them a curveball at the end that it wasn’t ever serious for her and she wanted to use them to create podcast content. My heart hurt for Jed when he found out that’s what Lola was thinking about when she said yes in the first place, but I loved that he was a good sport and turned it into a challenge.
After loving the first book in this series, Parks and Provocation was just alright for me. I wanted more about Jed’s work at the fire department, not just using it as a plot device to show Lola she’s interested in him or showing how serious her feelings were after he got called to a scene. I enjoyed going back to Green Valley and Jed’s sweet manliness, but Lola just wasn’t for me.
Lola Landry a little lost after losing her job in New Orleans and having to move back to Green Valley to live with her aunt. She’s working as a waitress and hosting and producing a dating podcast with her best friend Marly to keep her marketing skills sharp for when she finds her next dream job. Lola’s a planner in every sense of the word who struggles to give up control and is always thinking five steps ahead instead of living in the moment. Her goals have always been to be successful and she thinks the only way to do that is to leave Green Valley and work for an impressive company, something that really bothered me. Her pride and selfishness really turned me off to her as a character and her deception on dates for her podcast made me like her even less.
Jedediah (Jed) Lawson is a Green Valley firefighter who was a high school and college football star and ended up giving it all up to take care of his family. He makes dinner for his dad every night, tutors his niece every week, picks his other niece up from daycare every Wednesday and takes his grandma to the grocery store monthly on a Friday night. He’s the sweetest, most caring guy, so genuine and passionate - I loved him so much. Jed’s been interested in Lola since their freshman year of high school and now that she’s back in town, he’s made it his mission to make up for lost time and make her his.
These two had a lot of history to overcome before getting together. They’re kind of enemies but there’s lots of chemistry simmering under the surface. Jed always had his mind set on Lola, even when Lola was completely oblivious to his interest. Once Lola gets out of her own head and sees the truth in Jed’s intentions, these two are sweet together. But I hated Lola’s insistence on leaving Jed out of her decisions, keeping him in the dark and hurting him by taking his opinions completely out of the equation. It ended up working out for them but Lola’s pride really got in the way of their relationship and caused a lot of unnecessary heartache.
I really didn’t love the concept of Lola and Marly’s podcast - it felt really disingenuous that Lola would go on dates with men and then throw them a curveball at the end that it wasn’t ever serious for her and she wanted to use them to create podcast content. My heart hurt for Jed when he found out that’s what Lola was thinking about when she said yes in the first place, but I loved that he was a good sport and turned it into a challenge.
After loving the first book in this series, Parks and Provocation was just alright for me. I wanted more about Jed’s work at the fire department, not just using it as a plot device to show Lola she’s interested in him or showing how serious her feelings were after he got called to a scene. I enjoyed going back to Green Valley and Jed’s sweet manliness, but Lola just wasn’t for me.