carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Penguin Group via Net Galley for the purpose of providing an honest review.



4 Stars

I am rating this book simply based on the fact that I really liked the story. I am trusting that the mistakes in the book that bugged in the ARC that I read were corrected by the time the final version was released. I admit that I am a fan of romance and I really enjoy a story that is a little different. This one fit that definition perfectly.

The book opens with Allison, who is 9 months pregnant, watching her soon to be ex-husband being arrested outside of a strip club. Let's be honest here - this is definitely a different opening for a romance novel. Allison finds herself in Destiny Falls trying to run a boat rental company, Cloud Nine. Cloud Nine currently has one employee and Theo wants nothing to do with Allison.



Theo has spent the past 10 years working at Cloud Nine and he also plays for the local hockey team, Bomb Squad which is made up of wounded warriors. Theo and Allison eventually learn to work together as they realize they may have more in common with each other than work.

I liked a lot of things about this story including most importantly the fact that it kept me entertained. I liked that the Theo and Allison were far from perfect and had a lot of issues to overcome to make things work. I really liked the chemistry between the pair and thought it was very authentic. I loved the bits of hockey that were part of the story even though it is really a very small part of the book. The supporting characters from the town of Destiny Falls were a lot of fun and I can't wait to see some of them in future books.



There were a few things that I didn't like quite as much. If this had been a final copy of the book, my rating would have been much lower because there were some HUGE mistakes which I believe would have been caught prior to a final copy being released. I don't understand the cover of the book. Is there a rule that all romance books must have a man without his shirt featured on the cover? Why are his pants unbuttoned? Don't get me wrong - he is great to look at but I am not sure that it is a good representation of the story. There were a few conflicts that felt unnecessary and did not really add to the story. I was really hoping that this book would avoid the "big misunderstanding" pitfall that seems to be in every romance book but the author snuck one it before it was over.

Overall, I really did enjoy reading this book and would recommend it to readers of contemporary romances. This was the first book by Melissa Cutler that I have had a chance to read. I do plan to continue with this series.