A meh romance for the beginning of 2018

Let’s start this Cannonball and my first review with a romance! After being a lurker for two years, I think it is time for me to payback for all the awesome reviews and reviewers on this website, all the while raising funds for a great cause.

Please bear with me and all my grammar and vocabulary mistakes, I am still learning English, writing is much harder than listening to. Any correction about my grammar or wording is welcomed.

I came through this book thanks to a review posted here. So, thank you Malin for making me discover this series.

As it is the third review of this book, I will keep the summary short.

Eva works at Urban Genie, an event planning compagny which she founded with her two best friends Paige and Frankie (both heroines of the two previous books), and takes care of the catering of the events. Eva is asked by her client and friend Mitzy to hang Christmas decorations in her grandson’s apartment, and cook for said grandson while he is away. Lucas, grandson of Mitzy and famous thriller author suffers of major writer block, wants peace and tranquility to write and makes up his holiday outside of NY.

Chaos and romance ensue when Lucas catches Eva entering in its apartment.

Sadly, this book was a meh for me, not terribly bad but not good and quite forgettable. I read this two weeks ago and nothing of the story stuck with me.

I found Eva too bubbly and without depth, the author tried to gave her some dimension with her backstory but failed. Lucas is also not well defined, very a stereotype portrait of rich guy who “can’t love” anymore. Again, his backstory is sad and is supposedly making the reader care about him but really, I didn’t care about him. What the story is missing is,maybe, some input about Lucas writing process, it is described very briefly and without details. I would have loved to learn about  how a thriller is written, how is the intrigue build, etc… I would have also liked to learn if the book written is a failure or a success, it would have been hilarious if it was the former. About Eva, the author could have written more about her cooking, I think it was not enough and I expected more Christmas related dishes maybe? I know cooking was not the main subject of the book but still. Finally, the drama-that-every-couple-in-romance-has-to-face-before-the-HEA was lackluster.

The series is a bit out of touch with reality, a very priviledged and white NYC is described, Paige and Frankie are just shadows of themselves.

I will end this review now, it took me a ridiculous time to write this review about a book that was not great but not terribly bad.