There is no sex in this book.
Well, off screen there is sex if you count Julie’s husband and his mistress knocking boots in a condo in Boston, but Julie never gets to do the horizontal hanky panky with Dawson (really? DAWSON???). Instead, there’s a couple of chaste kisses in the epilogue.
Rach, if I’m going to read a trashy romance novel, I want some, you know, romance. And s-e-x.
Just before Julie and her husband are set to sell their Atlanta area home and move to a cottage on the beach, she discovers that her husband has another woman in a condo in Boston – complete with a six month old baby boy – and he’s leaving her. On impulse, she buys a beach cottage in Seaside, SC, with her half of the house money. Of course, it’s a pit when she gets there, and she has second thoughts, but then there’s a meet cute with the local contractor (the aforementioned Dawson), and decides to stick around.
Halfway through the renovations, Julie is in the midst of trying to reconcile with her estranged sister when she gets a call from a Boston hospital: the soon to be ex-husband has been in a horrible car accident and she’s still the next of kin. Blah blah blah, she cares for him and discovers that he’s still a big fat jerk, leaves him, and comes back home to Seaside where they all live happily ever after.
Here are my issues with this book:
– Julie lives in Atlanta and has for 20 years. She doesn’t understand the concept of sweet tea.
– Julie’s new boss is named Dixie. Dixie appears to be a blowsy, southern, steel magnolia. More Dixie please.
– Dawson has a whole tragic backstory involving a dead wife and baby, but we only hear about it for a second and never again.
– Julie’s sister – Janine (note to authors: I know that often siblings are named similarly, but it’s confusing in books) – comes to stay with her and it’s revealed that she was attacked at some point in her recent past. This is treated as an “oh by the way” and never really discussed again. If you’re not going to give this the attention it needs, don’t make it part of the story.
– Dawson is the local contractor. He renovates an entire beach cottage down to the studs and back – including rewiring – in like, two weeks. And he’s available to start immediately. As the wife of an electrician, this is impossible. As a person who has had, you know, any work done on my home, this is impossible. He renovates the kitchen – like, tiles it, installs the sink, and replaces the stove – all in one day. Only Bobby Berk can pull off that magic.
– There’s no sex. At all. Not even a big, fat, juicy kiss.
– Dawson’s name is Dawson.
On the other hand, I read this over the course of two lunch breaks, so at least I didn’t spend too much time on it.
There are nine of these books. Unless they’re all about Dixie, I’ll pass.
Not even a big juicy kiss! That’s completely unacceptable in a romance!
I’m ok with no sex, but no sex plus an unrealistic home renovation is too much.
Thank you for making me laugh in between working hard to get the final grades for first semester in. See, I’ll take a romance without kissing if it was written in the 19th Century, but contemporary books had better have at least some smooching.
A romance hero called Dawson would be even more difficult than one called Mark (my husband’s name) or Gabriel (my son’s name).
I don’t think even Bobby Berk and his magical team of construction elves could renovate an entire kitchen in a day. I <3 Bobby. He's CLEARLY the best of the Fab Five.
Bobby is the BEST. I love JVN but I imagine being friends with him would be exhausting. Bobby’s the hardest working one of them. And his hair is approaching Tan levels of magicalness.