by Nina Bocci
Book: Hopeless Romantics #3
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pub Date: August 28, 2020
Genre: Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
After selling her famous bakery back in New York, Parker Adams visits Hope Lake, Pennsylvania, to figure out her next steps. And soon she’s wondering why she ever loved city life in the first place. Between the Golden Girls—the senior women who hold court—and Nick Arthur, her equally infuriating and charming former flame, Parker finds a community eager to help her get her mojo back.
But even though Hope Lake gives her the fresh start she’s been looking for, Parker discovers that it’s not so easy to start over again with Nick. Their chemistry is undeniable, but since Nick is a freshly taken man, Parker is determined to keep things platonic. With a recipe for disaster looming, Parker must cook up a new scheme, figuring out how to keep everything she’s come to love before she loses it all.
My Review: Parker Adams, a famous baker in New York, is starting the next stage of her life - Parker Phase Two. She decides to sell her bakery but, despite her initial excitement to start something new and make time for herself, Parker is plagued with uncertainty. In an attempt to get her mojo back, Parker decides to go visit her best-friend Charlotte in a quiet Pennsylvania town, which is also home to Parker’s secret ex-boyfriend Nick. Once there, Parker must confront her lingering feelings for Nick while she finds her new purpose by joining the Golden Girls, aka the senior society of Hope Lake, and creating a new kind of baking business.
Despite the fact that this novel is a romance, I found myself more interested in the Golden Girls and the business that they were creating with Parker than the actual love story. The older women were funny and interesting, and stole the show with their charming antics. I think their characters are arguably the best writing in the book; it’s when the author’s demonstrations of humor and friendship are at their finest. I would have happily read a book just about them, with the romance as a subplot. Alas, this book is a romance and that’s where I got a little stuck.
A common trope in romance is miscommunication. When done right, it’s one of the most emotionally effective tools that can be used. However, when it is done wrong, it can be annoying at best and infuriating at worst. This book teetered dangerously on that line. Parker and Nick broke up due to miscommunication, which is fair, but those two spend 75% of the book repeating this mistake. Parker shies away from important conversations and Nick can never seem to commit to things he says. After half a dozen failed attempts at them having a clear, practical conversation, I was just about done with them. I also heavily disliked Parker and Nick constantly boasting the claim of “no cheating” when they are constantly crossing boundaries. Even if Nick never explicitly cheats on his new girlfriend and Parker argues that she’d never be a homewrecker, they are obviously romantically involved with each other and no one (except the evil girlfriend) seems to find this inappropriate. And that doesn’t even begin to explore the overused and grating choice to have the new girlfriend be a terrible person, which therefore negates all the crappy stuff Parker and Nick do.
With that being said, this is the kind of stuff that you sign up for when you decide to read a romance novel and it’s something that I have to consider when I’m reviewing. I’m not a frequent romance reader and this book reminded me of why I choose to avoid the genre BUT I will say that it was technically well-written, entertaining, and had a certain charm to it. If you’re someone who enjoys romances that read like a Hallmark movie, this is a great novel for you.
My Rating:
✪✪✪
