Review: “No Reservations”
While I enjoyed this book for the most part, I must admit I’m a little disappointed because I really wanted to love it more.
Again, I should share the disclaimer that I was looking for tropes, to widen my own horizon as a writer of “real-life romance”.
The Premise
It begins promisingly enough with former SEAL guy Maddox knocking on Bridget’s door and wheedling his way in to stay although she isn’t technically open yet, with the magic words: “I’ve got tools.” They proceed to embark on a friendship where he helps her get her inn ready and she helps him with research for his new ice-cream business. It’s cute and sweet, but not really overly dramatic. Their lust with each other rapidly turns into love (mind you: all of this develops over a few days) when they connect through sharing their pasts.
The Pros & Cons
A slight miscommunication leads Bridget to believe he’s taken, when he’s not, and this is the entire premise of the tension of the book. This was my issue here — it was really drawn out for far too long. The blurb led me to believe he actually was taken, and he wasn’t. I felt cheated for being led to believe this, because I was hoping for more drama in this regard. So, about the drama… there just… well, wasn’t any.
The back story and mystery were all nicely done — his reasons for leaving the SEALS, her mystery about her family, etc etc. There is a lot of story here, and it is all very sweet. The story is technically very well-written, the descriptions were lovely and I could imagine the town and its military events… but the dialogue just didn’t take me all the way there. The sex scenes were okay, but again I wasn’t swept away. I was just relieved that the miscommunication was over so they could finally get to the sex part! Overall, the story was going quite good, I was enjoying the characters… but I just wasn’t gripping onto the edge of my seat.
The book does end on a cliffhanger, which I’m sure will annoy readers everywhere because the couple’s entire story is complete, except for that nugget of information not shared (you’re supposed to invest in further books in the series to find out about it). I don’t mind cliffhangers but I do have a slight issue with this. If you’re going to end on a cliffhanger (which I’ve done, in my own books) it has to be a WHOPPER of a cliffhanger where there is a romantic “Will they… won’t they???” and in this case, it just wasn’t that. The entire romance story was wound up into the Happily Ever After, and still there was something never explained. If you can tolerate that, then this book won’t frustrate you.
Conclusion
For me, this book still starred quite highly because the writing was good and the story kept me interested all the way through. I appreciated that the male lead wasn’t SUPER alpha, and that the female lead had a lot of endearing qualities as well. I enjoyed reading their story, and I’m glad I read the book. I may pick up another by the author as I appreciated the writing talent, but I’m just not totally sold on grabbing everything in this series right away.
