This is a small-town romance with a simple, almost-not-there plot about two people trying to find love and connection. The story centres around Lottie and Matt, a bookstore owner, but I found the secondary characters (particularly the elderly ladies) more interesting with their humour and sass. As for the romance, we're told this couple has chemistry, but besides a couple of spicy scenes, I didn't feel the connection.
The problem is that I found Lottie and Matt dull. I liked that Lottie was an electrician (women in trades!) but her personality was meh and Matt's constant self-pity and self-doubt grated on me and were not attractive traits in a leading man. We get a peek into Matt's family dynamics, but they felt overly angsty and contrived.
I enjoyed the concept (book club, small town, romance), the fact that real books are used in this spicy book club and the burgeoning friendships between different generations, but the story is long-winded, lacks substance and relies too heavily on silly miscommunications and assumptions that could be fixed with a simple chat. When you add in the weak dialogue and the unnecessary love triangle with a third person who was a complete clichéd, unlikable arse, I finished this book feeling frustrated and bored.
Please know that I'm in the minority with my feelings for this book. It got some solid reviews on Instagram and GoodReads, but this was a big miss for me.
My Rating: 2 stars
Author: Kathryn Freeman
Genre: RomCom, Romance
Type and Source: Kindle ebook, personal copy
Publisher: One More CHapter
First Published: June 30, 2021
Opening Lines: The moment Lottie carefully opened the
door of the library reading room and slipped inside,
she had a flashback to her school days.
Book Description from GoodReads: Welcome to the Beach Reads Book Club…where love is just a page away…
When Lottie Watt is unceremoniously booted out of her uptight book club for not following the rules, she decides to throw the rulebook out the window and start her own club – one where conversation, gin and cake take precedent over actually having read the book!
The Beach Reads Book Club soon finds a home for its meetings at Books by the Bay, a charming bookshop and café owned by gorgeous, brooding Matthew Steele, and as the book club picks heat up, so too does the attraction between Matt and Lottie.
If there’s anything Lottie has learned from the romances she’s been reading, it’s that the greatest loves are the ones hardest earned.
A love letter to chicklit, romance, romcoms, whatever you want to call them!
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