Tricked by the lure of a quick read

Yes. I read another one. No, I’m not proud.

I find I end up reading the Kowalski Family books in pairs. I had not intended to read another one so quickly, given my less than happy feelings with All He Ever Dreamed. But, I was out, I didn’t have my current book with me, and I had about 20 minutes to fill. Alone with You to the rescue (darn you, Nook app!) and I had to finish it.

This is a very straightforward novella. The action is based around two characters back in the stories original New Hampshire stomping grounds. Darcy, employee of Kevin Kowalski of the Jasper’s Bar from Undeniably Yours. When Kevin asks Darcy to help out with the launch of his new restaurant venture upstate, she’s happy to take on the challenge. Little does she know that the co-owner of the new restaurant is Jake Holland, the perfect guy who slipped through her fingers after their one night together.

Jake is, like all Stacey male leads, a genuinely decent guy. In this story he’s lost Darcy’s number because he got soaking wet helping a stranded driver on the side of the road. The reader is told immediately that this is a good guy and we should be rooting for he and Darcy to end up together. And they do, this is Romance Land, but while expert authors like Courtney Milan or Sarina Bowen can build in a great story to their novellas this outing from Shannon Stacey felt like a heavily summarized version of her longer works (which aren’t all that long to start with).

It was nice to revisit some old characters (Paulie!) from my favorite book in the series, but this one is definitely a pass. At least this book fulfilled my task of reading a book with fewer than 100 pages.