Saturday 29 April 2017

Review: Why Did It Have to Be You by Allyson Charles


DISORDER IN THE COURT . . .

Connie Wilkerson has worked her butt off to go from heartbroken paralegal with a drinking problem to becoming Pineville, Michigan’s fiercest new lawyer. But she’s still short on luck. Exhibit A: her very first case is against bad-boy contractor David Carelli.

Carelli has been a thorn in Connie’s side since high school, getting away with whatever he dreams up. He’s blond, handsome, and he dresses like a model. But everyone in town knows he cuts corners. Just the way he looks at her really gets Connie’s goat. She’s going to get him into chambers and settle the smug right out of him.

There’s just one problem. Exhibit B: Their supposedly hostile negotiations are turning hot instead. Now the jury is out on whether a second chance is recommended . .

Kindle Edition
Expected publication: May 9th 2017 by Lyrical Shine

Terri's Thoughts

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!  The book is set to release in early May.

This is the third book in the Pineville series.  I had not read the previous two nor did I realize that it was part of a series when I picked it up.  It believe that it can be read as a stand alone, as I had done, however I feel that I may have more of an emotional attachment if I had started the series from the beginning.  As I feel this was just a so-so story, to be fair I must acknowledge that this may be because I had not read the first two stories.

Here is the reason why.  I felt that I did not identify with Connie or David.  In fact I found that neither character was very likeable to me.  In David's case I get it.  He was portrayed as the bad boy for actions previously taken in his life/career.  It was outlined in the story however we may have seen more in the first two books.  I get that his struggle was to be acknowledged for being legitimate and his previous actions were for the sake of his family.  The reader sees his struggle and it is supposed to sympathise to his plight.  I only slightly did and could not bring myself to be on team David.

For Connie, I just found her character meh.  I felt that her struggles were somewhat glossed over and that everything she did was just to save appearances.  I couldn't dig down to her depth and as a result was not really invested in her.  As a result, there were two characters that I was not invested in so I really didn't care about the outcome of their story.

That being said, there were some funny moments in the story.  Pretty much anything relating to Milo had me laughing as well as Connie's nosy neighbor.  To me they were the highlight of the story.

I hesitate to say that I would not recommend this story.  The reason being, as previously mentioned, there may have been aspects I have missed because I did not read the first two stories.  I do not know this for sure however in fairness to the author I must acknowledge that this could have been what impacted my enjoyment of the story so my advice to those considering this book is to read the series from the beginning to ensure that there are not aspects that are missed.




About the Author


Allyson Charles lives in Northern California. She’s the author of the "Pineville Romance" series, small-town, contemporary romances published by Lyrical Press. A former attorney, she happily ditched those suits and now works in her pajamas writing about men’s briefs instead of legal briefs. When she’s not writing, she’s probably engaged in one of her favorite hobbies: napping, eating, or martial arts (That last one almost makes up for the first two, right?). One of Allyson’s greatest disappointments is living in a state that doesn’t have any Cracker Barrels in it.


No comments:

Post a Comment