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A review by gillianw
It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian
4.0
3.5 stars rounded up
(clears throat and starts to sing)
How do you solve a problem like Ben Sedgwick? How do you catch a vicar and pin him down?
It Takes Two to Tumble features a charming, genial vicar caring for wayward, motherless children (who climb trees) while their father (a captain, no less and a stranger to his children) is away at sea. When the captain returns home for a brief visit, he is affronted at the audacity of seeing his rag tag mob of three doing things like laughing and enjoying themselves, and initially blames the vicar for allowing them to act like ruffians. The ruffians put a mouse their father's pocket and, the vicar warns, may put something in his bed at night. But the vicar and the captain fall in love, the children learn to love their father (as he learns to love them) and they live happily ever after. Oh, and the vicar quits his job at the abbey...er, the vicarage and they get married. Well, get married in the sense that they pledge their troth to each other - unofficially, of course - but still...
Does any of that sound a little familiar?
Look, I have no problem with an author borrowing from such great source material, giving it a twist and making it their own (see Alexis Hall's Billionaire series), but if you thin out the characters and leave loose ends, it all seems kind of pointless. This isn't a bad book by any means. It has a certain charm and likability, but it doesn't come close to measuring up to the author's previous series, so for me this book is a little disappointing.
Maybe my expectations were too high, but that's only because I have read Cat Sebastian's other books and thoroughly enjoyed them. She makes her characters work hard for their HEA's but never at the cost of being too angsty or insufferable. You always feel like you've gone on a journey with them as they discover things about themselves they never realized. In this book, though, I didn't feel that same tension, that same level of engagement. Plus, the side characters had things wrapped up so neatly, it was almost eye-rolling.
I'm giving this 3.5 stars because even a not-so-great Cat Sebastian book is still better than a lot of books I've read this year. But I still maintain it's not up to her usual standards.
(clears throat and starts to sing)
How do you solve a problem like Ben Sedgwick? How do you catch a vicar and pin him down?
It Takes Two to Tumble features a charming, genial vicar caring for wayward, motherless children (who climb trees) while their father (a captain, no less and a stranger to his children) is away at sea. When the captain returns home for a brief visit, he is affronted at the audacity of seeing his rag tag mob of three doing things like laughing and enjoying themselves, and initially blames the vicar for allowing them to act like ruffians. The ruffians put a mouse their father's pocket and, the vicar warns, may put something in his bed at night. But the vicar and the captain fall in love, the children learn to love their father (as he learns to love them) and they live happily ever after. Oh, and the vicar quits his job at the abbey...er, the vicarage and they get married. Well, get married in the sense that they pledge their troth to each other - unofficially, of course - but still...
Does any of that sound a little familiar?
Look, I have no problem with an author borrowing from such great source material, giving it a twist and making it their own (see Alexis Hall's Billionaire series), but if you thin out the characters and leave loose ends, it all seems kind of pointless. This isn't a bad book by any means. It has a certain charm and likability, but it doesn't come close to measuring up to the author's previous series, so for me this book is a little disappointing.
Maybe my expectations were too high, but that's only because I have read Cat Sebastian's other books and thoroughly enjoyed them. She makes her characters work hard for their HEA's but never at the cost of being too angsty or insufferable. You always feel like you've gone on a journey with them as they discover things about themselves they never realized. In this book, though, I didn't feel that same tension, that same level of engagement. Plus, the side characters had things wrapped up so neatly, it was almost eye-rolling.
I'm giving this 3.5 stars because even a not-so-great Cat Sebastian book is still better than a lot of books I've read this year. But I still maintain it's not up to her usual standards.