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A review by elenajohansen
Caught Up in Us by Lauren Blakely
2.0
First up: formatting/editing issues. There was a noticeable lack of quotation marks and/or italics where appropriate--song titles should be in quotes (and there were a lot of them), and statements made within the narrative but not in dialogue should be either in quotes or italicized (ie, this outfit shouted "I'm looking to get laid", or this outfit shouted I'm looking to get laid.) I was surprised to find such a systemic issue from a major author.
So, setting that aside, this was a second-chance/workplace romance, and I think it succeeded at the office shenanigans while failing spectacularly at the second-chance aspect. We do get a little bit of the backstory from five years ago, but the relationship ended when the guy ghosted the girl--no contact or explanation whatsoever--and then they're thrown together in a mentor/student relationship as part of one of her business classes.
All we hear is that she loved him so much and she was so heartbroken and they had such a connection--but five years have passed, and they hadn't known each other all that well before, since it was just a summer romance, plus the age difference was borderline inappropriate at 17 and 23--even though our heroine takes pains to tell us there was only fooling around, no real sex, I'm still not fully on board with that gap.
In the end, I just don't see the instant reconnection as anything but lust (which it is, and how) and that makes the story fall flat.
So, setting that aside, this was a second-chance/workplace romance, and I think it succeeded at the office shenanigans while failing spectacularly at the second-chance aspect. We do get a little bit of the backstory from five years ago, but the relationship ended when the guy ghosted the girl--no contact or explanation whatsoever--and then they're thrown together in a mentor/student relationship as part of one of her business classes.
All we hear is that she loved him so much and she was so heartbroken and they had such a connection--but five years have passed, and they hadn't known each other all that well before, since it was just a summer romance, plus the age difference was borderline inappropriate at 17 and 23--even though our heroine takes pains to tell us there was only fooling around, no real sex, I'm still not fully on board with that gap.
In the end, I just don't see the instant reconnection as anything but lust (which it is, and how) and that makes the story fall flat.