This RITA® Reader Challenge 2013 review was written by Diane. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Best First Book category.

The summary:     

Sadie Turner can organize just about anything — except her own life. When her cheating spouse topples Sadie’s impeccably tidy world, she packs up her kids for a summer vacation at her aunt’s lake house, hoping to relax, reboot, and formulate a new plan — one that does not include men.

Any men.

But eccentric Aunt Dody has other plans; she’s determined to see Sadie have a little fun—with Desmond, the sexy new neighbor. Tall, tanned, muscular—and even great with her kids, Desmond is Sadie’s worst nightmare. He must have a flaw—he’s a man, after all—so Sadie vows to keep her distance. But as summer blazes on, their attraction ignites, and the life Sadie is trying so hard to simplify only gets more complicated. But maybe a little chaos is just what she needs to get her future, and her dreams of love, back in order.

And here is Diane's review:

I didn’t hate the book and in sections it was funny, but my overall feeling is that in some places the author tried too hard and in others not enough.

One area that I felt she tried too hard is with the character of eccentric Aunt Dody.  She was written as too eccentric, her non-sequiturs were constant and unrelenting, though this is where much of the humor in the book is derived.  I thought the author was going to have Aunt Dody’s tragic secret be that she had been classified as intellectually challenged, but her husband loved her anyway.  I was wrong, though it would’ve been a more interesting route to take.  I was somewhat annoyed with Aunt Dody and her wise words of wisdom fell on deaf ears by end of the book.

I didn’t feel the author tried hard enough with the character development of the main characters.  If a jerk like the ex cheated on me, no way would I take him back (and Sadie doesn't). But he is written as so shallow and superficial I had to wonder why Sadie would ever have even wanted him in the first place.  Her mother and her neighbors back home are also written as being quite shallow.  I guess I could understand these characterizations if Sadie was presented as shallow and superficial and showed her growth over the course of the book.  But she had the usual mommy/daddy issues instead.

I don’t remember much about Desmond, he didn’t seem to make an impression on me – which I think is not a good thing when he is the hero of a romance novel.  I liked her sister and cousins, and many of the other ancillary characters.  They were interesting and contributed to the story. In general, I found them more interesting than Sadie and Desmond.

The book is well written, in that there are good descriptions and sense of place. Plus, there is this great scene near the end of the book where she visits her old neighborhood and tries to reach out to her friends and they ignore her.  I laughed and was sad at the same time.

After all this, I would rate the book a B-.  It wasn’t a waste of my life to read it, but I would hesitate to pick up another one of this author’s books.

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