Rant
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
When I sat down to write this piece, I had no idea it would turn into a rant, but it did. My head swirled with thoughts and all of them were burning a hole in my stomach, desperate to be let loose. Release the Kraken!
I shouldn’t have read this book. It irritated me MULTIPLE TIMES. It’s irritated me so much that I can’t even bring myself to do a recap of the premise like I usually do for reviews. I just don’t want to spend more time with these people than I have to, so here’s the blurb:
Jackson Clark and Delilah Stewart have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, often ending in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine and organization from the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves the spontaneity and adventure out in the field. When they’re partnered against their will to cover the snowstorm of the century, they find themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together.
Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal. If he can help her ace this assignment, she’ll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With an undiscovered chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship.
But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm? Or does what happens in the mountains, stay in the mountains?
Before I let loose all my thoughts, some context.
This is my first BK Borison book. I know her work is popular so I figured there was a decent chance that I’d enjoy it. The writing is really strong, which grabbed me and I was only 2% in when I signed up to review it for the Bitchery. This was a book that demanded to be read. Each sentence led me to the next sentence, drawing me in. The picture that was being painted was vivid and compelling.
But then at 11% something happened. The book that had been cohesive and immersive up to that point, bounced me out of the story entirely. There’s a meeting between a radio station boss and a TV station boss and their respective weather reporters.
Up to this point, Delilah has been a quirky doormat. Suddenly in this meeting she speaks up for herself, challenging her terrible boss in front of ‘outsiders’. And she challenges him consistently during the meeting.
Huh? Is she a quirky doormat or does she not give a fuck? I know people contain multitudes, but you usually don’t display those multitudes this early in a romance novel when you’re still building the characters for the reader.
Jumping ahead to the end, the lesson the quirky doormat needs to learn is to speak up for herself and demand more.
But she did that at 11%! And then, I guess, promptly forgot about it and went back to being a quirky doormat.
Delilah is also a quirky doormat, I might add, who has the single dumbest reason for wanting the job she has. Okay, maybe not the dumbest as I’ve read some terrible books in my time. She has a hostile boss who actively undermines her. At the start she has the support of precisely one colleague who doesn’t actually do much until the end.
Yet she keeps the job because her grandpa with Alzheimer’s likes seeing her smile on his favourite local TV station.
Maybe I am showing my evil underbelly here, but that is a terrible reason to stay in a job that makes you miserable.
Full disclosure, in books, quirky doormats make me rage. I can’t abide them. I can’t stomach them. And I definitely don’t want to spend my precious free time with them. Characters in need of a spine are just so annoying.
It wasn’t just the once that I was bounced out of the story:, it happened often because these two do not know how to talk to each other about their feelings. If you like books with clear communication, this one will drive you around the bend. Delilah and Jackson are the opposite of clear communicators. When they talk about their feelings, they speak in half-truths and apparent riddles. There is zero consistency in what they ask each other for. None. Zilch. I want to be friends. I want something casual. This is just temporary. I want to be your best friend. I want ???
What? What do you want? Do you know? Spoiler alert, they have a VAGUE inkling of what they MIGHT want from each other, but not on your nelly are they going to communicate that until the last possible second.
At 71% through, I very nearly gave up on reading. Why didn’t I? It is undeniably well-written. I had to know what happened next. Even if it didn’t make sense and made me grumpy. I just had to know. So I persevered.
Everything clicked into place for me when I read the author’s bio after the acknowledgements at the end. Cosy. Contemporary. COSY. No wonder this book made me go off the rails. It was a cosy contemporary! It is entirely possible that millions will love this story if cosy contemporary is their thing. Cosy novels are anathema to me. I can’t stomach the tweeness, the gentleness, the lack of bite. I know that says more about me than I’d probably want publicly known, but there you have it.
Perhaps the inconsistencies that drove me so crazy in this story were cosy characteristics that I’m just not destined to love. I don’t know. Cosy aficionados, sound off the comments.
What I can say is that if I, terrible grump, still felt compelled to finish, then someone who enjoys cosy contemporary will probably love this story. Is this my first and last BK Borison title? Absolutely. This level of irritation is not good for me.
But do I still think that this book deserves to be read by those who will appreciate it? Absolutely, yes I do.
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