Now That It’s You

by Tawna Fenske

September 6, 2016 · Montlake Romance

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This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Another Kate. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance category.

Here is Another Kate's review:

The best adjective I have to describe this book is unmemorable. While I was reading it, I was enjoying it and found it difficult to put down; but now as I sit down to write a review, I am finding it difficult to remember what happened.

In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, the author thanks her agent, “for selling this book before I even had a subject in mind, and then for not freaking out when I explained I’d like to write about death, grief, and infidelity, and that maaaaaybe we could keep that quiet so the editors wouldn’t fret that I was writing the most depressing romantic comedy of all time.” And that certainly is a good description of one aspect of the book.

It begins with Meg, on her way to the hospital to visit Matt, her ex whom she had left at the alter two years previously due to his infidelity. He is in hospital for what is to be routine surgery (we find out later that it is a hair transplant), but when she gets there, she finds out that he has died on the operating table from a heart attack linked to Viagra use. This is not a spoiler as all of this happens in the first chapter of the book. His death then reunites Meg and Kyle, Matt’s younger brother, who had been friends with Meg while Meg and Matt were together.

The best part of this book was its portrayal of grief. Grief is messy in real life, and it is messy in this book. Meg, Kyle, and Kyle’s mother all express their grief in different ways at different points – shock, sadness, anger, guilt. Grief is also a non-linear journey, and this comes across in the book. A character might be angry in one moment, sad in the next, then back to anger; and it comes across as realistic rather than inconsistent.

Unfortunately there were some flaws in the book that I can’t ignore. I found the characters, outside of the portrayal of grief, to be somewhat flat and one-dimensional. Meg is a chef, she has curly hair and big boobs, and she comes from an unstable family of origin. Kyle is an artist, he was competitive with his big brother, and he is close with his parents. But beyond that, I didn’t feel as though I got to know the characters, which is likely why I found this book to be unmemorable. I was cheering for them as a couple (after all, this is why I read romance!), but after they got their HEA and I finished the book, I forgot about them.

I also found that Kyle sided a bit too often and a bit too strongly with his mother against Meg, and then didn’t apologize/grovel sufficiently for me to accept his apology. The conflict in this book was real, but I wasn’t happy with the resolution. I was very frustrated when

Finally, I found some sloppy writing in this book. The one that jumped out at me the most was that every time a person’s physical appearance was being described, their eyes were either speckled or flecked. There also seemed to be an over-use of unnecessary adjectives. Don’t get me wrong – I like adjectives when they help me picture the characters or the setting – but here they seemed to get in the way of the story rather than helping the book.

And so, despite a promising premise, this book was ultimately a disappointment to me. If you are looking for a romance that walks you the grief process, this is your book; but if you are looking for a romance with well-defined characters and a strong heroine, this probably isn’t for you.