This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by ReneeG. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Long Contemporary category.
The summary:
The highly anticipated third novel in the Searching For series fromJennifer Probst, “one of the most exciting breakout novelists” (USA Today), featuring a runaway bride and the man who wants to be more than just her best friend…
Genevieve MacKenzie has her life completely under control. About to wed the charming Chief doctor at the local hospital, she’s an up-and-coming surgeon with everything she could ever want. Until an escape through the church window on the day of her wedding sends her life into a tailspin…and flings her right into her best friend’s arms.
When Wolfe catches his best friend falling out a window on her wedding day, he doesn’t ask questions. He whisks her away, determined to watch over her and discover the truth behind her desperate escape. But when his feelings turn more than platonic, he realizes he may risk his most important relationship in order to protect his damaged heart, and the woman he loves.
Can Genevieve and Wolfe’s friendship turn into something deeper—or is it already too late for true love?
Here is ReneeG's review:
Trigger warning for emotional, psychological and sexual abuse.
Searching for Beautiful was my second pick for the RITA© Reader Challenge because it had a friends-to-lovers storyline with a runaway bride theme. What I should have checked into was whether the book is part of a series (it is, Book #3). It actually ties into another series as well, so there are lots of gratuitous pop-ins from the other books.
The story opens up with heroine Gen MacKenzie listening to her gut and escaping from her wedding via a church window. Her best friend, Wolfe, helps her up from her fall. They run off to a pretty nice cabin by a lake so she can pull herself together after blowing off the wedding to the Chief Surgeon (David Riscetti) at the hospital where she is a resident. I felt like there were two stories told here: the romance between Gen and Wolfe, and the suspense with Gen, Wolfe, and David.
I need to get down into some spoilery action to describe my thoughts and feels on the book, so be ye warned . . . .
First story: David is Gen’s boss at the hospital (first rule of work: don’t mess in your nest). He has also been emotionally, psychologically, and sexually abusing her to force her to conform to his ideal. David also doesn’t want to let Gen go after she calls off their engagement.
David not only tore Gen’s spirit down, but also isolated her by lying about her to her family (who believed him – he does sound like a Grade A manipulator) and to their work colleagues.
David was well-portrayed as an abuser and 99% of this storyline felt real to me. His lies to her family made them disbelieve that Gen had run away under her own volition, and they tried to get Gen back together with David as a surprise during a family dinner. David’s further sabotage of Gen’s professional life was also well done. He was such a creep! He stalked her, assaulted her, threatened her, and then . . .
David walks away from the story after apologizing to Gen for being a dick and wishing her well in her life going forward. WTF! This was a huge reality break and a waste of an engaging character. After that great build-up and lots of angst from our characters about what he’ll do next, David is pretty much gone for the last two-thirds of the book.
Second story: Wolfe was abused as a child by his druggy mother and her “boyfriends” and escaped to the streets where he was found and semi-adopted by a character in the other series. He is extremely built and handsome, comes with lots of interesting tats and a pierced penis, and is a broody model turned millionaire hotel magnate who doesn’t connect to women because issues. His only steady woman is his best friend, Gen – they are “best buddies” (but not in the sexy way) and he sees her as all that is good and bright and pure and not for the likes of him because of his past (which we see in flashbacks).
Gen’s friends (in this series) own a dating/marriage service and offer her a job after she leaves her residency. After a disastrous dip back in the dating pool (too soon?), Gen weasels Wolfe into becoming friends with benefits and she enjoys all the orgasms (She walks funny! Her friends notice! More feminine banter ensues!).
Wolfe does the hold close-push away mambo with Gen. He doesn’t leave when she asks, because he knows what she really needs. He does the alpha thing of protecting the little lady from the stalker. He sees to her pleasure in/out of bed. He has no clues, as he spurns Gen’s well-spoken words of love (during a family trip to Italy) and believes they can go back to being friends after breaking her heart. He seems upset she decides to go back to the hospital (after David leaves), but then grants his approval of her actions (argh!). I can’t help feeling that while her heart is broken now, Gen would be better off alone, especially since she just left a controlling relationship.
Finally, there is a weird touch of magic that pops up at the beginning and the end and nowhere else. I really enjoy magical realism, but this seemed perfunctory and out of step. It was strange and jarring, but used to demonstrate that yes, Gen really did belong with Wolfe.
I’m not really happy with this book. The constant references to characters from the other books who popped in and out were distracting, the ending of the David storyline was rage-inducing, and I was bored with the hero and the romance. The only sense of triumph was that I finished the book.
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
Good glory, that sounds like a hot mess. I would really like to hear from the people who chose it as a finalist — what did they see in it? I bet their description would make it sound like a whole other book.
The book sounds… ungreat, but I really enjoyed the review! Thank you.
Well. I’ll give that a pass. So great to read honest reviews that don’t gush over every freaking book. Thank you.
By the way, is anybody else over the whole *horrible druggy abusive childhood/foster care etc* thing? I mean, that character setup just seems worn out. Beat to death. Just like the über-rich business tycoon in his 20s or 30s. Nobody wants a Trump. Really.
I had a hard time with this review and with the book, since there were portions I really enjoyed and sentences that were a delight to read. (and the tears at the end – so many tears when the heroine put herself out there and was so strong).
The Stalker story was very well done, until the fricking end. I actually enjoyed the first 1/3rd of the book as well as the heroine’s declaration and follow-up at the end, and would have rated those portions B-/C+. But the way the stalker story ended up, and the hero’s actions/inactions (my burgeoning hatred of *aire heroes in general also factored into my dislike of the hero) just did not do it for me.
I think the long format actually did a disservice to the story, since there were so many pages to fill.
This was a great review- thanks for the detail. It’s interesting to note that both reviews of this book are so close grade wise (D+ & C) and list many of the same issues as being problematic. And I’m still not going to waste my time with it.