Learning Control
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book Length (Est.): 214 Pages
Book Description/Synopsis:
Kate Bennet owns a small bookstore in Cambria, California—the kind of shop that smells like mildew, furniture wax, and old pages, the kind where you’ll find a cat napping atop the used biographies. Two years out from a divorce that left her emotionally fragile, Kate is starting to think that maybe she’s ready for love again—or at least for a fling with a hot man. Jackson Graham is a local chef who’s controlling when it comes to food, careless when it comes to women, and temperamental when it comes to just about everything.
When Kate’s friends mobilize to set things up between Kate and Jackson, she expects some casual pleasure followed by a hasty goodbye, but Jackson’s long-term crush on Kate means that he’s in this one to win. The problem is, neither he nor Kate knows whether he can change the self-defeating habits that usually send women scurrying for the door as soon as the afterglow fades.
Throw in a beautiful backdrop of rocky beaches and rugged coastline, a manipulative father, a Mary Kay–pushing stepmother, a yapping Pomeranian, and a nervous ring-tailed lemur, and you’ve got Moonstone Beach, the first contemporary romance in a series of four about Kate and her friends, Gen, Lacy, and Rose.
Jennifer’s Review:
*I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review*
Kate is divorced with an ex-husband who left her for another woman. Over two years later she finally decides, or rather her friends decide, she needs to get back into the dating world. Kate is nice, but she doesn’t know how to stand up for herself, she lets people walk all over her, and after a while her whiny indecisiveness gets annoying.
Jackson is a local chef at the top restaurant in town. He has quite the reputation with the women around town, but he knows he has no staying power when it comes to relationships so he’s never asked out the only girl he’s wanted to, Kate.
“I mean, this kiss was epic. Freaking amazing. And then, poof. He shot out that door like his ass was on fire.”
When their friends intervene and push Jackson and Kate together they decide to give it a try. Both want it, but both are scared of where it’ll go…or not go. I know there was chemistry between Jackson and Kate, but it didn’t always show through, making it difficult to fall in love with them as a couple.
Don’t even get me started on Kate’s family. Her father and his new wife are crazy!
Moonstone Beach is something I’d probably recommend my mom to read. It has a little passion, but nothing too graphically described, and a lot of self discovery through disastrous events. For me though it just lacked oomph. There was nothing that just pulled me in and made me love it, but the storyline was interesting.
My Favorite Laughable Moment: Kate’s determination to get to date five was pretty funny.
“We have to do Date Four, so we can do Date Five! The all-important Date Five!” Kate told Jackson on her cell phone during a lull at the store. “Do not make me wait any longer than I have to for Date Five, Jackson. I might have to kill you.”
*Clicking on the book cover above will take you to the Amazon purchase page.
Categories: 3 Stars, Jennifer's Reviews, Reviews
Hines and Bigham's Literary Tryst 