Although this book was well written, it felt flat and a bit boring. The pacing was slow and there was just too much description of the minutae of the characters' day to day lives that seemed to slow things down and distract from the larger story. Despite the level of detail, I just didn't really know or connect with either of the characters. I actually enjoyed the secondary characters and their interactions more than the mains (especially Lou's two gay best friends and Steve's mom). Although the story telling me that there was great chemistry or passion , I didn't see it..

This one was a miss for me.

Honestly, I really wanted to knock the two main characters heads together. I'm actually surprised Steve's mother didn't.

The gay couple as secondary characters I found absolutely hilarious.

All I can say is that we all have pasts. Some good and some bad. But can pasts really interrupt the future? Ok, I know how that sounds, but if we let our pasts rule our future we would all sit at home and meet no one new.

I think this books demonstrates our experiences aren't always the same if we give love a chance.


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2586969976

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R2L3JJT8IUDV9A/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This went between being a cute romance and being kind of bland. I did like the two female leads and really wanted them to get together. I've read better romances and this one fell to the wayside. I wish that it was just a bit cuter and a bit more dramatic in places.

Staff Sergeant Steve Adams has finally come home after serving her country. She decides to take a kung fu class her mother is enrolled in so she reconnect with her mother and perhaps meet some people she can build a friendship with. It’s there she meets Lou Silver the kung fu instructor who also works as a stage combat instructor at the local college. Their attraction is apparent and even though Lou doesn’t usually go for butch women she finds herself agreeing to dating Steve. Both women have some resentment toward the military, Lou’s comes from her relationship with her father and Steve’s come from a relationship with another woman that ends tragically. While working on their issues they find themselves falling in love. Don’t care for a book I have to work through. The problem was there were some parts that made me want to continue only to get bogged down again. I don’t know how to rate this book. Some of it was enjoyable but some not so much.
ARC Via NetGalley

When I started reading this story I didn’t realize it is one of a few in an arching story line of characters from a college town. With that being said, I was able to read this as a stand-alone story, there was just a few references of other characters from this author’s other books so if you wanted their back story you will need to read the other two, but again this one stands-alone just fine.

This book is mainly around 2 characters (Lou and Steve (Stephanie)) that are introduced by Steve’s mother at a martial arts class. From there it is the characters getting to know each other and their history. I did fine Steve’s mom a fun character and brought some lightness to the story. Basically a nice read with just a few minor things I found a bit frustrating (see below).

In my opinion the story is a bit slow in getting started, at about a fourth into it I wasn’t’ sure if I was going to be able to finish, but I did and was glad. I did find some of the early chapters a bit more detailed in describing the scene for my liking (describing a bike ride or grading papers should not be paragraph after paragraph long, sorry), especially it if doesn’t add a thing to the story.

I thought the characters were well developed, the dialog was engaging, but I did find the use of the ‘butch’ label a bit over used. Not sure why this author felt to add labels to her characters, rather just describe their mannerisms, dress, characteristics and let the read use their imagination. I also was just slightly (not enough to stop reading mind you) put off with associating stereotypes and labels (i.e. not all butches wear ties on dates-that was mentioned twice in the book and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it had the author not used ‘butch’ in the book).

Overall, I liked the story line and the author’s style (with just a few minor things noted above). I would purchase another book by this author in the future. She does take on a few topics some don’t, so kudos to her.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this author on my own.

To see my Amazon review, it will be under CC-A Nice Read (once the book is released). I would rate this at 3 and a 1/2 but since there are no 1/2 stars I will bumped it to 4

I didn’t love this book, I thought the author spent way too much time describing everything in this book instead of letting the reader discover things on hier own. For instance in the beginning she explainjned every aspect of what Lou was doing at the coffee shop instead of just saying she was there writing. She gave exhaustive descriptions of her coffee order and her laptop and why she was there as opposed to other places. All things we as the reader didn’t need to know.

The story was just okay. It was kind of an overdone story line with the military vet and domestic violence route. I like Steve, I thought Lou was very self centered and it always had to be about her issues. I didn’t feel like she was sympathetic enough about what happened with Steve and her ex. The plot felt clunky. There was too much of Steve’s mother and too much of Bill and Dix. If an author is going to include that many characters at least they should build good Story lines amongst them all.
Finally as an educator of children and all girls. I find it disgusting that Amy teacher would willingly sleep with and marry a student no matter how old they are. That is a messed up trope and a horrible power dynamic and I really hate when people try and normalize it in any media form. Even bought it was a small part of the book it was very upsetting to me.

I received this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes books In exchange for An honest review.

This is the third book I have read from this author and is the one I liked the most, although it has not been a book entirely to my liking. I think that, as in the previous ones, I have found it too repetitive in some aspects, with a slow pace and swamped by things that do not have much to do with the story, or if they have something to do with, I have not found them quite well connected somehow.

Both protagonists, Lou and Steve (they took me a lot to remember the names and I do not know why), they have damages caused by previous relationships. Lou's is about the relationship with her father, a former military from Vietnam and the Gulf War, I think. Steve's is a romantic relationship that ends tragically. Both carry this damage differently, while Steve tries to overcome it with therapy, Lou does not want to hear about it. But the two continue to react badly whwn fronted to some situations, which already makes foresight that a drama must happen before the book finishes.

And maybe this is what I just did not like about history, predictability. Not that it isn’t a common treat in most books, but in this caseI have found it too obvious. And I have also found that there are too many parts of just fill, which do not contribute much to the story and that make you lose the thread of the main theme. The apparent preoccupation with the more buch- less buch image of the protagonists that this author has, also a point in her other books, in this one does not get to be so annoying as in the previous one, I still remember the amount of sweet boys who filled the pages, it was so stressful for me.

All in all, it is quite an interesting book but it has nothing special that makes it particularly advisable.

Lou, a university lecturer, often doesn’t notice when women are flirting with her, and she’s even more oblivious when the women are on the butch side. Stephanie ‘Steve’ is an ex-soldier and is introduced to Lou by her mother, who takes Lou’s Kung Fu class. Even though Steve is not her normal type she finds herself agreeing to coffee and then a date.

As their relationship develops, both of them start sharing their experiences of their past. This is a surprisingly easy and gentle read considering the topics that it covers. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been. Both Lou and Steve could have had a little more depth to their characters and what I mean by that is that Lou is often described as a geek but her actions in the story don’t really show her as one. Steve is still dealing with the death of her partner but I didn’t feel I had enough information about that relationship to be affected by her struggle.

I’d have like more dynamic dialogue with a lot more tension and chemistry, however it was still a reasonable read.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.
Lou, a university lecturer, often doesn’t notice when women are flirting with her, and she’s even more oblivious when the women are on the butch side. Stephanie ‘Steve’ is an ex-soldier and is introduced to Lou by her mother, who takes Lou’s Kung Fu class. Even though Steve is not her normal type she finds herself agreeing to coffee and then a date.

As their relationship develops, both of them start sharing their experiences of their past. This is a surprisingly easy and gentle read considering the topics that it covers. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been. Both Lou and Steve could have had a little more depth to their characters and what I mean by that is that Lou is often described as a geek but her actions in the story don’t really show her as one. Steve is still dealing with the death of her partner but I didn’t feel I had enough information about that relationship to be affected by her struggle.

I’d have like more dynamic dialogue with a lot more tension and chemistry, however it was still a reasonable read.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is only the second book from this author that I have read and I really enjoyed it. Some of the characters from this book were in a previous book by this author and it was good to catch up with them. I did enjoy the storyline and loved the characters of Lou & Steve (Stephanie).

Lou is a Lecturer (Professor) at college and also teaches Kung-Fu at the weekend. Steve has just finished up with the Army. Both have issues that they need to deal with and the romance with the couple was sweet but not what I would call earth shattering.

Overall it was an enjoyable read and I feel that this author is improving by each novel she writes. I am looking forward to reading more of her work in the near future.

This was a good romance book. I like how the relationship between Lou aka Louise and Steve aka Stephanie developed. I enjoy Lou friendship with Bill and Dix they were hilarious and with Lorraine. Steve and Lorraine mother daughter relationship was endearing. It was sad know that Lou father was good father but then change when he went back to war. This was a good book looking forward to the next one.

This is the first book that I have read by Hayes. What I didn’t realize was that this book is tied in with her first two books. I’m surprised her first three books don’t have a series title attached. While I do think you could read this book without reading the others, I did feel like I was missing out some. There was a good amount of talk about previous characters like Rebecca and Maggie, and cameos by them and other previous characters. More than once reading this book was a kin to hearing an inside joke that I was left out of.

This book focuses on two main characters. Lou who teaches at a college and is a weekend Kung-Fu instructor and Stephanie (Steve) who has recently finished her tour with the Army. Both women are dealing with a heavy past, while trying to navigate a new relationship.

I know that Hayes’ first book had some mixed reviews. I had re-read them before reading this book. I did not really find the issues brought up back then, to be apparent in this book. The only similar issue I found was this book did bring up some stereotypes. However, in here it was more addressing those stereotypes by talking about how a character let them affect her. While this is just a guess, since I have not read her other books, I think Hayes’ writing is improving.

For the most part I thought this story was perfectly nice. It is pretty low angst (except for one main part) and overall the book did not have much conflict. The reason I’m not rating this higher is I personally wanted a bit more of something. I did not find myself bored, but there was nothing gripping me to keep reading. The romance was sweet and nice, but really nothing more. The characters both had baggage, which was discussed, but it didn’t really lead to any big moments. The book just had a pretty consistent low key feel that was perfectly nice, but that was all.

I think if you enjoyed either of the first two books, you will probably like catching up on some past characters. If you are looking for a nice read, you might also enjoy this. There was nothing to really complain about except that I like a bit more zest or passion or conflict to drive the kind of books I like to read. I would read Hayes again to see if her next book might be a better fit for me.