Nora Goes Off Script

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nora Hamilton makes a living writing screenplays for The Romance Channel (a thinly veiled Hallmark Channel), swapping out the details but keeping the essential fantasy romance elements intact. However, when her deadbeat husband leaves, she turns her personal story into a major Hollywood movie, earning enough (barely) to get herself and her kids out of the debt he left behind. The studio even pays extra to use her actual tea house/writing studio for the last two days of filming. However, when they pack up and leave, she discovers the leading man--famous actor Leo Vance--remained behind. He begs to be allowed to stay and rest in the tea house, offering her $1000/day in rent--money she badly needs to fix her gutters. She agrees, and suddenly she finds herself playing tour guide and shopping tutor for a gorgeous man eager to participate in her family's life. As he integrates into her world, their relationship evolves into a romantic one, but will he actually stay, or will he leave like her ex-husband did? Nora felt relief when her husband took off; she's very much afraid Leo's departure could shatter her heart.

I absolutely loved this book. It both pokes fun at the formulaic Hallmark movies we all love and love to hate, and also works within that same basic framework. Thankfully, this story is one of the good ones, not the ones with the plastic blonde (or brunette) attempting to pretend to be a regular person. I loved that Leo actually did seem like he could fit into Nora's world, and later she proved she could hold her own in his. Nora's daughter Bernadette seems a bit older than her 8 years, but 10-year-old Arthur is entirely believable. Plus it was a breath of fresh air to read a romance novel where the protagonists are 40-ish instead of 20-somethings.

I think this would be a great book to discuss in a book group. What makes a person stay with someone like Ben who has no observable redeeming qualities? Yet Nora endured almost two decades of his freeloading and emotional abuse until *he* decided to leave. Even if his absence is welcome, those years he was around were traumatic and left emotional scars, so how did that conditioning impact Nora and Leo's relationship, particularly after Leo flew to L.A. for the audition?

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character secondary. All sex happens offscreen, and there are only a few well-placed swear words, so the book is nearly a "gentle read." No violence. All the characters seem to be heterosexual, and racial identity isn't indicated that I can recall, aside from a few names that indicate some secondary characters might be something other than white. Pretty much like the majority of the Hallmark movies, really. (Honestly, that's the biggest drawback--how hard would it have been to make the characters more diverse?)

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Undercover Bromance

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Liv Papandreas is a brilliant pastry chef with a horrible boss. Braden Mack is a wealthy nightclub owner who wants to settle down with his current girlfriend so he can experience the kind of relationship he has helped his friends achieve. When Mack decides to splurge on a fancy dinner and $1000 cupcake at the restaurant where Liv works, the evening ends in disaster, with Mack's girlfriend dumping him, and Liv witnessing a young server being forced into performing sexual acts by their boss. Liv's defense of the girl costs Liv her job.

Realizing her former boss clearly has a history of harassing and coercing women, Liv goes on the offensive, trying to discover his previous victims, regardless of their fear, shame, and reluctance to come forward and accuse this powerful celebrity chef of his crimes. She demands Mack make up for costing her her job by offering a job to the server in an attempt to protect her. The girl initially refuses the help, but Liv is determined to put a stop to the abuse. Eventually the entire Bromance Book Club (plus a few others) cooks up a plan to break in to Royce's office and steal his computer files containing information on the women he's harassed and paid off so they have hard evidence with which to confront him.

All this plotting and planning means Liv and Mack are spending large amounts of time together, and despite Liv's initial disdain for Mack, she discovers there is more to him than she imagined. Mack, in turn, comes to realize he's going to have to face the trauma of his childhood if he wants to create something real with Liv, who has her own emotional baggage to deal with.

Book #2 in the series reveals more about how the Bromance Book Group got started and why Braden Mack, a bachelor, is a member. Spoiler alert: he started it! Getting to know more of Braden's backstory was one of my favorite aspects of the book. Also, the best thing about a hating-to-dating romance is the lack of insta-love. I generally prefer a slow burn story.

For readers' advisors: character and story doorways via for prominence. Profanity is pervasive, there are some steamy sex scenes, and a rooster gets pretty violent when men come to the farm where Liv resides. Trigger warning for anyone sensitive to issues of domestic violence and sexual harassment.

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Evvie Drake Starts Over

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Evvie Drake's husband died as she was packing up to leave him, and a year later everyone still mistakes her trauma for grief. The truth is, their golden boy was actually emotionally abusive, and now that he's gone, she simply doesn't know what to do next. But no one, not even her best friend Andy, knows the truth. She's got baggage. And bills. Lots of them. So when Andy asks her to rent the apartment off the back of her kitchen to his friend Dean, who used to be a famous pitcher until he inexplicably lost the ability to throw a baseball where he wanted it to go, she agrees. Over the course of the next year, Evvie and Dean grow from acquaintances to friends to lovers, but they each have so much healing to do, can they move forward together?

I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this novel. I didn't want to put it down until Evvie got the therapy she needed and Dean figured out what direction he wanted his life to take now. I loved that the author didn't write easy, magical fixes, and that the romance was slow build. Since I would categorize this book as Relationship Fiction--Evvie's relationships of all kinds were important to the story--I was afraid for a while that Evvie and Dean would permanently go their separate ways.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary. There are swear words sprinkled throughout and some alcohol consumption, but no violence, and the sex scenes are fade-to-black. Evvie is a survivor of emotional abuse (constant gaslighting and some social isolation), so that might be a trigger for some readers, though it's all in the past, as the perpetrator dies in the first chapter.

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