Jules Wake

I read this book for a challenge prompt “holiday romance”. This is not my usual genre but was a pleasant enough version of the theme. I also usually tend to read books about other places by local authors but sometimes an outsider or visitor view on a location can be valuable too.

In this book self-effacing heroine Maddie Wilcox has taken a job as crew aboard a luxury yacht sailing around Croatia. Her best friend’s brother Nick comes aboard as a guest, on the arm of a spoilt and entitled model. Maddie finds herself doing an eye roll a minute as she waits on the brattish guests and is disappointed to find Nick as part of this until later in the cruise when she discovers there is more to him than she thought.

This was a light, easy beach read style of novel. I was a little conflicted by the nice ordinary girl versus the soulless beautiful-ones theme, as on one hand it is obviously relatable but also reduces people to stereotypes and is somewhat simplistic. Many of the characters in this book were very one dimensional but I guess it does highlight some of the superficiality of the modern social-media driven world and the shallowness of the celebrity lifestyle. Maddie was a refreshing counterpoint to this, but I did get tired of her putting herself down.… (meer)

The Spark is an enjoyable book about meeting the right people at the wrong time and what happens after. It’s the story of Jess and Sam and first I have to say how much I love that they have realistic jobs! Jess works at a Women’s shelter while Sam is a teacher for special needs kids. They meet at a party and the connection was instant, but the bad timing was on part that Sam had a girlfriend. This book is about what happens next.

I want to reassure any concerned people that this is NOT a cheating book. It’s also more Women’s fiction that a straight romcom. Jess’s growth was really narrated well in the story and was one of the highlights for me.

All in all, this was a cute book even though it had one of the cliches I detest – the annoying ex.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC
… (meer)