The theme: an author with multiple books in the TBR.
Why this one: Kinsale is one of the great authors I would most regret leaving behind in the TBR when I die. I awaited this one so eagerly, and bought it as soon as it came out. FIVE AND A HALF YEARS AGO. WTF is wrong with me?
As it happens, though, I might have been happier choosing one of the other multiple books. It’s not that this was bad. It’s meant to be a fairly lighthearted story, and it certain succeeds with some witty banter between the leads, who grew up together and fall easily back into teasing each other when they’re reunited. But I’m guessing it’s meant to be filed under “romp” and for me it wound up under “tiresome.” I skimmed the most plot-heavy points and seriously considered DNFing. The emotion between Callie and Trev kept me reading, but I fear this is one Kinsale that isn’t winding up on my keeper shelf.
A Willful Woman... 
My least favorite of hers by far. I suppose one of them had to be…
I so wished that she had thought to offer her fans an opportunity to read it prior its publication, so that we could have alerted her to … redundancies… with some of her earlier works. I dearly love her stories, and as always the writing was lovely, nevertheless, due to how familiar I was with her body of work, it was more a déjà vu experience for me than a fresh tale. ~~ I have no idea how it might be perceived by a new reader, however. It might pique someone’s interest enough to want to mine her backlist for treasures (of which there are quite a few!).
A common problem for me… one of the downsides of having a good memory.
I enjoyed this one a lot except for the *spoiler alert* (I’ll try and keep it vague) the big reveal about why Callie had been dumped so many times. I thought that was so cruel and so NOT OKAY and I needed waaaaaaay more than that to be satisfied. Given that the rest of the book was light-hearted, it struck a very jarring note to me. It reduced Trev in my eyes so much – so unbelievably cruel. 😦
Not quite sure why it reduced Trev for you? He wasn’t upset, but considering everything turned out okay, that seemed understandable.
**Spoiler alert**
Because he caused the breakups. He made them happen so she would be alone and available to him. Bastard.
You’re remembering wrong! He didn’t cause them.
@Willa – LOL, yes, I just checked my own review from way back and it’s all the spoilers about it because it made me stabby at the time. In my memory, I morphed Trev’s mother into Trev. (That probably says something about me but we’ll let that slide for now I think!)
Reading back over my review, I definitely did have a problem with the “reason” Callie was jilted so many times and I really hated that such a hurtful thing was just laughed off at the end like it was nothing. It made her miserable for years. It wasn’t the least bit funny to me.
Sorry Trev!! 😀
I have read two Kinsale books (Flowers from the Storm and The Shadow & the Star) and I own this one. I may be reading this soon since I do enjoy romps, but I’m glad to be forewarned.
LOL!! I did the same thing! I’ve had it in my TBR pile for years though I’ve loved other books by her
I really enjoyed this one, precisely because it was so lighthearted. Most of Kinsale’s books are darker (with some notable exceptions). But I do agree it falls in the “romp” category, but I’d much rather romp with Kinsale than with most of the current batch of light-hearted historical writers…
I hear that!