RATING: 3.5 stars
This was a really cute story. A nice fluffy, predictable contemporary romance novel. And that's not a bad thing. I rather enjoyed the non-heavy experience that this book gave me. You got your distressed female protagonist. You got you heartthrob lead male. You got a bit of drama. You got a happily ever after. It was a nice pretty package.
This is a great book for what it's intended to do -- tell a nice story. It's not really meant to make you think. It's not meant to change your life. Though, don't get me wrong, there are some moments throughout the book that I am sure someone can apply to their own life, which can be said for many books. It just did all of the right things that I knew the book would do before I even read it.
The characters, Dakota and Brendan, aren't overly interesting but their not boring either. Their chemistry together is believable, which is key. Since this IS a romance novel, that chemistry needs to be there. And it is. What's not there is their individual chemistry/personalities. I didn't care about their one of them, separately. But together, I was so there. There were moments throughout the book where I felt I could care for Dakota, but I don't think that it had to do with her specifically. It was more due to her circumstances. Brendan didn't really have much of a personality other than to be the man that Dakota was with regardless of those circumstances.
This is a VERY character driven book, which is why it falls short for me in that aspect. Now I didn't expect to have earth shattering feels from these characters, but I did expect to feel a little more than I did for them. I actually found myself caring more for some of the secondary characters (Wild Bill, Jillian, etc). Dakota wasn't a bad character at all, I did like her. I just didn't like her enough for the entire book to be focused on her and still get nothing from her being that focus. Brendan, as I said, was just there. He was wasted potential, I think. He has a fabulous personality, but it went nowhere. And that disappointed me.
There were a few plot points in the book that made me roll my eyes a bit. I won't list them, due to spoilers.
Overall, as I mentioned in the very beginning, this book isn't meant to be deep. It's not meant to change worldviews or personal philosophies. This book, in my opinion, is the type of book you read to make you feel better. To make you feel good. To get you out of a reading slump. Something light, something fuzzy, something warm. And that's what it did for me.
I feel I would be doing that book a disservice if I gave it any higher than a 3.5 stars. Because while I didn't have the highest of expectations, I still feel that while it did meet some of my standards -- it also feel short of a few others.
P.S. Very tasteful intimacy scenes. Madsen did a fabulous job making it about the emotional connection, as opposed to just the physical act of sex.