TBR Challenge: Sandy James - The Bottom Line

When life gets tough and love is hard to find, four friends take their troubles to lunch. Surviving a failed
marriage and an illness that almost takes her life, high school teacher Mallory Hamilton needs the Ladies Who Lunch more than ever . . .
After a year of upheaval, Mallory has had her fill of change—with one exception. Her house is a disaster, and she wants it fixed. Hiring a contractor to finish the projects her ex-husband started will help her banish the past so she can return to the life she had before everything went awry. But her contractor is sexy, sweet, and single, which threatens the peaceful, solitary life Mallory has planned for herself.
Ben Carpenter has had a hard time raising his daughter without his ex-wife’s help. His new client’s projects will give him the extra income he needs, not to mention afternoons alone with a gorgeous woman. Though their attraction is undeniable, Ben sees the fear and pain hiding in Mallory’s beautiful eyes. But how can he help her if she won’t let him in? Ben can fix just about anything—but can he fix Mallory’s broken heart?

Comment: Time flies and it's already the third Wednesday in August, day of the TBR challenge post.

This month the theme is Blue Collar and it was quite a quest to find one among my shelves..probably next month or the other I'll find I have plenty more, but alas, I picked this one featuring a teacher heroine and a contractor hero, who is going to do renovation work at her house.

In this book we meet heroine Mallory, who is back to work after being ill and since her husband left her, she is also now ready to do some work at the house. That is how she gets to meet Ben, a divorced man, father of a teenager, but who seems to understand what she wants and they quickly become close. The more they get to know one another, the more they realize happiness is possible again... but will they both be ready to let go of past betrayals and trust someone else once more?

This is the first book in a series titled "Ladies Who Lunch" and each installment will focus on one friend, all teachers at the same school, who got to become friends over their lunch hour. The first one to have a HEA is Mallory, we learn she has been ill, is ready to change what she sees as a disaster around her, and as a fresh restart her priority is to fix the house. The story is pretty basic, the romance rather quick and the conflicts closer to the end of the novel very easy to avoid but oh well.

This is the second book by the author I try and, as it happened with that one, so this Bottom Line felt like the writing and execution didn't match the possibilities this story suggested. I imagined a sweet romance between two wary people, both Mallory and Ben have had distrust in past relationships, worries and Ben is a carpenter or contractor so he can't simply solve most issues with money. I thought the story had all the elements to be a sweet contemporary but the execution just disappointed me. 

The beginning is actually interesting and I was curious to see how detailed the house renovation would be, what kind of information on the characters we would have because of this. I remember a scene where they are picking some things but apart from sentences here and there telling us about what else was done, there isn't a lot of focus on the fixing of the house throughout the book. This would be minor if everything else was good for me, but sadly, it wasn't.

What I think was the weakest element is precisely the romance. Mallory is recovering from cancer and of course this gave her a new perspective on life and such and she feels terrible because her husband left her when things became dire. I get that she isn't as easy to trust and I imagined her taking time between getting to know Ben and wanting to be with him. However, not many pages went between the first time they met and the inner monologues where they both wondered how much they liked the other and so on. I know this can happen but made me look at the characters as very one dimensional and the plot felt weak.

Ben is divorced, his ex is trouble but he tries to keep the peace because they have a daughter and he wants what's best for her. I liked him at first because he seemed a complex but likable guy and although he felt attracted to Mallory and her personality I thought this was a good sign, that they would take things slowly and get to understand each other. 

What happened instead was a quick romance - I mean from when they met until they started thinking of one another as a significant other - which I felt was very under developed, many scenes of going back and forth trying to get an idea of what was going on between them, Mallory trying to bond with Ben's daughter, Mallory's friends who didn't seem that supportive, then Mallory decides she wants do a certain surgery, then Ben's ex becomes jealous for who know what reason, then there's a misunderstanding and childish behavior and at this point I was just ready to finish.

The end solved all conflicts and made our protagonists realize there were more important things to consider than petty discussions, they discovered they loved each other enough to want to try to be a couple and live together but I was not convinced of their relationship nor of their feelings and the whole plot seemed to have been rushed so things could go from point 1 to point 2. I would say, looking at this book and the other one I've tried, that the writing is very simple and consistent, yes, but the characterization and development is a little superficial and I would have liked some more balanced work, this type of writing somehow feels it lacks complexity and appeal.

Although this wasn't a winner for me, some details are interesting and for fans of light contemporary, perhaps this can work because as everyone knows, it can all be a matter of perspective.

Grade: 4/10

Sandy James - Saving Grace

Grace Riley is on the run—from her past and from her fears. The victim of a violent rape at the hands

of a rich politician’s son, she must “disappear” to escape his constant attempts to recapture her. Moving from cattle drive to cattle drive as a cook, she avoids her tormentor for nearly twenty years. When she discovers that the brother she gave up for adoption after their mother died in childbirth was orphaned at an early age, she is frantic to verify that he’s safe. She tracks him to a cattle ranch in Montana.
Widower Adam Morgan owns the Twin Springs ranch, but finds himself falling into a life of loneliness. Although he enjoys spending time with his grown daughter and the two men he rescued when they were living on the streets, he longs to meet a woman he can love. Living in the Montana territory where men greatly outnumber women makes finding a new wife difficult. Weary of working cattle, he is ready to make some changes in his life.
Grace falls ill on her journey, but she manages to make it to the Twin Springs ranch where her brother is supposed to be living. Adam takes her in, concerned for her health and the reason she’s searching for one of his adopted sons. Their chemistry is immediate and intense, but can Grace heal from her past of pain and fear? When her secrets are finally revealed, can Adam forgive her deceptions and learn to love again? 

Comment: This is the first book by this author that I tried and it's the first in the Safe Havens trilogy. It has been in my TBR list for a while, I got it sometime ago and this month I added it to my reading list. Reviews are mixed so I tried not to read anything and make my own mind about it. It was an interesting read alright but it had some details I think didn't help the book, which could have helped it to be much better than what it is.

In this book we meet Grace Riley, a woman of 34, sort of, that has been running from a man that ruined her life but still needed his help to find the son she gave up many years ago. She only wants to know how he is and finally meet him so somehow she tracks him down to the Twin Springs ranch, where he used to work. There she meets Adam, the owner, and his daughter Victoria and they help her recover from illness and fatigue.

However, Grace isn't alone, her brother Matthew arrives after her, he's been the one who has always helped to protect her. Together they try to run from the man that caused all their troubles but now they found a place where both can find some happiness. Can they do it?

This story has a lot of elements for us to think about. In a way, it can get confusing because too many things happen for us to pay attention to and, that is also distracting and makes us loose focus on what matters...which, for me, would be Grace and Adam's relationship. 

How interesting to see an historical where the main couple is over 34... I was very interested in seeing the relationship develop but it wasn't as magical as I hoped.

First, they meet when she's obviously in a delicate position, she's sick. I thought this would be the way for them to slowly get to know each other, for Grace to start trusting Adam and while this happened, it was much faster than what I anticipated.

Secondly, Grace doesn't trust men and according to the book, she hasn't been with anyone since the man she's running from raped her and made her need to run in the first place. But then she meets Adam ans suddenly she can't help but liking and wanting to be with him, even if it took some time for that to happen. I can understand love at first sight, but full trust and acceptance?

So, basically they were attracted, took some time before admitting a relationship but it certainly wasn't the emotional and romantic journey I expected.

There's a second romance in here, Adam's daughter Victoria and Grace's brother Matthew have feelings for each other, but they take their time admitting and working on them. But when they do it's so cliché and with moving forward and getting back again repetitively that I think part of this strategy only makes us lose interest.

The villain isn't anything special, he's mostly mean and vain and I still can't understand why he felt he had to go through so much effort to be with Grace...sure he thought, in his twisted mind, that she was like "propriety" for him but when we learn the beginning of their story and why Grace is running, it's actually pretty basic and not up to the sort of behavior he has.

I got the feeling he was just a handy excuse for Grace to have met Adam.

Throughout the story I also got the feeling we should rush and move ahead for what is suppose to happen next. I got the feeling the narrative/writing wasn't focused on the things we were reading but in what we were supposed to look for.

But the reality is the writing isn't very exciting and many scenes seem fake or repetition of things we've seen before because they don't really help us knowing the characters better. I just think the narrative wasn't very appealing. Somehow things are too ordinary for me to consider them special and the characters weren't acting like their personalities' description makes us believe.

I think the book has qualities, it's readable and I finished it well enough but it isn't amazing nor vibrant as I hoped for such an interesting theme and possibilities.

In the end, all ends well for both couples and their friends, their lives move forward quite well... there's a sequel which I plan to read one day but right now it isn't a priority.

The writing just didn't win me over.

Grade: 6/10