Holly Freakin' Hughes by Kelsey Kingsley

If asked I would say that one of the few genres I don't read is romance.  However, this book firmly slots in to that category and I realised I do sneak the odd one on to my TBR, usually though they are the paranormal version.  However, it's been a while since I read anything that could possibly be "naughty" and the blurb sounded appealing so I went for it.  to be honest, I don't dip my toes in to the full on Romance genre very often as I find the more intimate scenes usually toe curling (I'm being careful with the language here not because of prudishness but because of overly stringent algorithms that label perfectly normal words as "bad" and won't let your review go through).

On the whole I actually really enjoyed the book, you wouldn't think so off a 3 Star review would you but I did.  The characterisations are well written and the people really do come to life on the page and enter in to your consciousness.  Holly is particularly appealing, which is happen as well as the book is about her.  Yes, she is also completely and utterly infuriating at times and you desperately want to slap her but at others you just want to give her a big hug.  Normally, the whole "woe is me" pity party after a break up in a book makes me angry but Holly's reasons for descending in to a dishevelled mess are actually pretty understandable.  If you were living with someone and were convinced the posh restaurant date meant he was finally going to pop the question and then it turns out it is so he can dump you in favour of another guy I think you are allowed to have a bit of a breakdown.  Then throw on losing your job because you are too old to give advice to teens and yeah, you can spend the next 6 months in a cocoon licking your wounds.  Fortunately Holly's sister comes to the rescue and looking after Alice at least keeps Holly functioning on some level and then throw in the foul mouthed Esther (Oh, how I loved this old woman) and there's no way Holly can allow herself to crumble.

Her relationship with Brandon is actually pretty well done.  After the first passionate clinch I genuinely thought it was all going to be a bit cringy but I kept with it and I'm rather glad I did.  Despite the fact they clearly fancy the pants off each other they are both hurting from failed relationships and reluctantly Holly agrees to be just friends, no benefits, just friendship.  This means they actually get to know each other as actual breathing people rather than it just being this whole bosom heaving passion thing.  Yes there is a fair bit of that but much less than I had anticipated going in.

What did annoy me about the book was really two things:

Brandon.  This guy just has everything.  Honestly, he is the perfect physical specimen (if you like gym rats), has a compassionate personality and is seemingly uninterested in casual hook ups.  Couple this with a bestselling Fantasy series that has given him celebrity status and pots of lovely cash; oh and don't forget his modelling sideline.  clearly this man is just perfection.  Oh and he is prone to depressive fits of naval gazing because nobody will love him for him, they just want him for his looks/money.  Of course he does this while working out to keep the perfection going.  Brandon is far too good to be true and his sections of the book really started to grate - there's only so many times you can read about someone wistfully longing without wanting to punch them.

The second big problem for me was Holly's reaction on finding out who he really is.  Seriously, you know he's called Brandon Davis and you didn't indulge in online stalking and, even more unbelievably, neither did your sister or Esther (seriously, Esther already knows who he is and probably what size briefs he wears as well as style).  Even more appalling was her whole "I'm not worthy" meltdown after they finally get it together.  Who on earth would genuinely react like that?  Fortunately this was near the end so instead of launching my eReader at the nearest wall I stuck with it and finished the book but it did spoil the whole thing for me.

Generally quite a fun read with a lot more depth than I expected.  If you like your men buffed and perfect (I don't, I like them slightly paunchy and normal) and don't object to needless melodrama then you will probably love this book.  Sadly, it just missed the mark for me but I would definitely read other of this author's works.