Review: Love Me Do

Love Me Do by Lindsey Kelk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

'Let the holiday commence.' 

Phoebe is leaving England and going to spend her two week holiday with her older sister that lives in L.A. However, when she gets there, Suzanne, is immediately taking off for a quick emergency work trip to Seattle. This leaves Phoebe to fend for herself but with a hot neighbor that Phoebe instantly feels a connection with, Suzanne's personal trainer who Phoebe can't help becoming fast friends with, and an old Hollywood starlet who terrorizes the neighborhood, Phoebe isn't quite going to get the quiet, relaxing vacation she thought she'd be getting. 

The left side of his mouth quirked upwards to form a dimple in his cheek, a charmingly resigned half-smile. 'I guess I'm going on a date with your friend.' 

Love Me Do, had it's moments of charm with Phoebe and the neighbor love interest, Ren, connecting through their shared interests of the quieter aspects of life. They have a meet-cute over bird watching but the drama comes in when Bel, the personal trainer, tells Phoebe that Ren is her huge crush and believes him to be her soulmate. This leads to a Cyrano de Bergerac like situation where Phoebe writes a letter espousing her own feelings but gives it to Ren declaring that Bel wrote it. Falling for the person Ren thinks is behind the letter has Bel and Ren going on a couple dates but with Phoebe getting dragged along at times and more of Ren and her connecting beyond Phoebe's control. 

Not that I mattered, there was no chance now, and now there was no chance, I could finally admit the truth to myself. 

I was falling for him was well. 

While we have the love interest with Ren and he gets a pretty full back story, he's in L.A. to fix up his grandpa's house because his brother wants to sell it, while Ren wants to keep in it in the family, the development of the romance between Phoebe and Ren wasn't fully there. They talk and communicate well when together, with those charming moments I mentioned, but I'm not sure I saw or felt the depth between them. There was an open door scene towards the end, it did have some heat to it, but I'm not sure romance genre readers would feel full satisfaction from their story line. This was told in all first person point-of-view from Phoebe and while her finding Ren hot and involved in the Cyrano aspect, she's also coming to know Myrna, the past Hollywood starlet (I would have loved more of this character as she was full of sass and life) and dealing with some of the trauma of her past romantic relationship. It starts off with hints that things weren't hundred percent ok with her ex and then as the story goes on, the reader learns that the ex was emotionally abusive and controlling and we get a mini storyline of Phoebe trying to help her ex's current partner. 

'What about the letter?' I asked, with a gulp. The sound of his sigh settled softly in the woods.

'I fell in love with it.' 

Phoebe's sister doesn't actually come back into the story until around sixty percent and then we get some talking about how they need to share things with each other more, Suzanne has her own secret to reveal, and they bond. The triangle between Phoebe, Ren, and Bel comes to ahead and we get Ren initially being upset over feeling played/tricked but it all gets resolved very quickly, which it happens so late in the story there wasn't much page count to play around with. There's some last second drama with Phoebe being scared about her emotions but Myrna and Suzanne come in with solutions to help wrap a big bow and deliver the happily ever after. It felt a little rushed and while everything was wrapped up, there could definitely be series potential with Suzanne and Bel getting their own HEAs. This was contemporary/women's fiction with some romance, charm, and old Hollywood shout-outs, a great pick-up for a beach read or summer time porch reading.

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