Sterling Hearts by L. SpeckhalsMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
Sterling Hearts was a first person point-of-view contemporary story of a young woman trying to find her footing in life. Evie has broken up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend and decided to move to the Appalachian area after she fell in love with a town her and the ex had passed through during a vacation. It's a small town but alive enough that she thinks an independent bookstore can be successful, her dream. Evie works to stay walled off, she wants to have a professional persona as a business owner and is still recovering from her abusive relationship, but when a man she dubs “The Cowboy” buys a children's book from her store, she can't help but let him a little.
This had sweet and cute moments but so much of what kept Evie and Blake (the cowboy) apart was misunderstandings that extremely easily could have been cleared with one simple asked and answered question. This read like a slice of life story with a romantic thread as Evie is very focused on getting her store running and worrying about her business persona in town. When her bestfriend comes to stay with her, we get a more livened up version of Evie as the friend pushes her to get out more and give Blake a chance.
There's a little bit of a mystery plot with some mysterious person who, through a sort of broker, Evie lets sell jewelry in her bookstore, that will have readers guessing and more than likely know the identity before any reveals. Evie and Blake spend some moments together with helping each other fix cars and redo a bathroom but they talk about everything but Blake's life, his secrets felt needlessly drawn out and ultimately made his character feel kind of blank to me. This was closed door with some hot and heavy making out but the way Blake's character never really revealed things about himself, kept him and his trying to build relationship with Evie feel distant and I never felt emotionally drawn to it.
The so easy to clear up misunderstandings Evie had that could have been taken care of with one question asked to Blake made Evie's reluctance feel dragged out and kept a large part of their relationship from developing. This was a slice of life with a very to be continued feeling ending that unfortunately didn't develop as much emotional depth in characters and relationships that typically pull me into stories.
