The Honeymoon Cottage by Lori FosterMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Could she be herself...with everyone?
Yardley was raised by her mom and aunt and still lives with them in a Victorian house that she has lovingly renovated. She also has an office in the home for her wedding planning business. At thirty-one, she's starting to feel the constraints as a single woman living with family, especially since her mom and aunt never pass up a chance to deliver a cutting blow to her and can't even fend for themselves when it comes to cooking and cleaning. Her childhood bestfriend Mimi has been on her forever to stand-up for herself against the two and put herself out there more in the dating world but small town Cemetery, Indiana doesn't have a lot of prospects. When a new potential client shows up and her gorgeous older brother is with her, Yardley is suddenly wanting to forget all about her rules and dating clients.
The way romance publishing has been going lately, I was prepared for The Honeymoon Cottage to be mostly women's fiction with a little bit of romance but I was pleasantly surprised at how much and how central the romance plot was in this. There is some women's fiction to the plot with povs mostly from Yardley and how she's always felt like the black sheep in her family and how that has lead to her mom and aunt breaking down her self-esteem and taking advantage of her. We also get povs from Yardley's bestfriend Mimi who is there to prop Yardley up and push her to peruse something with Travis (the gorgeous older brother) but Mimi also has her little side plot of being a new self-conscious mother who doesn't feel sexy enough for her husband and wishing he would spend less time doing the dishes for her and more getting hot and heavy with her. There was also some povs from Travis, which I miss a lot in women's fiction, that I thought helped bolster the romance aspect of this immensely.
She made him feel everything, all at once, in a giant bombardment on his senses.
He knew right then, he wanted her in his life. Hell, given how she leveled him, he needed her in his life.
If you're a frequent reader of Foster, you'll enjoy her quality writing and general ease of writing enjoyable characters and character relationships. Since this does have some women's fiction elements, the sexiness of her usual romances is toned down; there are some sex scenes but not as many or as involved as her typical romances. Her caring alpha male heroes still make a good showing with Travis and Mimi's husband Kevin but they're more soft than, say, her UFC inspired series heroes.
Soft is probably how I would describe this story, which would fit the slow, languid summer reading seasonal vibe right now. Yardley and Travis like each other but neither wants to get too close at first because of the ramifications it could have since Yardley is the wedding planner for Travis' sister's wedding. They start off trying to keep it friends but the chemistry and attraction becomes too much and while they plan to just date, platonic goes out the window around the 80% mark. There's a lot of dealing with Yardley's mom and aunt and how horrible they are to Yardley. Yardley has to deal with her mom never telling her who her father was, how she's allowed her mom and aunt to become dependent on her, understanding for her mom and aunt's own emotional pain, and, around 60%, how she's not going to be a doormat anymore. I thought the mom and aunt horribleness got a little repetitive, some could have been cut out here to shorten up the story because it does drag a little towards the end. There were some scenes of Yardley and Travis doing things together that I would have liked added instead of those mom and aunt scenes.
This looks like it's going to be a series and Foster has laid the groundwork in this to introduce and get the reader liking the town and it's people. The town matriarch is maybe not as scary as everyone thought, the women of the town look to be setting up a weekly tea date to keep the women's fiction vibe and keep characters involved in the story, the mannequin Kathleen adds some of that small town zaniness, and I think I spotted a possible future couple between the florist and bbq restaurant owner. This was a soft story with some women's fiction vibes, a solid romance, characters and relationships that you'll care about, and those trademark caring Foster heroes that you make your heart beat just a little harder and faster.
