REVIEW: Love by Beth Boyd
"Karen meets Adam when she goes to look after her grandmother's Cornish seaside cottage and dog. But will pushy Nick and a possessive ex get in the way?"
I've seen some reviews on Amazon for this novel and really can't quite believe half of them. I found this book quite boring really. It was like it was trying to be a Jane Austen novel, even with the language, some words I didn't even understand! There wasn't really much tension between Karen and Adam I didn't think. Even Karen doubts him thoughout most of the book.
I didn't get why Nick was so pushy to value Karen's Grandmothers house, I thought maybe he had some kind of underlying plot but turns out he was just a pushy, handsy, knob who couldn't take no for an answer. Bit of a pointless character really, he only serves to get her ill which then winds her up in Adam's care.
Adam has an agent friend type ex thing who is a right bitch for literally no reason. Adam doesn't even try to tell Morgan that she has no right to meddle, she's just left to her own devices and tries to cause doubt in Karen's head. It was very confusing. I was half expecting Morgan to declare her love for Adam and cause a real shit storm but nope. Nothing. Morgan is just there to put add some doubts and once her purpose is served Adam easily puts the doubts to bed (literally).
The first thing that wound me up, and I mentioned this on my Instgram feed, Karen buys a chocolate bar and says she will share it with the dog. Chocolate can kill dogs so I was shocked! I thought maybe it was just to make Karen feel better about buying it but later she does indeed share her lunch with the dog. I was almost waiting for the dog to keel over being sick and the story to take a turn down that road but nope.
Adam is a very strange character. I didn't really feel anything for him. He acts so friendly and gentlemanly that you barely think he's a serious love interest. The other thing that confused me was that Adam does tell Karen that he thinks he's loved her since she was 13, but later Karen says that he's never offered any declaration of love?! He also proposed with a jelly ring and she thinks he's joking, turns out he was serious so it literally goes for not knowing if he even likes her to them planning a wedding. They didn't even have sex and only kissed a handful of times and then bam! Planning a wedding!?
One last thing that I found problamatic, Karen's whole excuse for being single was that painting and marriage don't mix. Which I found to be quite ridiculous. Why did it have to be marriage? Do relationships not exist in this book? Is there no middle ground?
Generally, I found the language to be far too proper and old fashioned, made it seem a bit like 'Made in Chelsea', I couldn't get into the story at all. I found the two main 'problem causing' characters, Nick and Morgan, to be completely pointless and confusing. I found Adam to be a lacking hero because he is SO much of a gentlemen he may as well have been her brother at some points. and I found Karen to be a bit dim and sheepish about his intentions.
I wouldn't recommend this book, you might find it better than I did but it generally annoyed me.
