e-ARC, NetGalley
Author: Tracy Goodwin
Amelia Marsh is recently divorced and she has just moved with her two kids to the Castlerock development in Texas to be closer to her best friends. The only thing that the kids asked of her with the move was that she placed the gnome they made for her in their front yard so that it “feels like home”. Enter the manager hired by the HOA of the development to tell her that the “atrocity” has to be removed as per the bylaws. Let the Game of Gnomes begin! The only thing throwing her off her game is Kyle Sanders, her neighbor with “the abs”, who’s also president of the HOA…
I had a little trouble writing this review because I can’t figure out what this book is: rom com? Women’s fiction? Comedy? Family drama? It never sticks to one focus and it leaves you a little confused. I was hoping for LOL moments with the whole Gnomegate but they never really came. I wanted an epic battle with Carla, the evil manager, and it kinda came but fizzled out. There IS romance, but it’s so in the background and they only get together in a very Hallmark-y way – with a kiss right at the very end. There is tension and there is attraction, so as a romance reader, this is where it hurt most, because Kyle Sanders is prime boyfriend material and I would have loved to see more of the romance.
Another problem for me was how the kids were written. Jacob is supposed to be 10 and Chloe is supposed to be 8, but their voices and reactions read as an 8 and a 5 year old at best, so it was pulling me out of the story all the time.
It’s told in 3rd person dual POV but it’s not a problem for me. It’s obviously a closed door romance because if anything happens with them it happens after you close the book.
It was a fine book, but I saw so much potential in the blurb that I was disappointed.
Possible triggers: divorce; feelings of inadequacy; voluntary alienation of children by a parent after a divorc
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you @NetGalley, @sourcebookscasa and the author for the advanced copy.
