True North #5
Kindle e-book
Author: Sarina Bowen
Alec Rossi is happy bartending at The Gin Mill, his bar, when he keeps staring at two women making out in a booth. His employee teases him and he says he knows her but can’t place her. He’s seen her before and.. oh shit! She’s May Shipley’s live-in girlfriend kissing another woman! When he’s contemplating what to do about it, May bursts into the bar and all hell breaks loose.
May knew things weren’t going really well with Daniella but the last thing she expected to happen when she went into the bar was that a little while later she would be packing her stuff and moving out of her apartment with the help of Alec Rossi.
Alec presents all sorts of surprises to May. He’s funny, attentive, caring, and he’s also making her feel all those butterflies she thought were exclusively reserved to other girls. And when Alec accompanies her to a function Daniella will also be attending and kisses her to make it look like they’re together.. well, well, well, what in the world is happening to her?! Why is she on fire all of a sudden?
I want to start this review by saying that I did like this book but that I was also sorely disappointed. It’s a beautiful love story, mind you, but we followed May in the first books and our hearts book when she realized Lark would never love her back that way, or when Daniella embarrassed her at her brother’s wedding. So, I really thought that we’d see her find her HEA eventually, but with Miss Right and not Mr Right. I can’t speak for accurate representation but May was a rounded up character as a lesbian and there was no need to make her bisexual to get her happy ending. Like I said, I liked the book, but this was such a missed opportunity as Sarina writes wonderful same sex couples. I liked the “forbidden love” aspect of the story: he’s a bar owner, she’s a recovering alcoholic.
It’s beautifully written, after all, it’s Sarina, but those are my two cents.
Representation and possible triggers: May identifies as bisexual; FMC is a recovering alcoholic, several mentions to addiction, side character is treated for a drug overdose on page.
