e-ARC provided by PRH International
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Eileen Meriweather is an English professor who loves to lose herself in a good romance novel and their HEAs. Her life has robbed her of her own and she found solace in a series set in the quirky little town of Eloraton and in her yearly book club retreats in a cabin upstate. She waits for the retreat eagerly every year but this time everyone cancels, including her best friend (for very romantic reasons she can’t blame her for). She decides she will go by herself. She packs her beat up car and drives to the cabin alone. On the way there, the car breaks down and she finds herself stranded… in Eloraton!
At first she’s elated to be there and to meet all her favorite characters but there is one she just can’t place: Anders, the handsome bookstore owner. Her conclusion is that he’s the main character of the next book that the author never got to write before she passed away in a tragic car accident. She also finds it strange that he is the only one who knows that he is “in a book” and he’s doing his best to keep her from doing anything that might change the town. She can’t figure out who his heroine is… and she just might be wishing it could be her.
A love letter to romance readers and writers, this book had everything that should make me LOVE it and yet I didn’t. It has the quirky small town, the magical element, the wonderful characters from the books coming to life and yet there was one element that was missing and it was, sadly, ROMANCE. It does have an HEA that is satisfying, but it dragged us through the “mystery” so long and we don’t get to see the main characters really fall in love. I get that the “twist” at the end has a lot to do with that, but I really wanted Elsy to have an epic love story and it didn’t feel like she did in book that celebrates Romance. Believe me, the book is extremely well written (I loved the chapter titles and all the nods to romance readers) and maybe I just put too much expectations on it as it’s and Ashley Poston book. Still a good read, just not what I wanted from it.
Content note: mentions of death of a loved one, FMC goes through a very traumatic breakup
