Lila Bruce

My third work by Lila Bruce, and second novel (one of the three is a short story). If I only counted the book length works, the two of them I’ve read, I’d find that my overall rating for the author would be somewhere near 4.65 stars. Including the short story, the overall rating would be closer to 3.7666667. All of which is exciting, I’m sure.

So, this book here. There are three points of view, if I recall correctly. Well, I know there are at least three, and I think only three. The book opens up with one of the three. Obviously enough. And if I had not read something prior by this author, I might have immediately stopped reading. Well, probably not, but it’s hard to continue when the book opens with a character saying how much they hate cats. I mean, that’s just super off putting, you know? I’d like to say that I understood what was going on right around when this character lifted their hind leg and scratched their ear, since that would be fitting, but I caught on earlier.

Viewpoint one: Moose Baldwin. Dog. Specifically the dog of one Ashley Baldwin, who joking calls Moose her boyfriend. Since this cat-hating was expressed through the view point of a dog, I figured I’d not allow that to put me off. The perspective from the dog’s point of view as actually quite good and well constructed. Enjoyable even. For the most part.

Viewpoint two: Ashley Baldwin. High school teacher. Long term resident of, if I recall correctly, small-ish town Georgia (I say small-ish as it is for the most part, but it is also near two colleges). She’s spent the last twelve years attempting to move on with her life but finding it difficult to do so. Move on, that is, from a bad breakup which occurred near the end of College with her longish term girlfriend, who she actually first meet, if the stories are matching up right in my mind, back in high school. Part of the break up was based on how Ashley wanted kids and a house. With, I assume, a white picket fence. Peyton Maxwell, this so far unnamed ex-girlfriend, expressed the view that she didn’t want that. Couldn’t give that to Ashley. Expressed, or implied the opinion (it’s murky) that she didn’t like kids. So, that’s what Ashley has been attempting to move on from. Attempting relationships, breaking them off, trying again, repeat. (There was some comment somewhere along the line that all Ashley had was her dog – her parents, that she was somewhat estranged from, live in Florida now; and yet there are at least two best friends who pop up in the story. I might have misunderstood the comment. Since one of them’s off for the summer ‘elsewhere’, so the comment might have been related to that).

Well, I just distracted myself there, sorry.

Viewpoint three: Peyton Maxwell. Ex-girlfriend of Ashley Baldwin. Recently moved back to Georgia from Texas with her daughter Daisy, in the last six months I believe, and taken a position as a vet at Ridgeview Animal Clinic. There are ‘reasons’ for her return, for return it is, one of which involves living closer to her parents. One may or may not involve being near Ashley again.

Book opened, as noted, in the viewpoint of Moose. Which I mention because he’s at the animal clinic. For fleas. They wander back, when called, to an exam room. Get all settled. Find a vet come in and . . . it’s that ex-girlfriend. Moose, unlike himself, growls and instantly takes a dislike to the vet. Largely due to how tense and flustered his person is when this newcomer entered (plus he doesn’t particularly like meeting new people anyway). Ashley and Peyton somewhat nervously bounce off each other, Peyton offering to get another vet to cover, Ashley saying no, etc. etc. Visit over. Both flustered. At some point the possibility of being platonic friends came up, mayhap on this visit.

Friends:
Ashley – Cassie (fellow teacher, going off for the summer), Melanie - she only seemed to turn up at Cassie’s grill party as someone to rub her hands against Peyton’s leg and make her feel all uncomfortable and drool over how hot Peyton is.
Peyton – um, her parents? Other than attempting to become friends again with Ashley, I don’t recall any specific friends mentioned.
Moose – Elvis – Cassie’s dog. And some others, but Elvis is the one he runs into most often.

Glad I finally tried this book here. I rather liked the first book I had read by Bruce, but the second one – the short story, was such a letdown that I’d been kind of burned and was distrusting my initial impression of the author. Like maybe I had tricked myself into liking the first book or something. But this one was quite good. Solid characters, story-line, pace, humor. Not sure I’ve read a book like this one before. Oh, right. Of course I have. Before I go too far done the road of vagueness, I mean a book involving two people who appeared to love each other but broke apart, only to bump into each other again years later and have sparks fly again. The other book I’d read that had that specific relationship arc, though the stories themselves were different, was “The Thousand Mile Love Story” by Natalie Vivien.

December 22 2015… (altro)

I'm vaguely surprised. This is my second story by Lila Bruce that I've read. The first one, Falling Slowly, I found to be cute and fun. This one . . .well. I kinda hated all the side characters. Heck, I even didn't particularly like the niece, and she's only 8 or something like that.

Not exactly sure what the difference is between the two stories would be. I mean, in both the two who 'hook up' play hard to get - to a certain extent. In Falling Slowly, the two women have two bad meetings, then a good third one. This time, the two have several rather good meetings, but Grace kept trying to avoid Jessica. Because of how good the meetings were.

Hmms. Maybe that's it. One story went from "I can't stand being in the same room with you because you are a rude bitch" to "that was a wrong impression of you that I developed, you are actually quite nice." While this one went from "my god you are so gorgeous . . NOOO I can't find you gorgeous! *flee*" to "I still find you gorgeous, I guess I can't fight my feelings any more."

That might give a wrong impression, the trying to fight feelings part. All four women started the story as lesbians and remained so by the end. Which is a plus. I'm so bloody tired of "oops, guess I was wrong all this time, I'm actually a lesbian" stories. So, as I said, that's a plus in both stories.

I mentioned I didn't like the side characters but I didn't mention the main. That's another difference between the two stories. I came to feel like I knew the two women in Falling Slowly. Here, I feel like I basically know nothing. Two women. One had a woman walk out on her shortly before marriage. And has a business doing decorations and stuff. Other just moved back to the small town. And apparently has a business. And has millions. That's basically all I know about both.… (altro)

Quick cute story about two women meet twice and have bad interactions both times. Takes the third meeting before things turn good. Quinn's a scarred military veteran, and Allie's a co-owner of a chain of stores.

They meet the first time by chance. Amanda, Allie's cousin and business partner, set up an early morning meeting with Quinn's sister Rebekah(sp?). Amanda has a t-ball game she has to attend, and so Allie attends the meeting. Rebekah's car's dead, so Quinn drives her. Even so, it's only because Rebekah made an accidental comment that lead to dragging Quinn inside the store. To be stared at by Allie. Quinn does not like it when people stare at her, is self-conscious about her scarring.

The second time they meet is a "just in the neighborhood" type deal where both Amanda and Allie are near by looking to see if they'll open a new store nearby. And drop in on Rebekah at Quinn's house. As I said, two meetings, two bad interactions. Quinn and Allie yell at each other.

People normally do not get three chances to "come together". At least not if there is no real reason why the two would bump into each other. Especially if two of the three interactions end badly. And yet, these two have a third meeting. A second chance encounter (can't call the second meeting chance, since it was prearranged). Quinn stops by a food place. Eats. Spots Allie also there and eating. Spots homeless person confronting Allie. Watches as Allie starts to get flustered. Quinn steps in to help.

One thing leads to another, and Quinn flies Allie to a wedding rehearsal. And the story unfolds from there.

Was good. I liked it. Not 100% why I think it's a 4 star instead of 5 star story, but I do.… (altro)

I've always been a sucker for the wounded and scarred veteran trope in romance, so I was pleased to find this book (and borrow it for free, thanks to Amazon Prime's Lending Library). Quinn is the aforementioned wounded warrior, who was injured while serving in Afghanistan. She meets Allie, an owner of a boutique, while providing emotional support to her younger sister, Rebekah. Quinn and Allie don't hit it off right away - in fact, Quinn refers to Allie as a bitch to Rebekah more than once - but soon the sparks fly between them.

Even though this is a novella, I felt that the author did a good job of fleshing them out considering the page count. I would have liked to see this story developed into a longer one, because I think there were some issues that were rather glossed over and, in real life, would have taken longer to resolve. The author could have also done with a good editor - there were several misspellings and mistakes that kind of yanked me out of the story, as well as some discordant actions and ideas. The cat, for example, is referred to as a calico, but is called "he" throughout the book. Although there ARE male calico cats (about 1 in every 3000 calico cats born are male), they are exceptionally rare. Another is Quinn's leg. It's stated that she sustained severe injury to her left leg, requiring the use of a tourniquet in the field. She apparently retained the leg, which seems unlikely considering the extent of the injury and the tourniquet use (which can "kill" the leg below the tourniquet), and has no calf. I find it difficult to believe that she would be able to walk without a severely pronounced limp, considering that nearly all of the muscles that assist us in walking are found in said calf. But Quinn's limp is barely mentioned, and only when she is tired. I think she'd be barely able to walk without assistance or a crutch of some sort.

Still, the novella itself is a good read, if you're looking for a romance that isn't too deep. There were a few instances where I found myself laughing aloud - particularly all interactions with Allie's Aunt Marge, who was pretty darned awesome.… (altro)