Say You Still Love Me by K. A. Tucker

To be published on Augst 6, 2019 by Atria Books. Thanks to the publisher for giving me an advance copy for review.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Piper Calloway is a twenty-nine-year-old VP at her dad’s multibillion-dollar real estate development firm, and living the high single life with her two best friends in a swanky downtown penthouse. On the other hand, she’s considered a pair of sexy legs in a male-dominated world and constantly has to prove her worth. Plus she’s stuck seeing her narcissistic ex-fiancé—a fellow VP—on the other side of her glass office wall every day. Things get exponentially more complicated for Piper when she runs into Kyle Miller—the handsome new security guard at Calloway Group, and the first love of her life. The guy she hasn’t seen or heard from since they were summer camp counselors together. The guy from the wrong side of the tracks. The guy who apparently doesn’t even remember her name.

Review: Say You Still Love Me

I’ve thought some of K.A. Tucker’s books were really great (like Burying Water) while others (the Ten Tiny Breaths series) were a little too over the top on the angst front for me. 

Say You Still Love Me fell somewhere in the middle for me, both in angst level and in how much I liked it. A mash-up of Dirty Dancing (girl at summer camp defies rich father to romance a blue collar guy) and The Parent Trap (camp hijinks and divorced parents) sounds like something I’d love, but this story was more predictable than I hoped.

The storyline switched between a summer camp romance in the past and a second chance at love story in the present. Points for mashing up two great romance scenarios!

In the past, Piper is a rich girl who falls for a wrong side of the tracks guy. In the present, she has a an overbearing rich father, an absent shopaholic mother, a vain, douchey ex, and a preppy, golf-obsessed colleague who she thinks is out to make her look bad at work. On the positive side, she also has her two BFFs from camp days who live in the huge apartment her father gave her, a donut-loving security guard. But then that gorgeous wrong-side-of-the-tracks former boyfriend pops up out of nowhere.

I’m crazy about second chance at love stories so I think my main obstacle to loving this was Piper. In the present day, she’s pretty annoyingly perfect. She was constantly describing what she was wearing and damn, did she think she looked good. She thought a lot about how her dresses were tight in a way that flattered her toned arms and slender curves. What made it worse was that Piper had a history of being pretty unkind when evaluating other women. She literally says that one of her best friends is “afflicted” with a “thick layer of brown freckles” (huh?) and the other is “stocky” but makes the best of it (yikes!) 

I’m also all for a rich girl/boy from the wrong side of the tracks story and I did like Kyle. But since Piper got much less relatable as she got older, that made it hard for me to root for these two or see them as an ideal match.

I can see that others on my Goodreads timeline have loved this, so you should definitely make up your own mind. I remain a fan of K.A.T. but I’m going to go read Burying Water #2 as I think I never got to that one!

Have you read this? What did you think??

Yay for a new London Celebrities book – these books definitely have a familiar formula, but it’s a good one. How did this installment rank for me? Find out below!

The Austen Playbook (London Celebrities #4) by Lucy Parker

Published on April 22, 2019 by Carina Press

Thanks to the publisher for providing me a review copy!

Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: Freddy Carlton knows she should be focusing on her lines, but her concentration’s been blown. The palatial estate housing the endeavor is now run by the rude (brilliant) critic who’s consistently slammed her performances of late. James “Griff” Ford-Griffin has a penchant for sarcasm, a majestic nose and all the sensitivity of a sledgehammer. Griff can hardly focus with a contagious joy fairy flitting about near him, especially when Freddy looks at him like that. His only concern right now should be on the production (not this one) that might save his family home from the banks. Instead all he can think of is soft skin and vibrant curls. As he’s reluctantly dragged into her quest to rediscover her passion for the stage and Freddy is drawn into his research on a legendary theater star, the adage about appearances being deceiving proves abundantly true. It’s the unlikely start of something enormous…but a single revelation about the past could derail it all.

Review: The Austen Playbook

I’m always a fan of the London Celebrities books. I love London. I love that the books are set in the theatre world. I love the formula of the books, which typically feature a brooding, formidable, powerful guy who is annoyed by (but of course falls in love with) a spontaneous, spirited woman. (Sounds a bit like Pride and Prejudice now that I think about it…)

Though this book is called The Austen Playbook, don’t worry if you’ve never read an Austen book. It did (I think) feature little Easter Eggs for those who are familiar with Austen (and especially Pride and Prejudice) but the actual play, a live action mash-up version of Austen’s books, doesn’t feature that heavily in the story.

The way that Freddy and Griff meet, though, is pure P & P, complete with an eavesdropping scene in which she and her sister overhear Griff insulting her. I also thought there was a bit of homage to Austen in a subplot about a certain character who falls in love with a complete cad, and the fact that the production of the Austen Playbook felt a bit like a giant house party.

I did I like the romance between Freddy and Griff and as a huge fan of hate-to-love stories, I appreciate that the London Celebrities books usually have that type of romance. But I also felt that the transition from hate to love felt a little … sudden? I didn’t feel that I really came to understand what Freddy saw in Griff except that he infuriated her and that he was cute. (I did laugh at the Draco Malfoy jokes, though.) I also felt that the rather substantial subplot about Freddy and Griff’s family history (her grandmother had an affair with his grandfather) really bogged the story down at times. I would have rather that the story stuck more to the present, and paid more attention to the slowly smoldering passion between Griff and Freddy, rather than having it transition suddenly from cold logs to a raging fire.

I am excited that Freddy’s sister Sabrina will get her own book and that means that we’ll get to peek in on how Freddy and Griff are doing. Overall, a big fan of this series. Pretty Face is still my favorite. Am not sure if I like this more or less than Act Like It – maybe I’ll have to re-read and decide!

Have you read any of these books? Talk to me in comments!