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Book CoverStevie‘s review of Thrown for a Curve (Perfect Fit Series, Book 2) by Sugar Jamison
Contemporary Romance published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks 25 Feb 14

I wanted to like this book, I really did, and it had some good points: mostly in the form of the heroine’s grandmother and their dog in the first part of the book and then the hero’s father towards the end. However, I failed to warm to either of the main characters, and the series of external conflicts they faced just seemed to be piled on one after the other for no good reason. On top of which, there was a series of Big Misunderstandings, all of which could have been fixed by hero and heroine talking to each other like grown-ups.

Cherri (short for Charlotte, apparently) Rudy is a big girl, which in this context appears to mean tall and proportioned accordingly. She thinks her bum’s big and that her breasts are on the large size, but there’s no real indication that she’s overweight rather than an acceptably healthy weight for her height. She works in the plus-size dress shop run by her friends, while caring for the grandmother who raised her, while dreaming of getting a job that uses her fine art degree, but that doesn’t involve a long commute in case her grandmother needs her during the day. So far, so good, I suppose.

Cherri has a massive crush on Colin, the best friend of her boss’s husband, but is certain he’ll never take any notice of her due to his being twelve years older than her and very experienced (i.e. a total and utter womaniser). Colin gets Cherri out of a number of scrapes caused mostly by her grandmother or their dog, but she assumes that’s because he thinks of her as a little sister rather than because he fancies her. Eventually they get together, but Cherri convinces herself that it’s a one-off event (without a lot of evidence either way).

And then we have a whole series of disasters, punctuated by Cherri half-heartedly attempting to be an independent woman but instead turning into more and more of a wimp. Having decided that Colin’s too old for her early in the book, she then goes out on a disastrous date with someone who’s another eight years older again. She wants to work with Colin in his furniture renovation business, then she doesn’t, then she does again. And all the while both are making assumptions about the other while not revealing their own feelings at all.

I persevered to the end, and the background characters saved this one from being a total failure, although I’m getting a little tired of books in which bad things happen to heroines’ grandparents, but I have no desire to read any others in the series. A shame, because I generally like romance with well-proportioned heroines as well as stories in which a group of friends run a business together, and this series seems on the surface to promise both in droves.

Stevies CatGrade: D

Summary:

WHEN YOU’RE A big girl

Cherri has often wished she were thin and graceful like a ballerina instead of being a six-foot-tall blonde with curves that require serious caution. Surely a charming Irishman like her new boss Colin, with his throaty brogue and to-die-for bod, would never go for someone like Cherri. Unless maybe he’s looking for the exact opposite of a delicate lass?

there’s more of you to love

When Colin hired Cherri to work in his furniture-restoration shop, he had his eyes, first and foremost, on her artistic talents. But now he can’t help but see Cherri for the lush, spirited beauty that she is…and, soon enough, he finds himself mixing business with pleasure. But Cherri turns out to be more vulnerable than she appears. Is she in need of more than Colin can give? Or could it be that a feeling stronger than lust has him thrown for a curve?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:
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