Veena’s review of I Saw Her Standing There (Green Mountain, Book 3) by Marie Force
Contemporary Romance published by Berkley 4 Nov 14
From the first book in the series I fell in love with Vermont ala Marie Force, as well as the adorable Abbott family. I am disappointed to report that Colton’s story, which I was so looking forward to, misses the high mark set by the earlier two stories in the series. Perhaps Hannah’s book set the bar so high it’s a hard act to follow, and even in this one the scenes with Hannah and Nolan and their wedding day make me tear up…
Colton, for all that he’s been portrayed as the rough mountain man, comes across as a total jock. He has all these cute girls showing up at his mountain cabin bringing him food and displaying their wares. It seems obvious that he hasn’t been averse to taking advantage of the bounty thrust in his direction in the past. To give him credit, he’s definitely a one-woman guy once he’s found Lucy, though he’s not averse to taking advantage of the gifts of food his admirers bring his way. Lucy, however, can definitely hold her own against all the beauteous bunnies, especially when she alludes to a possible accident that’s left Colton unable to perform.
The story gets off to a great start as Colton heads off to the family lake house for an uninterrupted weekend of romance with his lady love. We get a glimpse of the back story of the courtship before the cat is let out of the bag, when their beautiful idyll is interrupted by Will and Cameron. A disgruntled Colton picks up stakes and heads for his mountain aerie in an attempt to salvage his disrupted weekend, only to find his parents enjoying a rare moment of solitude there. It seems for all his attempts to keep his affairs private, they are definitely public now, especially since he’s forced to take Lucy to a family dinner that evening. This is such a great start and had me laughing right off the bat, as I settled in for another great episode in the series. But the promise remained unfulfilled as the story continued.
I don’t care for Lucy when she is so against her best friend settling in the wilds of Vermont, and even if she seems somewhat personable in the early part of this book, any warming is definitely doused by her defeatist attitude in this one. It is clear that Lucy and Colton would need to work out challenges in their path to true romance, given the geographic distance and other constraints, but Lucy just doesn’t even want to try to find a solution. She’s willing to walk away from a rare love without even trying. Her attitude totally irritates me. Colton, on the other hand, for all that he’s spent his entire life on the mountain and doesn’t have the education to move into a life in the big city, searches for a way to bridge the gaps and find a way to create a sustainable long-term relationship.
I definitely never got what the story with the sex toys is other than to fill some pages in the book and to give Colton an excuse to get his libido revved up and make him act like an oversexed teenager. With the trend in more erotic love stories, it just seems like every author wants to insert some of the more erotic elements. Sometimes it fits and enhances the story, but in this case it falls flat, in my opinion.
Hannah’s wedding is a beautiful interlude in this story, and it makes me teary eyed and all choked up bringing in all the feeling that her original book evoked. While I love the diary entries in Hannah’s story in how well it brought in her back story and her romance with her first husband, Colton’s sugaring journal just does not have the same impact. Perhaps I am being overcritical with this one, but I definitely hope that we can go back to the style that made this series a “must” read when it kicked off.
Grade: C+
Summary:
There’s a budding romance on Butler Mountain, but in the hornets’ nest known as the Abbott family, keeping a secret is no easy feat…
Colton Abbott and Lucy Mulvaney have a secret. Colton’s nosy siblings have begun to put the pieces together, but it’s not like Lucy to keep things from those closest to her—especially her best friend, Cameron, who recently moved to Vermont to live with her true love, Will. But Lucy isn’t about to tell Cam she’s having a fling…with Will’s brother.
Flitting between New York and Vermont is exhausting, so Lucy is looking forward to a long weekend with Colton at the Abbott family lake house in Burlington. Too bad Will and Cameron have the same idea, and once Colton and Lucy are caught red-handed (and red-faced), will their clandestine romance lose its appeal or will their secret beginnings be the start of something lasting?]
Other books in this series:
