Sandy M’s review of When August Ends by Penelope Ward
Contemporary Romance published by Penelope Ward Books 23 Feb 19
I’ve not read Penelope Ward before. I decided to try this book mostly because our own Kristie J loves Ms. Ward’s works. The blurb played a little part in my decision, but when I actually got started reading, the story, in the long run, just didn’t work for me.
Heather has been running the family B&B because her mother suffers from mental illness and her father left them years before. She put all her dreams on hold, and while she doesn’t mind helping out, she still wants more in life – she’s only twenty years old. Noah is renting from them for the summer, going back to his life when August ends. Heather is immediately attracted to him, but Noah, of course, knows he’s too old for her.
All sounds good so far, but to me the characters had too much contradiction going on. Heather runs the business like a seasoned pro and she even finally confronts Noah with her attraction and handles his rejection quite well. But, on the other hand, just when in my mind she’s more grown up than her years, she does something that throws that thought across the wind. Noah, for his part, tells both himself and Heather he not interested, mostly because of the age difference, but he’ll also be gone soon. So a fling isn’t in the cards. Good for him…except he turns around after saying such things and his thoughts are full of Heather, what he’d like to do to her and all that goes with it.
Even after all of this, I wanted to keep reading at that point. I wanted to find out what it is Noah is running from and, of course, how the author would finally bring these two together and make it work. It was going well when the scenes involving Heather’s father came along. I like that Noah butted in, because that man shouldn’t call himself a father. But after Heather has a dream where she talks in her sleep and Noah is witness to that, I just called it quits. That’s a plot device I don’t like and it just read plain old stupid while giving Noah ideas he doesn’t need. So I gave up.
Because Kristie does think so highly of this author, I may try her again in the future when another of her books catches my eye. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt that this just isn’t the place I should have started for reading her for the first time.
Grade: DNF
Summary:
What do you do when a sexy, older man moves into your family’s summer rental?
Well, apparently, you make a fool of yourself–over and over. Things didn’t exactly get off on the right foot with Noah Cavallari. Our first encounter was embarrassing, to say the least.
But despite that, I found myself waking up every day with a newfound energy. Nothing exciting ever happened on the lake–not until Noah moved into the small boathouse on our property. He’d booked it for the entire summer…and I was still trying to figure out why.
When my mother became ill, I inherited the responsibility of making sure our guests were well taken care of. I should have been finishing up college. Instead, I was living my best life…as a maid.
Dark, handsome, and mysterious, everything about Noah screamed forbidden.
I knew he was just passing through town for the summer.
I knew he was probably a little old for me.
Yet, I was drawn to him.
Not to mention, he tried to save my life when he mistakenly thought I was drowning.
I wanted him and made no secret of it.
His own attempts to warn me away soon gave way to late-night moonlight chats by the lake. We were slowly easing into a friendship that was gearing up to explode into something I might not recover from.
Because he’s leaving at the end of the summer.
And I have no idea what I’ll do when August ends.
No excerpt available.
