Stevie‘s review of Can’t Escape Love (Reluctant Royals, Book 3.5) by Alyssa Cole
Contemporary Romance published by Avon Impulse 19 Mar 19
I enjoyed the first novel and novella in this series and, although I was disappointed by the plot of the second novel, I found the characters in that one engaging too. This time we’re spending time with the twin sister of that novel’s heroine, who has already been around to provide help and support, albeit mostly virtually and from a distance, along with a new-to-us character for her hero.
Reggie Hobbes has always been viewed by their parents as the dedicated and stable twin in contrast to her sister’s apparent flakiness and inability to settle on any one project for long. A wheelchair user following a childhood illness, Reggie has always pushed herself hard to succeed, and feels that her parents shower her with favouritism while overlooking traits in her that they highlight and disapprove of in her sister. Having left her job in parents’ business to set up on her own, Reggie has created a thriving online media presence doing what she loves across a wide range of geekdoms. Success has brought many rewards, including Reggie’s fancy house and a stable of wheelchairs to suit different activities, but it also brings stress as Reggie worries about failure. Right now her biggest worry is her inability to sleep, which makes her concerned about making mistakes, which causes yet more bouts of insomnia, and so on.
In the past, Reggie found that she slept better after watching a livestream of a puzzle enthusiast talking about his hobby, then, when that ended, listening to the recordings. With the recordings no longer online, Reggie is forced to reach out to their creator, tracked down by her sister, to ask him to make new recordings just for her.
Gustave Nguyen is taken aback when the one subscriber to his former livestream gets in touch and confused to learn that she never particularly shared his interest in obscure puzzles. Although he’s unwilling to record his voice for her, he agrees to talk to her, if that will help. In the course of their discussions, they learn that Gus’ latest project is to build an escape room based on Reggie’s favourite anime series. Soon, they find themselves meeting up to discuss how Gus can make a puzzle both he as a puzzle fan and Reggie as an anime fan can be utterly happy with.
While I loved both characters and found their interactions charming – even when they were awkward at times – I felt a little short-changed by the novella format. This story also takes place in the same timeline as the second novel in the series, so at times events from that influenced this one in a way I found slightly confusing and that may not have been easily followed by readers who had not picked that one up first. All that said, I do have a fondness for this series, and suspect the next novel is going to be more along the lines of what I’m looking for.
Grade: B
Summary:
Regina Hobbs is nerdy by nature, businesswoman by nurture. She’s finally taking her pop culture-centered media enterprise, Girls with Glasses, to the next level, but the stress is forcing her to face a familiar supervillain: insomnia. The only thing that helps her sleep when things get this bad is the deep, soothing voice of puzzle-obsessed live streamer Gustave Nguyen. The problem? His archive has been deleted.
Gus has been tasked with creating an escape room themed around a romance anime…except he knows nothing about romance or anime. Then mega-nerd and anime expert Reggie comes calling, and they make a trade: his voice for her knowledge. But when their online friendship has IRL chemistry, will they be able to escape love?
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
