Hooked on You by Kathleen Fuller Review

Good Morning Friends :)

I hope your week is off to a great start, and I want to thank you all for joining me (Kirby) here on The Preppy Book Princess for another book review.

I've found the last few days to be especially hard. I mentioned in my last post that our government has added further restrictions that we are not allowed to visit with other households outside our own, and I've been struggling a little bit with loneliness. My hubby has been working a lot of extra hours, and I've been spending a lot of time by myself which can get to be a bit too much somedays. I appreciate having some quiet time to myself to spend more time with Jesus, but it still starts to feel lonely somedays.

Other than spending time with Jesus, I've been finding a lot of comfort in cooking, and baking, as I love doing both and my kitchen is always one of my favorite places to be. I've also been trying to go to my favorite park at least once a day to take a walk on one of the beautiful walking trails, and this has been such a huge help as I love getting exercise outdoors. The past few days I've turned to listening to audiobooks while doing so, and this has definitely become my new favorite thing. I often like to turn to Christmas stories or fall themed stories when I'm having a rough week, and I've been loving listening to a Christmas or fall themed audiobook on the Libby app on my phone while walking beside beautiful nature.

How have you been handling everything lately? Is there anything you've found that brings you comfort?

All of that is a bit of a long winded intro, but I'm happy to share my review of an upcoming book release with you all today. I hope you all enjoy.

Hooked on You by Kathleen Fuller:

 Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publication Date: May 11th, 2021

Genre: Christian Fiction/Contemporary

Series: Maple Falls

Synopsis:

When her grandmother injures herself sliding into third base, Riley McAllister must return to her small hometown to help run the family yarn store in this sweet, lighthearted romantic comedy.

Riley McAllister left the small Arkansas town of Maple Falls after graduating high school, hoping to make it big in New York as a mixed media artist. She’s still pursuing her dream when her grandmother begs her to come home and help her manage the store while she recovers from a broken leg she got after sliding into third base during a church softball game (she was safe, by the way). Riley agrees, planning to convince her grandmother to sell the old shop and retire so Riley can get back to the big city. New York is where she belongs, not some hick town that doesn’t even have a decent coffee shop.

Hayden Price’s life hasn’t turned out as he expected either. He still works in the hardware store his family has owned for several generations after his chance to make it out of Maple Falls ended when he blew out his pitching arm during a minor league game. Stuck with debt from college and a broken engagement, he decides to make the best of things when he comes back to Maple Falls and puts together the town’s first church softball team--with him as coach, of course.

Riley and Hayden went to high school together but ran in totally different circles. In fact, it’s safe to say they hated each other. Will that change when the softball team unexpectedly brings them together? Or will the pain and disappointment of their past failures keep them from discovering love in Maple Falls?

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

I was really looking forward to reading this one. The cover is downright adorable. I loved the premise of a woman having to return to the hometown she vowed never to see again, and I'm usually all about small town, Christian contemporary romances. While I appreciated that it's sweet, quirky and a pretty quick read to get through, I have to be honest and say that it wasn't quite what I was expecting, and I didn't end up enjoying it as much as I expected to.

On the surface, it had everything I usually love in a story. However, as I got further and further into it, I kept feeling like something was missing. I never really connected with either of the main characters, and in fact, Riley was pretty much just grating on my nerves for most of the story. I also never really got that invested in the story, and I didn't really find myself feeling for anything that was happening throughout the entirety of the story.

The climax was built up for quite awhile, and yet when it happens it kind of felt like it was all resolved trim and tidy, without really making me feel like anything had ever truly been resolved.

That being said, I did still think this was a cute read, and I'm honestly looking forward to the rest of the series. One of the things that did stand out to me with this one was the secondary cast of characters, especially Harper, Olivia and Anita, and so I'm very much looking forward to them hopefully getting their own stories in the future.

Overall, this was a sweet, enjoyable read but isn't my favorite by this author, and I don't think it will be a reread for me. If you enjoy small town romances that are clean and cutesy, then you should definitely go ahead and check this one out.

Final Rating: 3/5.

Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks so much for reading guys! I hope you all have a great rest of your day :)