All at Once by Lindsay Harrel Review

 Hello Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, then welcome back! If this is your first, Hi!! I'm Kirby, and I'm so thankful you decided to stop by.

I tend to be one of those readers who has a ton of favorite authors, and Lindsay Harrel is definitely one of those. I've loved her previous Christian fiction titles, and I was excited to dive into her newish contemporary romance series, the Walker Beach Romance series.

These books came highly recommended, and today I'm here to share with you all my review of the prequel novella.

Keep reading below for my full review.

All at Once by Lindsay Harrel:

Source: Free Digital Download Promotion

Publisher: Blue Aster Press

Publication: 2022

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Series: Walker Beach Romance

Synopsis:

She loved him once—and he broke her heart.

Letting herself fall again would just be foolish.

When Gabrielle and Tyler are paired together as leaders for a weeklong kids summer camp, they interact for the first time in a decade—and she realizes the immature boy who left so long ago has become a man.

A very muscular, all-too-handsome man who still has the ability to make her swoon.

But no matter how much chemistry between them, the problem remains—Tyler lives three thousand miles away in New York City, where he runs a nonprofit he’s passionate about.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle’s heart is rooted in their small hometown of Walker Beach, California, where she takes care of the only family she’s got left.

It seems the only answer is to buckle down, ignore the sparks between them—and simply survive the week.

If only they could get their traitorous hearts on board

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

I basically knew two things going into All at Once: it's a second chance romance, and it's written by Lindsay Harrel. Those two things were enough for me to expect to love this one, and while I definitely did enjoy certain parts of it, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I've read and loved Lindsay's previous Christian fiction titles, and I was excited to see how she was going to go about writing her first contemporary romance series. I enjoyed the set up of this one being a second chance romance, and largely focused around a charity camp that tries to provide a safe place for children who haven't had as many advantages as some of their peers. The town of Walker Beach was a beautiful setting, and I'm really looking forward to continuing on with the series, and seeing the town be the backdrop of more stories. I also really enjoyed a couple of the secondary characters mentioned throughout this one, and I'm looking forward to them hopefully getting their own stories in the future. I always appreciate when an author can tackle deep issues like mental illness in a way that comes across as both realistic, and authentic, and I applaud Lindsay for managing to do so in this one. 

However, there were quite a few elements of this one that I wasn't expecting, and I can't say I ended up loving it. First off, while I know this is definitely not targeted as Christian fiction, faith played such a big role in many of Lindsay's previous stories, that I really wasn't expecting it to be almost non-existent in this one. I also can't say that I really enjoyed either Gabrielle or Tyler as characters. While I definitely sympathized with the hardships Gabrielle has had to endure, I found that I really couldn't understand why she chooses to make many of the choices she does. Likewise, Tyler acts extremely self centered for a large portion of the story, and I never really found myself warming up to him.

Honestly though, my biggest pet peeve with the entire story was the romance itself. Whenever I pick up a novella, I'm honestly not expecting that much from the romance because I understand that it's often hard to write a realistic, well paced romance in the word count they're working with. However, this one heavily felt like insta love, and honestly, insta lust, and I quickly grew tired of the many descriptions of how good looking Gabrielle was in her revealing clothes, and the many racier liplocks between the two. I also wasn't that impressed that two camp counselors were leaving their campers unattended to sneak off for alone time together.

Overall, I did enjoy this one, and as always, I loved Lindsay's writing style, and found myself moving through it quite quickly. However, I did definitely have some issues with it, and it wasn't quite the story I was expecting. I am still looking forward to continuing on with the series though, and I hope to do so shortly.

Final Rating: 3/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.