Happy Monday Friends :)
I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you for joining me today here on The Preppy Book Princess.
I apologize for my absence over the last week. Unfortunately, the last week in June is notoriously always the absolute busiest week of the year for me at work, and I just didn't have time to keep up with blogging around the craziness that came my way.
Now that this horrible week is finally over, I'm excited to hop right back into book blogging, and today's post is for the fourth and final title in a sweet, contemporary romance series.
If you'd like to check my reviews of the first three books in the series, you can do so using the links below:
Otherwise, keep on reading down below for today's full review.
Two to Tango by Kathleen Fuller:
Source: Complimentary Copy Provided by the Publisher
Publication Date: July 11th, 2023
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Sweet Romance/Christian Fiction
Series: Maple Falls
Synopsis:
When career-driven Olivia Farnsworth and Kingston Bedford refuse to act on their obvious chemistry, the town of Maple Falls schemes to pair the two up—and dance their way to another happy ending.
Olivia Farnsworth always has a plan and knows just what she likes. She likes her job as head librarian. She likes spending time with her aunt Bea and with her close-knit group of friends. She likes attending the cinema’s monthly Vintage Movie Night. What she does not like is stepping outside her comfort zone.
But when Kingston Bedford, her best friend’s older brother, runs into her at the movies, that’s exactly what she does. She takes a chance on the gorgeous pediatrician she’s known her whole life—only to crash land her way into heartache. Twice. One year later, she’s determined to avoid him forever. Aunt Bea and her meddlesome gal pals, however, have other ideas. Plans that begin with ballroom dancing lessons . . . and end with one of the Bosom Buddies getting a taste of her own matchmaking medicine.
Kingston never thought he’d be utterly alone—as his mother put it—in his thirties. But somehow, he’s let his life spiral out of control. His career has taken over, leaving no time for romance. That is, until his clinic forces him to take a two-month sabbatical. But is it too late to start over with the girl he can’t get off his mind?
Luckily, the scheming town of Maple Falls is once again ready to help make sparks fly.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
Kathleen Fuller's Maple Falls series has been kind of hit or miss for me, as while I didn't end up enjoying the first two titles in the series as much I'd expected to, I thought the third title was a wonderful romance, which ended up being a pleasant surprise. I was hopeful this one would end up being another lovely addition to the series, especially since the synopsis sounded sweet and charming.
I usually love titles that have a "bookish" element, so the fact that Olivia was the town's librarian already had this one moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, her character wasn't exactly what I was expecting or hoping for, and she was kind of hard to relate to, and slightly unlikeable. Kingston wasn't a character I ended up enjoying either, especially since he often seemed scatterbrained, and completely out of touch with reality. While the romance could have been swoon worthy and adorable, instead it reads as insta-love, and even more precisely, insta-lust, and I had a hard time believing their feelings developed as fast as they did. Without giving spoilers away, I also felt a lot of the drama that existed between the two of them over the issues in their relationship seemed blown out of proportion, and all could have been resolved if they'd simply taken the time to truly talk things out. However, this book also includes a wonderful romance between two of the older residents of Maple Falls, and that one I wholeheartedly enjoyed, and was more than happy with how it wrapped up.
All in all, it was nice to get one last visit to the (fictional) town of Maple Falls, but I have to say that this series overall has been a miss for me. While the setting is lovely, many of the characters are a hoot, and they all have a really great plot set up, the execution generally ends up feeling to me like something is missing by the end of the story, and that was the case again here. Also, I really wish that books marketed as "Christian" fiction would actually have a faith element included, instead of just a few superficial mentions of attending church.
Final Rating: 3/5.
A cute romance that stays fairly clean, but with a disjointed plotline and characters that were unlikeable and unrelatable, I don't foresee myself rereading this one again in the future.
Thanks so much to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this one!
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Thomas Nelson) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and this is my honest review.
Thanks so much for reading guys! I pray the Lord works in each of your lives in amazing ways this week, and I look forward to sharing another review with you all on Wednesday.
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