AUTHOR: Annie Dean
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 81k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $6.99
Travel writer Ellie Campbell made a bet with her best friend that she could write something interesting. The result was a sales pitch to her agent for a book called, “The Average Girl’s Guide to Getting Laid.” Now, however, Ellie has to actually write the book, and the problem is, she has no idea where to start. In a deli in
If I didn’t think it before, I do now. Annie Dean is officially on my auto-buy list. Of course, it looks like she’s moving into print, so I’m going to have to rely on Amazon to buy her stuff, but kudos to her. With an original voice and interesting characters that ring of truth, she’s got a real career in front of her.
In spite of my huge enjoyment for the author's voice, however, I was a little apprehensive going in to this book. Frankly, I get tired of seeing blurbs that look like excuses to have lots of sex, and there are a lot of them out there. There’s a time and place for those kind of stories, and I do get in the mood for them, but most of the time, I want a plot that doesn’t have anything to do at all with needing to have so much sex in a specific time period, or proving a point by having sex with the one you shouldn’t, or sexbots gone wild. The initial angle of this plot was more of the same – and a good part of the early to middle conflict – but an interesting development occurred.
I fell in love with Ash.
There. I admitted it. By halfway through the book, I would have gladly stepped up to the plate to fill in for Ellie when she was being a total boob about the whole situation. My heart broke when his did, I got frustrated with him, I felt it all. I know that he’s the type of character that would annoy some women I know. Frankly, he exudes player vibes more than once in the story, not to mention that he’s a tad on the rude and abrupt side when he thinks he’s losing control. But getting to see him in a wide variety of settings, from work to his family to his friends to Ellie, created a rounder picture that had me okay with some of his less than desirable characteristics. They made me understand those behaviors. Even better, he showed growth as the story progressed. And did I mention he was hot as hell?
Ellie, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as appealing to me. Her whole Earth Mother routine got a little too heavyhanded for me after a while. It’s really no wonder Ash falls for her. She waits on him hand and foot. She cooks, she cleans, she puts his needs first, she’s sexually open. Why shouldn’t he want this woman in his life? Oh, that’s right. She’s supposed to be the average woman. Um…no. Didn’t buy it. She did everything just a little too well for me to believe that.
I probably didn’t like her as much, either, because I thought some of her behavior – with her “work” as her so-called defense – was childish. Deserting Ash in the middle of a baseball game to chat up a guy for a few innings in the name of research? She deserved everything she got after that.
Still, when the ending rolled around, I had the biggest smile on my face that I’ve had in a very long time as a result of an e-book. It was romantic, completely in character, and made me melt. A tremendously satisfying read.
| Readability | 9/10 – Sharp dialogue, great description, highly readable |
| Hero | 10/10 – Some people might have issues with some of his occasional boorish tendencies, but I haven’t loved a hero this much in a long time |
| Heroine | 6/10 – The earth mother routine gets a little old, as does her constant complaining about being average when I don’t really believe it |
| Entertainment value | 9/10 – Completely caught me up, and the ending had me giddy for a good hour after I finished |
| World building | 9/10 – Dean’s prose and attention to detail makes even the mundane stand out. |
| TOTAL: | 43/50 |
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