Going with Gravity by Cate Masters

TITLE: Going with Gravity
AUTHOR: Cate Masters
PUBLISHER: Wild Rose Press
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 17k)
GENRE: Contemporary romance
COST: $3.50

Publicist Allison Morris gets a midnight call from the partying actress she represents, necessitating an emergency trip to Hawaii. On the plane ride, she meets surfer Wes Hamilton, and feels an instant attraction. But when the plane is forced to make an emergency landing, their relationship takes on another turn, all the way until Allison’s job rears its ugly head again…

A lot of these short contemporary romances that I get, very often from Wild Rose Press, are what I consider reading snacks. They satisfy an immediate need, but there’s often not anything special about it at all. In fact, these are the hardest reviews to write, because often there’s not anything specifically wrong about these stories to point a finger at and say, “That’s why I didn’t enjoy it.” Too many times, though, there’s just not anything outstanding about it, either. This is one of those stories.

The story opens with Allison getting woken up from a night’s sleep by her incredibly needy employer. Michelle, the actress for whom she works, is always getting into trouble and needs spin put on a lot of situations. She’s also blind to everything Allison does for her, with high expectations and offering low rewards. It’s easy to feel sorry for Allison for working for such a witch, but at the same time, I have to wonder why, if she’s so good at what she does, she puts up with it. It makes her feel like a doormat, which is never a great way to make me like a heroine.

Things pick up a little when she meets Wes. Wes is gorgeous, charming, and on the surface, not her type, but the chemistry feels genuine and it’s easy to go along for the ride. Wes doesn’t feel like a real character until far too late in the story, instead epitomizing the perfect man for the time she needs him to be. It’s all right for the length of the story, but it holds it back from making me truly engage with the romance of it. His character also adds to the whole muddled feeling of the ending. Questions are raised once he’s in Hawaii (like what the heck really is the deal between him and his brother?) and never answered, as well as the whole resolution with Michelle. It makes the story feel half-baked at the finish. Pleasant, but nothing I’ll remember.

Readability	7/10 – Clean, easy, believable, though it fell apart toward the end
Hero	5/10 – Charming, but felt a little too perfect and one-dimensional for any real emotional depth
Heroine	6/10 – I liked how professionally with it she seemed, though it weakened when the hero got involved.
Entertainment value	5/10 – Pleasant and diverting for what it is
World building	7/10 – Some nice details about their lives and Hawaii, but there are a lot of questions left unanswered that bring it down
TOTAL:	30/50