I'm going to start by emphasising that I really enjoyed O'Shea's Rock Bay series. Those are solid contemporary romances, which work well within the usual formula. I like things which do exactly what they set out to do and do it well. This one sounded as good - teacher protagonists, childhood sweethearts negotiating adult relationships, just enough conflict to make it sound interesting. It sounded like a perfect rainy Sunday book.Instead, it kept disappointing. This felt like it would have been a short story if the characters had been allowed to finish a conversation. Every time they started to talk about their issues (the usual stuff: teenage jock boy pretended not to know geek boy boyfriend, relationship crashed and burned, geek boy still holds grudge as adult, jock boy pines) the conversation just stopped. There wasn't even the usual sort of convenient interruption. They just kept wandering off in different directions mid-conversation for no reason except to prolong the conflict and make the book a bit longer. All this, whilst they were sharing a bed, but not managing to mention all the feels they were supposedly having.Besides that, the characterisation was paper-thin. All I learnt about young Rory was that he had shiny hair, lived next door, and Ben fancied him. Given the whole emotional arc of the book rested on their history, some sort of vague character sketch beyond that would have been helpful.So, points for writing about teachers in a way that didn't make me want to stab someone. Minus points for author plot manipulation completely unsuspending any disbelied I might have. Reunited lovers stories don't always work for me and this one was a bit hit or miss. From the blurb, I didn't think I would like Ben since it was his fault that the relationship fell apart. However, Ben was the point of view character in this story and I actually really liked him. He and Rory were adorable as kids/teens and he was really likeable as an adult - the book conveniently skipped over the time when he actually dumped Rory, so I never really saw him as an asshole. Rory, on the other hand, was kind of a jerk as an adult. I forgave Ben pretty easily because everyone gets peer pressured into stupid things in high school, but Rory was being awful to Ben when they were adults and I just didn't see why. I think I would have been a lot more sympathetic towards Rory if I'd had his point of view on anything. Despite not really liking Rory much and not really understanding why him and Ben got back together, I still enjoyed this and thought it was pretty cute. There was lots of cuddling and I LOVE cuddling so that made me really happy. And I got some really good feels from Ben, so I am happy.
Do You like book Newton's Laws Of Attraction (2013)?
You know this is going to be cuteness personified.
—ash
