Welcome to my tour stop for Must Love Otters by Eliza Gordon. This is an adult romantic comedy and the tour runs February 24th- March 7th and will consist of reviews, guest posts, interviews and more. You can find the full schedule on the tour page.
Must Love Otters
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | iBookstoreHollie Porter is the chairwoman of Generation Disillusioned: at twenty-five years old, she’s saddled with a job she hates, a boyfriend who’s all wrong for her, and a vexing inability to say no. She’s already near her breaking point, so when one caller too many kicks the bucket during Hollie’s 911 shift, she cashes in the Sweethearts’ Spa & Stay gift certificate from her dad and heads to Revelation Cove, British Columbia. One caveat: she’s going solo. Any sweethearts will have to be found on site.
Hollie hopes to find her beloved otters in the wilds of the Great White North, but instead she’s providing comic relief for staff and guests alike. Even Concierge Ryan, a former NHL star with bad knees and broken dreams, can’t stop her from stumbling from one (mis)adventure to another. Just when Hollie starts to think that a change of venue doesn’t mean a change in circumstances, the island works its charm and she starts to think she might have found the rejuvenation she so desperately desires. But then an uninvited guest crashes the party, forcing her to step out of the discomfort zone where she dwells and save the day … and maybe even herself in the process.
Review
This book was highly recommended to me and I can see why everyone would feel the need to pass it along. It does have some pretty funny parts where I would find myself giggling at the series of unfortunate events that Hollie was put through. I am going to be honest, though. There were aspects I highly enjoyed, but there were also some aspects I did not care too much for.
I shall start with the positive.
I. loved. Ryan. Not only is his name sexy (Ryan's of the world unite!), but he is funny, sensitive, hot, muscly, imperfect, sarcastic, loves to tease, and has a cute grin. That man? I would run away to Canada to be with that man. Yes, he could be a jerk, but his heart was always in the right place. He always put others before himself, he just did it in a fun and entertaining way. Who says you can't be both a gentleman and a teasing cad. ;) His flirting and joking just made my heart sigh. Yep, he was a keeper. Ugh, I just keep thinking of his antics and it makes me want to giggle. Dang it, girl, control yourself.
The animals in the book were awesome. I have always been an avid lover of animals. I would watch animal planet for hours just soaking up all the interesting facts and admiring all of the earth's beautiful creatures. Yes, I am an animal nerd. So the aspects of the book that involved the killer whales and the otters... yeah, I ate those parts up.
The romance was very cute and I liked how it progressed (*cough* Ryan. Love meh.) since Hollie was clueless at first.
Now.. for the negative. I always believe in honesty.. so. here it goes.
Hollie was, without a doubt, a very entertaining character. She had the funniest little thoughts (the book was in her point of view) so I was thoroughly entertained throughout most of the book. She just.. *sigh* she had the tendency to be a bit of an.. er.. well. A B-word. Yes, I said it.
Yes, yes, I enjoyed her as a character and the book, itself was funny. But Hollie never had a nice thing to say about anyone and could be quite cruel when talking about the other people in the book. She was very judgmental (I feel like I am being judgemental, now. Great. lol) and talked down about the other characters.
For instance.
She begins the book with her live- in boyfriend who she has been with for two years, Keith. Yes, Keith is a little bit of a freak who has am obsession with his dogs. Yes, that is weird and can get annoying. But she lived with the man for two years. She knew all his quirks to begin with, and probably thought they were adorable at one point. You don't move in with someone you hate. But she gets tired of him and his strangeness. Yes, I can understand wanting to move on to someone better. But she was hateful about it. She calls him fat (in her head) , constantly referring to his belly. She kind of paints him as vapid and below her intellect. At least, that's how it seemed to me. She never in the whole book says a positive thing about him. Everything is about how terrible and boring he was and how being with him was holding her back. Well, excuse me, ma'am. You aren't a ray of sunshine and good decisions yourself. Sorry. It just really bugs me when people bully other people. No, she did not say the words to him, but she did not shut up about how horrible he was the whole book. When she meets a new guy with a flat stomach, she thinks something along the lines of, so different from Keith. Everything that happens with anyone new, she constantly refers back to repulsive old Keith and his "stupid" dogs. I get that she did not want to be with him anymore. I get that he was boring and weird. But you did like him at one point and I think he deserved a little bit more respect than that, especially since he was heartbroken when you decided to unceremoniously kick him out of the apartment and break up with him after two years. I mean.. the man sends her flowers when she is in the hospital after they broke up and she rolls her eyes. Yes, he made the dogs sign it, too, but he is obviously a kind and caring (fictional) person and the eye roll was undeserved. And she didn't just talk about Keith. I get an detailed description about how her landlady looks like a minion from hell or something along those lines with thin, weird skin. Her co- workers are described as unattractive as well. As a matter of fact, every character in America is ugly or a horrible person (her somewhat sister in law is mean and a horrible person and mother in law is crazy and strange). Everyone except her dad is described in a negative light. When she gets to Canada, all I hear about is how attractive the American guys working there are. There are a few nice and attractive people, there, but I cannot help but dwell on how the character always went back to physical imperfections. Ryan had a crooked nose. Although her comments on that were kind of cute. Everything involving him was okay. (: I didn't mean to dwell on this so much.
I think that with all the descriptions where everyone was so mean/weird/crazy/ugly, the author was going for it from a comedy angle. The book was very clever and cute with very good writing. Everything flowed. I liked it. But, like I said, the only thing I had a problem with was the way the character hated on Keith. It was like if someone got a big, dopey Labrador that constantly drooled and knocked things over. They thought it was cute at first, but once they had the dog for a while, they didn't find it cute and unceremoniously dropped the dog off at a shelter to live out the rest of it's days wondering what it did wrong. Then every day after, when the person sees a dog, they talk about how stupid the labrador was and hate on it, comparing every other dog with it. Sorry, I love dogs. That is the only thing that bothered me in the book.
I would still definitely recommend it, though. It was cute and funny. It reminded me a lot of Manhunting, by Jennifer Crusie. (Which I loved),
I would recommend to it anyone who loves a good contemporary romance with a cute, flirty male love interst, animals lovers, Canada lovers, and lovers of light romantic comedy. Although, they must be able to handle the Keith- hating. Which should be relatively easily to ignore or overlook. I am just very sensitive to these things and a bit neurotic. So. yeah.
Overall?
3.8/5
[Dear lord, that review was long. I'm sorry.]
Eliza
That's interesting, you made a good point about her negativity towards people in her life but I never noticed it when reading. Well, I knew she wasn't so fond of Keith, but I guess I found it funny. She was a bit mean about him though. I'm sorry it ended up negatively impacting your enjoyment of the story. I'm glad you liked the rest though!
ReplyDeleteSorry about my delay in commenting. I went and got sick and it's been hard to be at the computer without feeling like I'm going to throw up. :(
This sounds like a very different from the run of today's mill read. I really enjoy a book that has some humorous situations to break up some of the drama. Great review. Thanks for sharing.
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