Reviewer: Tracy One Song Away by Molli Moran
Publication Date: December 1st 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Her songwriting career isn't taking off, but a new relationship might be the big break she's been needing... Sophie-Claire Wright's life is like a bad country song on repeat. She keeps running into her cheating ex, her songwriting career isn't taking off, and her roommate just kicked her out of their apartment. With nothing to lose, she decides to do the one thing she said she'd never do: she moves back home. She left her small Southern town with big dreams, but now she's going home with empty pockets.
Life moves at a slower pace in Sophie's blink-and-you'll-miss-it hometown, but her well-meaning, matchmaking mama doesn't have a slow gear. Sophie invents a boyfriend to hold off her mother's efforts, but she's out of luck when her mom wants to meet him. Sophie panics until she runs into Jake Cooper. Her high school crush (and former best friend) is back in town, too, and when he asks her for a favor, she agrees...on one condition. He says he'll be her fill-in boyfriend, so it should be simple: re-introduce him to her family and then "break up" with him after a few weeks.
Sophie is sure she'll be able to resist Jake this time. Sure, she was in love with him years ago, but that was then. This is now, no matter how great he looks, or how she feels around him. But she didn't bargain for moments that feel all too genuine. Dates that don't seem fake. Kisses that leave her shaken and wanting more. Sweet moments where she forgets they aren't really dating. And she didn't count on old feelings resurfacing and complicating their arrangement-which is starting to feel less like acting and more like the real deal.
Soon, Sophie can't tell which kisses are real or fake, but she knows she's in deep...and she thinks Jake is, too. When she gets a chance to go back to Nashville and chase her dreams again, she has a choice to make: stay or go? Continue hoping that the life she wants is one song away, or finally write her own song?
Tracy’s review of One Song Away by Molli Moran
Sophie-Claire’s life isn’t going as she thought it would. After high school she moved to Nashville where she wanted to pursue her dreams of being a singer/songwriter. That’s not happened the way she thought it would and she’s not happy about it. Then her boyfriend cheats on her and her roommate tells her she needs to move out – things weren’t looking up. She has no money to get another apartment so she ends up moving back to her hometown. She knows she can’t live with her parents for the long haul so starts immediately looking for a job.
Sophie runs into Jake who was one of her best friends in high school and also her first love. He offers her a job at the coffee shop he owns and she’s thrilled. She never actually told Jake how she felt about him but believes now that she’s an adult she can work for him and continue to be friends with him. Unfortunately she told her matchmaking mama that she had a boyfriend (when she didn’t) so she asks Jake to be the fake boyfriend. Jake agrees but soon Sophie finds herself falling in love with Jake all over again – only this time it’s an adult love that she may not be able to survive if he doesn’t feel the same.
Sophie was an interesting character. At times she seemed to really like herself and have herself totally together (well, except for that whole job/living situation) but at other times she completely confounded me because she seemed to have such low self-esteem. I can’t say that the two sides coalesced all the time in my mind. I can’t say that I agreed with all of her actions throughout the book. When she finally confessed to Jake and he became more than shocked at her confession she wouldn’t let him get a word in edgewise and allow him tell her how he was feeling. She assumed she knew and that irritated me as it ended up being a one-sided conversation almost entirely.
Now the story was told from Sophie’s POV so I didn’t get too much insight into Jake except what we learned from Sophie. I saw a guy that was incredibly likable and all signs pointed to him falling in love with Sophie. She couldn’t see that, however, and when she did hear him stating that he was actually with her, and she realized that their relationship wasn’t fake any longer, she pushed him away and couldn’t deal with it. I just didn’t get that. Why would she do that when she was finally getting everything she’d wanted? I was confused. Then, after the love confession Jake, imho, should have run to her, groveled and spoke his mind but he let her be alone until she was ready to talk to him. Not my idea of going after what you really want.
Despite some of the issues I had with the last part of the story the first ¾ of the story was quite good. I enjoyed seeing the relationship between Jake and Sophie grow and flourish. It was a story with pretty high emotion and not necessarily a light read but I thought it worked in the story’s favor. I really enjoy friends to lovers stories and while this one had a few hiccups for me it was a good one overall.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
This title is self-published. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Leave a Reply