Reviewer: Rowena Links by Lisa Becker
Publisher: Desert Breeze Publishing
Publication Date: August 1st 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 197
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Charlotte Windham, a nerdy high school prodigy who tutored classmates to earn money for college, escapes her geeky past to become a celebrated novelist. During a chance encounter at a Los Angeles restaurant 15 years after high school, she reconnects with her secret crush, Garrett Stephens, the popular star athlete and teen heart breaker. Garrett, still leaving broken hearts in his wake, is now a successful professional golfer who recently suffered a possible career-ending shoulder injury. As he and Charlotte spend time together, developing a friendship based on mutual respect and comfortable companionship, can Charlotte forgive the past and can Garrett reform his lothario ways for a chance at love?
Links is the third book by Lisa Becker that I read and it’s a book that follows a professional golfer as he finds love in a blast from the past. The blast in the past comes in the form of his former English tutor from high school. They run into each other years later and Garrett (the pro golfer) is intrigued by the woman that Charlotte (blast from the past) has grown up to be.
Charlotte was a scholarship kid at the private school that she attended with Garrett Stephens. Her Mom was a single Mom who did her best to get Charlotte the best education she could and Charlotte worked as a tutor to help pay her own way once high school was over and done with. They both had plans that took them in different directions and even though Charlotte harbored a fierce crush on Garrett, the crush was not returned because she was a nerd with braces and big glasses and Garrett was popular and going out with other popular girls.
If there is anything that I can sympathize with, it’s unrequited crushes so in the beginning, I had a lot of sympathy for Charlotte. She was head over heels in love with Garrett and she did not make it onto his radar..at all. So when they run into each other years and years later and Garrett is a lot different from the Garrett she knew in the past, things should have gotten interesting. They did get interesting but they also got a bit frustrating as well.
Garrett Stephens was my favorite character in this book. He was very aware of the fact that he was a teenage dickhead but he was also very sure that those days were behind him. Sure, he’s never been in a serious relationship before but he wasn’t a cheater and he wasn’t hurting anyone so in my eyes, there was nothing wrong with that. He wasn’t promising women that he’ll make an honest woman out of them and then not following through on those promises. He was having adult relations with like minded women and he could do that because he was an adult. I’ll get back to why I bring this up a little later in this review so stay tuned…
Charlotte had the potential of being my favorite character in this book. She was a book loving nerd (like me) who wrote books for a living and she was sweet natured and humble. She loved her mother and took care of her and was a great support to her friends and loved ones. Sounds like an awesome character, right? Sounds like someone you’d want to be like, right? Well, as great as Charlotte was, I struggled with her character throughout much of the book. First off, she giggled way too much for someone who was not 14 anymore. Every time she giggled, I wanted to pull her hair. She giggled in every single page, it seemed like and after the third time of her giggling in Garrett’s presence, I was over it. The other thing is how she spent a huge chunk of the book trying to prove to herself and to Garrett that she wasn’t the same nerd girl from their past. She wanted him to see her as the woman she is now and yet she didn’t give that same respect to Garrett and that bugged the hell out of me. When Garrett finally confronts her about that, she apologizes and then in the next breath, her jealousy gets the best of her and she pushes Garrett away…again.
I like for characters in the books that I’m reading to be flawed and I don’t mind if they have stupid moments but more often than not, in this book, I thought Charlotte was being stupid. I just couldn’t understand or connect with her issues and I guess I wanted her to be stronger than she showed she was in this book and in the end, I was frustrated with Garrett for not making her grovel some more for assuming the worst in him without a conversation. She knew what she saw (she didn’t see shit) and didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. He didn’t do anything to deserve her doubt and that was what I struggled with throughout the entire book.
Overall, this book was cute and a fast read but I struggled with the heroine’s thought processes and her actions from beginning to end and that affected my enjoyment of the book. I enjoyed Garrett, his siblings and the romance was fun when I wasn’t annoyed with Charlotte but still, it was an enjoyable read.
Grade: 3 out of 5