Reviewer: Holly
Not Quite Crazy (Not Quite, #6) by Catherine Bybee
Series: Not Quite #6
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Publication Date: March 6, 2018
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 315
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Series Rating:

From New York Times bestselling author Catherine Bybee comes the sixth novel in the warm and witty Not Quite series.

No one drives in New York City. Everyone knows that, including California transplant Rachel Price. But that doesn’t stop her from driving into the city. From Connecticut. Every single morning. Rain or shine…or snow.

When she runs the charismatic and good-looking Jason Fairchild off the road, their immediate spark is met with bad timing. There is also one tiny little detail: Jason is her boss. And a woman as intelligent and dedicated to her career as Rachel knows not to date her boss.

As CEO of a private jet company, Jason Fairchild is more used to flying than driving. But if he hadn’t chosen to drive home one night, he wouldn’t have met the slowest—and most irresistible—driver in the entire metro area. Jason has never had time for love. Or dating. Or really anything that doesn’t involve work. But when he finds out that Rachel is the newest superstar in his marketing department, he can’t help wondering if fate has other plans…

Not Quite Crazy the sixth book Bybee’s Not Quite series. I didn’t read any of the previous ones. I don’t feel like I missed out on much by skipping the other books, though the “happy couples want everyone happy” bits got kind of annoying.

I really liked Rachel and Jason together. She has guardianship of her deceased best friend’s son, Owen, and I really liked him as well. The three of them together had a great family relationship. Sadly, there wasn’t enough of Rachel and Jason, nor the three of them together to make this work.

Neither of the central conflicts of the plot worked for me.

1) Jason is the owner of the company and therefore Rachel’s boss. This was problematic in that it was never properly explored. Rachel has major concerns – legitimate ones – that she could lose her job if their relationship goes sour. She worries she’ll be thought less of by her peers and that her work won’t be taken seriously. Jason agrees she’s right to have concerns and even discusses with his brother (and business partner) how the company lawyers would advise against a relationship, and yet he still pushes for a relationship. Something about the way it was done really bothered me. The power imbalance really stood out, and I never felt like Rachel had a choice in the matter. She told Jason no, he did it anyway, the end.

and

2) Owen’s father’s family wants custody of him. I admit I’m not an expert when it comes to family law, but I had a major problem with the way the custody aspect was handled. Rachel was given guardianship in California as stated in her best friend’s will. Then paternal grandparents show up and say they want custody. Owen is 15. He’s never met them before. She agrees to move from CA to CT to be closer to them in order to avoid a court battle for custody, though it the father’s family never actually tried to go for custody. They just threatened and she moved. She claims grandparents would get custody over her no matter what so she has to keep them happy. But, she has guardianship! He’s never met the grandparents. He’s only seen dad a couple times in his life. And he’s 15! He can decide for himself where he wants to live. Regardless of that, however, unless I missed something major, Rachel hasn’t explored her rights as guardian through any legal channels. There’s a brief mention of an attorney advising her to keep in contact with the grandparents, but that’s it. She hasn’t hired an attorney or done any research. Similarly, the grandparents didn’t go through any legal channels to gain custody. They threatened to, which was enough to make Rachel move closer to them, but that’s it. The whole thing seemed contrived and silly.

The hearing at the end worked much better for me, but still. I didn’t really buy into such a flimsy reason for Rachel to be in CT or for her natural concerns about dating her boss to be pushed aside in favor of the “emergency” with Owen. I did enjoy Bybee’s writing, however, so I may try another book of hers in the future.

2.5 out of 5

Not Quite