Rowena’s review of The Last Boyfriend (The Inn Boonsboro #2) by Nora Roberts.

Hero: Owen Montgomery
Heroine: Avery McTavish

Owen is the organizer of the Montgomery clan, running the family’s construction business with an iron fist — and an even less flexible spreadsheet. And though his brothers give him grief for his compulsive list making, the Inn BoonsBoro is about to open right on schedule. The only thing Owen didn’t plan for was Avery MacTavish…

Avery’s popular pizza place is right across the street from the inn, giving her a firsthand look at its amazing renovation — and a newfound appreciation for Owen. Since he was her first boyfriend when they were kids, Owen has never been far from Avery’s thoughts. But the attraction she’s feeling for him now is far from innocent.

As Avery and Owen cautiously take their relationship to another level, the opening of the inn gives the whole town of Boonsboro a reason to celebrate. But Owen’s hard work has only begun. Getting Avery to let down her guard is going to take longer than he expected — and so will getting her to realize that her first boyfriend is going to be her last…

This is the second book in the Inns Boonsboro trilogy by Nora Roberts and its another enjoyable read. I was so excited for these books to come out because I adored the Bride Quartet but I seem to be underwhelmed with the first two books in this series. I enjoyed the easy going nature of the books but my overall reading experience left a lot to be desired. It was too easy for me to put this book down and read something else and I was bummed about that.

This book follows the second Montgomery brother to get his happy ending, Owen. Owen is the Captain Save a Hoe in the family. He’s the details guy, the guy that takes care of the little details that nobody wants to take care of. If you need help, Owens your guy. He’s a good guy with a huge heart and he looks pretty sexy in scruffy work boots and well worn jeans.

Avery runs the pizzeria across the street from the Inn. She’s got her hands full running her own restaurant, working in it and still finds time to help her friends out across the street at the Inn. Things are coming together at the Inn and she loves that she’s a part of it all. Her best friends Hope and Claire are around and she loves having them around. She’s fiercely independent but she’s not against getting some help in the form of her first boyfriend, Owen Montgomery.

There wasn’t much to the romance between Owen and Avery because right off the bat, they liked each other. They’re friends. They grew up together and they’re comfortable with each other. They came together as a “Why not?” kind of thing and I thought they made sense but I wish there would have been more to their romance than what we got. The internal conflict was enough to satisfy me but I still liked the overall book.

I spent most of the book anxious for more Ryder and Hope. I like both of their personalities because they’re so different. Ryder is pissy and rough around the edges while Hope is a control freak who is more reserved. I think their book will be an interesting read and I think their book will probably be my favorite since from the jump, they’ve been my favorite characters. I was interested in both of them since Beckett and Claire’s book and I can’t wait to finally read their story.

I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the ghost story. Her name is Liz and we find out that she’s got a story that we don’t have in its entirety yet but there’s still another book so I’m sure it’ll come together nice and neat. Right now, we think that she’s waiting for her man to come and her, he’s just taking his time about it. The other thing that I wasn’t really a fan of was the relationship that popped up between Owen’s Mom and Avery’s Dad. There isn’t much to it and if it had been more fleshed out, maybe I would have liked it but I felt like they were just thrown together with no real reason.

Overall, this book did a good job of pulling the ghost story along and bringing Owen and Avery together. I liked the little peek we got into the way Avery ran her restaurant. I also liked seeing Owen do his thing when he was at work as well. If there was more of a conflict between Owen and Avery, I probably would have enjoyed their story more but as underwhelmed as I was with this book, I’m still looking forward to reading the last book in this series. I can’t wait for Ryder and Hope’s book. I’m anxious to getting to know them and finding how about their backgrounds and pasts. It should be interesting.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Rowena’s review of The Next Always by Nora Roberts.

Hero: Beckett Montgomery
Heroine: Claire Brewster

“America’s favorite writer” (The New Yorker) begins an all-new trilogy-inspired by the inn she owns and the town she loves.

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it’s getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett’s social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen…

I’ve been looking forward to this release since I found out about it and when I went to Holly’s house, this was the only book that I was looking forward to reading. I adored the Bridal Quartet a lot so I thought I would enjoy this one just as much but while the overall story was good, I didn’t quite love this book as much as I hoped I would.

This book follows Claire Brewster and Beckett Montgomery find their way to their happy ending. For Claire, it was her second shot at love since she married young and lost her husband to the war. For Beck, it was for the first time and with his childhood crush. Beckett had always liked Claire, ever since she was fifteen years old but he never got to do anything about it because the timing was always off and then she went off and got married, had kids and she was always out of his reach. When she moves back home after her husband dies, Beckett is baffled as all get out that he still gets all tongue twisted and shy around Claire, like he was a bumbling boy of thirteen. He could talk to any woman on the planet and be cool and confident but not with Claire. He’s had a crush on Claire for as long as he could remember and everyone and their Mom knows, except for Claire.

The romance between Beckett and Claire was like a tall glass of lemonade on a lazy summer day. It was slow, steady and simmered right beneath the surface for most of the beginning of the book. Roberts does a great job of drawing their characters out and making their romance feel real.

Claire has her hands full with her three boys and her business. She’s doing it all on her own with the help of her friends and parents (both sets of grandparents), she’s doing a pretty bang up job trying to juggle all of the roles she’s playing but sometimes it got to be a bit much. It was hard at times to take Claire because she was such a control freak about every little thing where her boys were concerned. She didn’t want to lean on anyone too much (even when they were doing the offering) and so she made things a lot harder for herself when she didn’t have to.

I will say that I adored the way that Beckett bonded with Claire’s boys. He was more than just the guy that was dating their Mom. He was their friend as well and seeing the bond between Beckett and each boy form and then strengthen over the course of the book was something that I enjoyed most about the entire story.

Each character in this book is pretty well fleshed out and I walked away from this book curious about each of the characters, wanting more from each of the characters. I’m anxious to read the other Montgomery brothers books now. Especially Ryder. He’s so surly and cynical that I’m itching to find out why. Owen is the details brother and I’m thinking that it’s going to be interesting to see his heroine try to relax his mind. I’m guessing the pairings are Ryder and Hope then Owen and Avery. I’d be happy with those pairings so I’m looking forward to that.

My least favorite part of this book was the whole thing with Sam Freemont. That whole deal didn’t feel genuinely part of the book, it felt more like it was added in at the end and I didn’t really buy Sam’s whole obsession with Claire. While it didn’t dampen my enjoyment of the overall story much, I wasn’t too interested in that part of the book.

This book shows promise for the rest of this series and I’m very much looking forward to reading the rest of the books but it wasn’t one of my favorites by Nora Roberts.

Grade: 3 out of 5.

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.