GRR Reviews JUST THE WAY YOU ARE (Lost Hearts) by Christina Dodd

Just the Way You Are is a contemporary romance that seems a bit too long and took a long time to get to the point, and the overall tone seems somewhat confusing, but it is expertly plotted, leaving a good ending with enough to warrant a multi-volume quest. The pivot into a bit of romantic suspense though seems a bit weird, but fun.

Hope Prescott is living in Boston as an operator of the only live answering service in the city. She was 15 when her family was destroyed. Her parents died in a car accident in Mexico, and accused of embezzling the local church, and the three sisters and their foster brother were split up, and nobody in town said a thing. Hope was intensely distrustful of all rich people, and when she trusted someone with her past, those people immediately turned on her, forcing her to NEVER mention her background, EVER. But she built up relationships, nonetheless, with people she talked to almost every day, and one of them was Griswald, the butler of the rich playboy Zach Givens. When Hope took a container of chicken soup when she heard that Griswald caught a cold, Hope found that Griswald wasn't old or gruff, but handsome, intense, and good-hearted. They developed a relationship. What Hope did not know was the person she believed was Griswald was actually Zach Givens himself, and while he wanted Hope, he was willing to treasure Hope's trust for he was intolerant of golddiggers and being "Griswald" gave him freedom to be who he is... When Zach learned of Hope's past, he sent the real Griswald (who has an interest in genealogy) to locate her siblings. But when Zach's enemy found out about Hope, they exploit her as Zach's weakness... by exposing Zach's deception. Then Hope's kidnapped by a mob boss because she was duped by one of her clients. Zach, along with the unlikely allies of Hope, will have to brave the den of a notorious mobster to mount a rescue mission...

The background of Hope's circumstances was definitely tense and angst-y. She learned that she cannot EVER mention her origins, or people will turn on her and exploit her, usually by framing her for something, as she's a convenient scapegoat. But the way the novel was finished (which sets up for the subsequent volumes, as she still had to locate her siblings) was with humor and eyerolling and shrugging. The tone was confusing, even though the plot was great.

Author also provided her plotting outline as a reference at the end of the book, which is a great bonus.

Category: Contemporary / Romantic Suspense near the end

Primary Plot: Woman betrayed by the rich found herself falling for a rich man's butler, but he's really the rich guy himself

Tropes: different worlds, disguise, scars, conspiracy

Overall Rating: 4/5