GRR Reviews Blueprint for a Kiss by Nancy Warren

Prescott Chance became a celebrity architect who's extremely private, turning down more commissions than he accepts. He has an orderly life... which was interrupted by Holly Legere, sitting on his Tesla one day. // Holly is an assistant for Alistair Rupert, an extremely demanding industrialist who's known to have driven multiple assistants into nervous breakdowns... but rewards those who survived a year with a promotion in his vast empire. When Rupert's wife wanted a Prescott Chance designed house, and Prescott turned her down, Holly was told: "don't come back without an acceptance". And Holly is very determined indeed... She already knew all the public information about him... and she will even visit his family for support... If that's what it takes to get a house designed for her boss...

Ah, that's interesting pair up. It's basically opposites attract. Prescott is a lot like Spock, cold, aloof, but gradually loosened up by the end of the book, and Holly eventually realized she doesn't need Rupert's job to succeed in life, as she found her OTHER calling (which I won't spoil) through the course of this book.

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 5/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Kiss a Girl in the Rain (Take a Chance) by Nancy Warren

Kiss a Girl in the Rain is an almost cozy romance where a stranger falls for a local.

Evan Chance, burned out from his corporate life, decided to take a sabbatical and travel the US. When his motorcycle broke down, he was temporarily stranded in a small town called Miller's Pond and falls for the town doctor Caitlyn Sorenson. Both carried a lot of baggage. Evan was escaping his life of high-pressure lawyer and his mentor's death made him realize his life was empty and he ran to fulfill his childhood bucket list. Caitlyn was basically in a holding pattern in her life after she was burned out from being an ER surgeon in a big city and decided small town doctoring like her grandpa was needed, but the boredom was getting to her. When Evan chose to court Caitlyn, sparks flew, but Caitlyn knew Evan is leaving as soon as his bike was repaired, and Caitlyn is not a fling-type girl, and Evan is not the kind to settle in a small town... or is he?

Both characters instinctively knew that they had found what they were looking for, but they can't quite articulate or justify their actions logically, and basically spent the rest of the book slowly coming to that realization, with the help of the ugly mutt that stranded Evan in town in the first place and brought them together. I wouldn't say there really is a darkest-hour per se in the book other than Evan leaving town, or much of a grand gesture (other than coming back INTO town). But the ending was sweet alright.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: "Drifter" stranded in town woos the lonely female doctor; was it just a fling, or is it more?

Tropes: small town, veterinarian, different worlds

Overall Rating:  3/5

GRR Reviews The Almost Wives Club: Kate by Nancy Warren

Almost Wives Club: Kate is a girl finding her place in life, and away from other's expectations, even if she had to become a "bad girl" to do it. There were a ton of emotional growth, but other than the few main characters, the "evil" (i.e. the family that keep arranging things for her) are just flat as heck.

To recap... Kate Winton-Jones was content in letting everybody else setting her course... into marrying Edward Carnarvon III, who's rich, handsome, and a proper match to her beauty and social standing. That was, until she discovered, by accident, that her fiancee had set up a honeytrap test for her by sending a private investigator to attempt to seduce her, right after she had signed a pre-up. Thoroughly humiliated and betrayed, she threw the engagement ring at Edward (drawing blood), left the estates on a bicycle, took Uber into town, swapped cars with her best friend, sent her phone to Miami, booked a vacation to Phoenix, bought a train ticket to New York, and drove her friend's horrible VW bug and ended up in Carlsbad, not too far from LA, where she lived an unexpected life... as a surfing instructor, for she was at one time, a top surfer, until the "proper" life claimed her. She was surprised when the PI showed up as one of her students... He had tracked her down, but he claimed he was just there looking for her on his own behalf and he was absolutely honest when he said "Don't marry him, Kate" back at the sting. She decided that she's tired of being the good girl... and sleeping with the PI, who was his fiancee's best friend, may be indeed the right thing to do...

Kate basically tired of being "the good girl" but just screwing around wasn't helping the situation. If one guy tracked her down, other people can too. My problem with the book is not with the morals of sleeping around, but rather, how Kate finally learned to be manipulative... By finding out her intended's secret, and basically used that to force HIM to agree to break off the engagement that neither really wanted. For a girl that got tired of the gilded cage, to see her using a gilded stick just somehow felt... "wrong" on some level.

And I must say the chemistry between her and the PI just didn't feel that warm and fuzzy. Still, it's an emotional journey.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman, after finding out she was "tested" for her fidelity by her fiancee with help of PI, ran away humiliated and chose to live her dream. PI tracked her down to make sure she's safe...

Tropes: runaway bride, Private Investigator, coming of age, triangle

Overall Rating:  3/5