Children's librarian by day. Romance novelist by night. British single father. Someone else is writing this love story... Blair Walton isn't your average curvaceous tattooed children's librarian. She's also one half of bestselling romance author, Scarlet Rose. Along with her BFF Raine, she spends her nights writing books so steamy, she's afraid they would shock her Southern conservative grandmother to death . . . if she knew about them. That's why she and Raine write in secret. On deadline for their latest book and out of ideas, Raine suggests (demands) that Blair find a guy and "do some research". Declan Bennet has all the qualifications: He's British, looks fabulous in a suit, has glorious blue eyes and gets bonus points for being an amazing single dad to his adorable son, Drake. But what starts out as a research project quickly turns into something much more. And Blair's not the only one with secrets.
Thanks to Netgalley and All Night Reads for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this book.
This is going to sound harsh, but I don't know how to say it other than to just come out and say it: this book is one that should have remained "unwritten". And it pains me to say that because I'm a fan of Chelsea M. Cameron's writing and I've enjoyed other books of hers, but this one just did not pass muster.
The strange thing is that I actually liked the characters. They were cute and quirky. So why didn't I like the book, then? It was soooooooo boooooooooring!!! There were instances where I thought something exciting was going to happen, and then it was like, psych! Just kidding, that story line's going nowhere.
There were a lot of scenes with Blair and Raine writing their book, editing their book, and eating food. Sometimes they got excited about hanging out in their yoga pants. Hey, I love hanging out in my yoga pants, I'm not knocking it. I just don't necessarily want to read about other people doing it, because it's, you know, BORING! They also go out a couple of times with a mutual friend and have some drinks, and they get a matching tattoo, but honestly, that's about as exciting as anything gets.
I really liked Declan, but he was almost too good to be true. He's always supportive, knows just what to say, plans the best dates, and buys Blair books. Perfect guy? Yeah, pretty much, but then where's the conflict, the tension? The big "reveal" on his part was treated as not that big of a deal - Blair forgives him right away and they keep on keepin' on. Blair's "reveal" was something that caused her a whole lot of angst throughout the book, but I didn't think what she'd done was all that wrong. In this day and age, doing a bit of a background check on a stranger before you date him is smart - why put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation?
I really liked Raine as well. She seems to be the perfect BFF - again, always supportive, knows just what to say, and makes sinfully delicious chocolate chip cookies. But again I say, where's the conflict, the tension? I think Blair and Raine got into one little tiff, but they forgave each other pretty quickly and that was the end of that. Bo. Ring.
Ugh. Seriously, I am getting thoroughly bored just by writing this review, so I'm going to end by saying that my experience with "UnWritten" has in no way deterred me from reading more from Ms. Cameron. I look forward to reading some of her earlier works in the near future in the hopes that "UnWritten" was just a fluke.
My rating: 2 stars
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