Hooking Up / Jessica Degarmo

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Women's Fiction/Romance

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Jessica Degarmo lives in rural Pennsylvania with her husband, children, and a family of dogs. “When she is not writing, she is an insurance agent, the lead singer in a classic rock band, a country music DJ and an avid collector of gemstones.” Degarmo has several books available on Amazon. For more information check out her website.

Description:

Caitlin Edison was raised by an unloving grandmother after the death of her parents when she was ten years-old. At twenty eight, Caitlin is dumped by Michael, her live-in boyfriend, who has been her rock of stability for ten years. Being miserable and devastated Caitlin takes the advice of her gal-pals to try ‘hooking up’ with a one-night stand to raise her self esteem. How in the world did she find the only guy in town looking for a relationship?

Appraisal:

This story was told though the eyes of Caitlin. She has a successful career as a pediatric physical therapist, but is truly an emotional mess. I thought the story started out strong. The hook-up was entertaining, but as the story goes on we start seeing Caitlin’s problems are more than just emotional insecurities. Caitlin has a hard journey in coming to terms with her past and the story gets tedious and repetitive.

I really felt like Ryan was going to pull Caitlin her through her crisis, they seemed to have a great chemistry together. Then he does an about face and leaves over a misinterpretation of events when Michael comes to visit Caitlin. Really? After breaking through her defenses and pledging his devotion to her? It seemed completely out of character for him at the time. It would have been nice to have his character more developed so we could have understood his motives.

This situation did force Caitlin to become more emotionally independent and she did end up a stronger person, but I didn’t feel like we got to see that process. She just all of a sudden started having a more mature, well-balanced outlook on life. This is where the story fell flat for me and I felt unsatisfied. I want to experience how this growth happens.

The story has a lot of unique elements and twists that didn’t mesh together as seamlessly as they should, although this did not keep me from appreciating the overall story. Perhaps a good content editor could help the flow of the story and pare down some of the excesses. I think it would be à propos to end this review by saying that I found the ending rather abrupt.

FYI:

This book contains adult language and situations that may be offensive to some.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: *** Three stars