Shelf Awareness (Green Valley Library #4) by Katie Ashley
After catching her husband in a compromising position, the last thing that Finley Granger wants is to enter the insanity that is the dating world. She’s dealing with enough upheaval: she’s quit her job as a journalist in Atlanta to start over as a librarian in the backwoods town of Green Valley, Tennessee. But her grandmother has other ideas. When GramBea teams up with her sister, Dot, and their best friend, Estelle, Finley finds herself surrounded by a trio of well-meaning yet incredibly bumbling matchmakers. In spite of their efforts, there’s only one man she’s curious about, and that’s Zeke Masters, the library’s volunteer IT specialist. Sure, he’s 6’4”, impossibly built, ridiculously good-looking, and gets her nether regions tingling. However, it’s the tingle of her journalist spidey-senses that holds her attention most as she wonders why he’s on sabbatical from Seattle. Is he on lam, or on the run from a bad relationship? As Finley finds herself reluctantly drawn to the gorgeous IT guy, she can’t help but wonder: should she indulge in a little rebound fun with the mysterious Zeke – or has she finally met her match?
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 out of 5 steam level
Ah! Can you believe this is my last Smartypants Romance to review?! I think the grand total was like eleven books. Ready to dive into this one? Let's do it! Ps. If you are looking for a book with LGBT characters, there is a background character in this book who you will love!
This book features a tall heroine! I know quite a few people who keep running lists of books featuring tall heroines. She is 5'9" and he is 6'3" if that helps anyone out there! (I know the official blurb says 6'4" but I'm looking at the book right now when it says 6'3").I liked a lot of the pop culture references in the book! I'm a sucker for a Meg Ryan reference.Do you like the Golden Girls? If so, you will really like the trio of older women who Finley moves in with.I liked the overall premise of the book, it was really interesting, as I read the first chapter, it mirrored pretty closely another Smarypants Romance book (Stud Muffin).
There were some repetitive paragraphs in this book. I did get an Advanced Readers Copy so there is always a chance that these could be changed and updated before publication.I had some issues with the dialogue. This was actually the first book where I noticed that the dialogue wasn't flowing well for me. I can't exactly place my finger on the issue other than to say that I looked up the author to see how many books she had previously written.A lot of scenarios in the book were really predictable from the first sentence in the chapter. You could tell where it was going to go, and in most cases it was going in a over-the-top direction. For instance, Finley and the Ben Wa balls (who puts them in for the first time and then goes to work?!) Or Finley and her first date. Basically there were a lot of scenes that I could see coming and were written for the hilariously awkward factor, but I never laughed.
Listen to any of these songs mentioned throughout the book:-Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye-Somebody to Love by Queen-We Will Rock You by QueenWatch: Twilight and/or The Mummy (trust me, it'll make sense as you read the book)Extra points for watching the briefly mentioned Sleepless in Seattle