Underneath It All

I don't know if it was the author's intention or not, but I spent the majority of this book disliking the heroine. And loving the hero. Matthew was just wonderful. I liked him from start to finish but I was angry with Lauren and the way she pushed him away and the way she treated him for the majority of the book. If the secondary characters and the sex weren't so well done and entertaining, I may have put this one down and walked away. But I am glad that I didn't. Lauren redeemed herself in the end so I have to forgive her and move on. Matthew got his happy and that is good enough for me. The journey to get to that happy was full of smoking hot sex scenes and a lot of frustration.

I was sold on this book by the first line of the synopsis, “If I had known I'd have a hot architect balls deep inside of me before the end of the weekend, I'd have made time for a pedicure.” I thought for sure I was going to love the heroine. But she was not what I expected and I liked Matthew, so any slight against him had me putting my hackles up. Matthew's siblings, on the other hand, are delightful and I am really looking forward to more in The Walshes series. Kate Canterbary is a wonderful writer. The dialogue in this book was exceptional. Lots of humor and information gleaned from it and it was all very natural. The first half of the book was a little slow for me, though it may have been me wishing Lauren and her walls away that made it drag because the second half was great. The Walshes are a neat blend of characters and siblings. Shannon and Riley made this book more appealing for me and I really enjoyed that missing sister, Erin, was still a character albeit a virtual one through her emails with Matthew. I hope she gets a book in the series. For now, I am going to be happy with Matthew and Lauren's story. Despite my feelings for Lauren, this was a really good read. Both in story and quality. The Space Between is next in my reading line up for sure.

I've read one other Kate Canterbary book and loved it. This one.... 3.5 stars. I love Matthew and think Lauren is pretty great, but I hated what she kept putting Matthew through. I dislike them as a couple because of how she didn't want to be in a relationship. How did she not realize they were in a relationship and that there are many different types of them!? So, I was frustrated.

I will read on, but my lackluster feelings for this couple have made it so I still (6 months later) have yet to read on. I will though!

Least favourite book I've read in a long time. 1 star, simply because I cannot give 0.0001 star for “Yay, I finished it and resisted the urge to fling my Kindle through the window!” Lauren was the least likeable main character I've come across for ages. A lot of the book was way too much “tell” and not “show”. And so much cliche! I can handle a bit of cliche in romance books, in fact, sometimes cliches can be used in a really fun way. But this was just crap.