Hearts Like Hers by Melissa BraydenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book received from both Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review
For ‘reasons’, some of which are based on spotting various ratings pop up in my feed (but without reading the reviews attached), I both went into this book, and spent the majority of the book thinking that I’d likely rate this somewhere near 4 stars. Not that I always rate the same way as others (that’s a laugh, considering the number of books I can’t even finish while others praise them, and the number of books I praise and others give two stars too, it might be closer to ‘it’s a toss-up if I rate the book the same way as someone else’). Just the rating slipped into my subconscious. But somewhere near the end, I realized . . . well, let’s move on to the review.
This is the second book in Brayden’s second official series (which I say because there are non-series books that occasionally have characters from other books appear), Seven Shores. I’d seen the series as being linked by Seven Shores – the apartment complex in Venice California (an independent city from 1905, when it emerged as a seaside resort town, to 1926, when it merged with Los Angeles). The second book in the series involved mid-thirties Autumn Primm, friend of the three women who live in Seven Shores, and owner of the Cat’s Pajamas, a nearby coffee shop, and a resident of some house some distance away. So, how could Autumn be the star of the second book in this series? Well, strangely enough, that specific connection to Seven Shores apartment complex is in fact continued in this here book through the other lead character of this book, firefighter Kate Carpenter, of Slumberton Oregon.
Characters
There are two main point of views, and two main characters (there is at least one occasion when we get the inside thoughts of a third character, briefly and strangely inserted (there’s one occasion when suddenly Hadley’s feelings are so extreme she feels like her head is going to explode – that’s it, that’s her entire POV insertion into the book, and I don’t think it was by itself in the sentence it appeared in)). Those two main characters being Autumn Primm, and Kate Carpenter.
Autumn is 32 and a single child of Vicky (her mother told her to call her Vicky shortly after beginning school, maybe in the second grade) who has spent her adult life living in the greater Los Angeles area, learning everything there is to know about coffee, getting the seed money to open her own coffee place, and running said place of coffee.
Kate Carpenter is 34 and a firefighter who befriended two kids who lived down the street from her in her small town of Slumberton Oregon – and the place is as quiet and sleepy as the town name implies. The book opens shortly after Kate had rescued those same two children from a fire and is suffering a sort of post-traumatic stress over it (not sure if it reaches PTSD level) – especially the part where she lives in a small town and everyone knows the story and everyone talks about how much of a hero she is near or to her face – which she disputes, the hero part, for reasons. Shortly after the book opens, Kate throws some stuff into her truck and drives down to California so ‘she can breathe’.
For those curious, yes, all of the women who were friends in the first book reappear in this book here. Plus Taylor, the love interest in book one, also reappears with her significant other Isobel. So, to fill this out a little more, we have: 'the Seven Shores friends': Isabel Chase, star of Eyes Like Those (&, through her, Taylor Andrews) and television writer; Gia Malone, star professional surfer and relatively younger than the rest of the gang (I think), and star of ‘coming soon’ Sparks Like Ours; Hadley ?, fashion . . . person; and Autumn Primm – coffee shop owner.
Story: As noted: Kate is feeling stress from a recent fire she was involved with in Oregon, and has taken some time off from work to spend time in California and breath. Said time off spent renting an apartment in a specific complex known as ‘Seven Shores’. Meanwhile the other lead character, Autumn, is dealing with a certain amount of depression – a certain amount of low self-esteem brought on both by her rotten bitchy horrible shrew of a mother and her hideous ex-girlfriend who may or may not have cheated on her (it’s never actually stated bluntly, nor even implied, though it sure seemed like Olivia had cheated with Betsey-the-gym-trainer). Shaken by the news that her ex is getting married, Autumn has decided to ‘live’ more – which includes: being open to dating and the acknowledgement that she wants to stick a baby inside of her, and then have that baby pop out so she could be a mother to said baby.
Kate and Autumn meet well. Date. Both know that it’s temporary. Both develop ‘something’. An ‘issue’ occurs and there’s trouble in relationship paradise. I’m being purposefully vague – how detailed should I be? It’s a romance, it’s by Brayden, of course there’s going to be a brief ‘issue’ that breaks the people apart for a short time. And stuff.
Positives: 1) I rather like the personalities shown here, at least, or I mean specifically Autumn and Kate’s. 2) Kate’s described as being near perfect (calm, collected, gorgeous, etc. etc.) but there are enough ‘there’ to move out of ‘fantasy dream girl’ to ‘human’. 3) both main characters have enough page time to ‘show themselves’ and allow the reader to learn something about them. 4) three seconds after I push the submit button, I’m sure I’ll think of 100s more to insert.
Negatives: 1) I realize why he is in the book, I think, but I found Kate’s brother vaguely off-putting; 2) I realize why she’s in the book, again I think, but I found Vicky, Autumn’s domineering, self-centered, bitchy mother was . . . super annoying; 3) I’ve no idea why that whole section involving Autumn attending her ex-girlfriend’s wedding was needed – as a ‘jump start to finding that extra, or ‘more’ in life’, Olivia’s wedding invitation and some ‘stuff’ along those lines would work; having one of the Seven Shores women go along as a friend, Hadley, was good since it allowed more page time to a character who is supposedly a good friend but not really fully developed yet – but, and this is important, despite there being something like a seven hour drive there and back, and the wedding itself, and everything, the whole experience seemed to go by way too fast for any actual ‘character development’ to be seen. 4) see 4 in the positives section.
Overall: Somewhere along the way, despite my vague feeling I might be reading a 4 star book, something occurred – I don’t mean something specific – that made me realize that this book was actually better than I was allowing myself to see it be. I lost that last sentence. Pfft. As for a specific incident – there was one specific incident that caused something that I don’t think had happened before for me with a Brayden book – a slight momentary blurry vision due to watery eyes. The happy kind of blurry-ness.
I liked the book. I liked the characters. I liked the romance and the story. There was even bits of humor tossed in there here and there – nothing on the level of a Robin Alexander book, but humor –
”So, what else is new?” she asked her kitchen, which she was apparently talking to now.
Plus, in addition to some humorous talking to yourself moments, there were a few humorous because of situation moments – like when Autumn and Hadley got drunk that one night.
Right, so, liked the book.
Rating: 4.68
January 9 2018
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