Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: A Day to Remember
AUTHOR: Katharine O’Neill
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 72 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 30, 2018
BLURB:
Months after ending a long-term relationship, Bryony Murphy still lets it control her. She’s scared to let anyone else in, just in case her ex Tara comes back to torment her again.
It isn’t easy to keep her heart to herself around beautiful journalist Georgia Bing, who works with Bryony on the TV show Crooked Cowboys. Georgia makes Bryony want to forget everything else and enjoy simply her.
After a one-night stand with Bryony, Georgia wants more with the lovely researcher. She knows Bryony’s hurting, but she also knows of Bryony’s past. Georgia is willing to go slow at first, but soon the sexual tension becomes too much to bear and she just has to make Bryony her own.
REVIEW:
For such a short story, this novella takes a lot of weird twists and turns that left me completely unsettled by the end. It never quite decided what kind of story it wanted to be, and despite a decent romantic pairing at its core, it never found solid footing.
My biggest disappointment when it comes to this book is how Bryony and Georgia’s super interesting career as the masterminds behind a TV reality show where they call bad businesspeople on their bluffs is brought up as a major plot point and then forgotten in favor of a very boring abusive ex-girlfriend plot. I went from intrigued to completely disinterested in a matter of pages.
First of all, the abuse Bryony’s ex, Tara, put her through is blamed on Tara being bipolar, which rubs me the wrong way. Bipolar disorder really alters your life, but it doesn’t turn you into a rage monster upon diagnosis. Also, Tara’s neurotic mother Krista is introduced as a secondary antagonist way too late in the story, making her seem like more of a scapegoat than a real plot point. It may be sweet seeing Georgia comfort Bryony in her time of need, but the abusive ex plotline is trite, vague, and doesn’t fit in with the tone of the story we began with.
There’s nothing I really didn’t like about the actual romance between Bryony and Georgia, aside from simply not enough time getting to know them. The final culmination of their UST is pretty steamy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love moments between a new couple when they just cannot keep their hands off each other. But then the moment is ruined by a cheap thrill scene that made me roll my eyes and giggle rather than put me on the edge of my seat.
I was really hoping that the last few pages would bring us back to the wedding dress mini-mystery Georgia and Bryony first bonded over while filming their show, but the conclusion was completely unsatisfying. Honestly, this book is sort of a mess. It’s a little bit romance, a little bit mystery, a little bit thriller—but all those things together turn into a jumble rather than a cohesive little story.
RATING: 
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