Review: Story of Us

Story of Us by Jody Holford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophia Strombi returns to her hometown after her business and personal lives implode spectacularly. She hasn't been home for 10 years after the weight of her family's expectations about her role in the family restaurant led her to run far, far away. Now she's back and begging her older brother Marcus's BFF Declan James for a job in his bar.

Declan James was that boy in high school and hasn't changed as a grown man. A bad boy with a cute smile and a smoking hot body he has reputation as a ladies man, but lately as his friends have found 'the one' he feels increasingly like he is missing out. He doesn't want to give little Sophie Strombi a job, especially since he's been very careful to avoid thinking of Marcus's little sister as a woman for quite some time, but he can see she is desperate and the Strombi's are as judgemental as ever.

This was okay, but it didn't rock my world. How Declan ever got a reputation as a ladies man I don't know seeing as he acted like a shy, insecure nerd for most of the book. Similarly, the Strombi men seemed to have this dictatorial attitude "Do this, do that, don't do the other" and berate Sophia for her choices (because it was necessary for the plot) and then cave and become pussy cats at the end. I thought there were too many things which were only in the book as plot devices to force issues - eg Sophia can't go home to stay because she and her family are at loggerheads.

I've been having a bad time of it recently so maybe it's me and not the book, but I just didn't feel invested in either Sophia or Declan, looking back I didn't even finish the first book in the series so maybe this series isn't for me - I have loved other books by Jody Holford.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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