Only With You by Nicole McLaughlinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Two and a half stars.
We first met Hannah Walters as Becca's bitchy twin sister in Should've Been You who strung Jase along. In this book she's had a bit of a rewrite, he was just her BFF, the only one who supported her (Becca was the perfect twin and Hannah the screw-up) and would call her out on her BS. She was briefly engaged before realising he wasn't the one and has now decided to try to find herself rather than rely on a man to define her. She's also realised that she has never travelled, even to nearby cities and has become very insular.
Aiden King is a friend to the male leads in this series, all of whom are reserve National Guardsman. Once a month they each go on duty and it has become a ritual that the gang meet up the night before and Aiden cooks them all a meal. One night Aiden and Hannah end up talking alone, well Hannah talks and Aiden listens. Hannah doesn't realise that Aiden has had a crush on her for a long time that he has never acted upon while she was semi-dating Jase. After their chat they start texting each other and Hannah comes to his bar for dinner one night. They become closer as friends, but (as always) there is a secret that could come between them.
I enjoyed the previous book in this series but I have to say (regrettably) I didn't like this one. I found it overly melodramatic in phases, I got over one third of the way through the book without anything really happening, Aiden had practically the full house of angst (he only needed to have lost a limb to make it complete TBH), he was by turns condescending and a wimp and Hannah was a self-absorbed, selfish woman who thought something that a man would have been crucified for. (view spoiler) Aiden overcomes all of his problems basically by just deciding to, they fall in love for no apparent reason. The book was also short, 150 pages is more novella than novel, and I felt that a serious issue was trivialised and just swept under the carpet rather than being addressed with sensitivity.
Overall, I can sum up my feelings by saying I didn't like either character. In fact I made a note on my kindle that I wanted to throat-punch Hannah at one point!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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