Blow: A Love Story by Tracy EwensMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Millie Hart is a successful romance writer, but her father has never respected her career choices or her work. After a brutal rejection at Christmas where she stood outside his bookshop looking in at him and his friends having a good time while she had her nose pressed up against the window like the little match girl, Millie decides that she will write a ‘serious’ novel, with absolutely no romance. She leaves the city and rents a cottage in Bodega Bay for four months to write seriously.
Drake Branch lives in an Airstream which is parked close to the cottage Millie has rented, he also owns a glass blowing business BP Glass Works with his best friend which is also close to Millie’s cottage. Six years ago he had a serious bike accident in which he lost his left arm. Since the accident he’s rebuilt his life in every way, relearning how to do the most basic tasks, so what if he has a few ‘issues’ that’s his business, if annoying tourists down for the weekend don’t like his loud music that’s just too bad, he can’t bear to hear the noise from the nearby metalworks (reminds him too much of the crash) and the music is the only thing that drowns out the noise.
Millie can’t believe the hot guy can be so rude, the last thing a serious writer needs is to be woken up to Wham at full blast – she needs gloom and despondency not blue skies and upbeat pop music! Try as she might, writing a dark, twisty novel full of trauma and angst just isn’t working for Millie, so she tries distracting herself by getting to know the locals.
Drake might not like Millie but he’s the only one who doesn’t, soon she giving advice to his apprentice on her university entrance essays and giving readings at his aunt’s romance book shop, in a small town everyone knows everyone else and so everywhere he turns he sees Millie or his annoying little sister trying to stir up a romance!
I am a great fan of Tracy Ewens’ novels and this was no exception, she writes engaging characters with real life problems and memorable minor characters. There was angst, but not too much, humour and good plot development. What made this romance stand out was the shout out to so many other great romance writers as Millie and Drake’s aunt compare authors and favourite books – it was fun to see with how many books/authors I was familiar, and to get recommendations for those where I wasn’t.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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