Review: At First Spite

At First Spite by Olivia Dade
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Athena's fiancé Johnny breaks off their engagement, but only after she has surrendered her apartment, bought him the sliver of a house next to his called The Spite House, and given up her job. Now, with very little savings Athena is forced to move into the Spite House. What is worse is that she finds out her ex-fiancé's judgemental older brother Matthew, the one who convinced Johnny to dump her in the first place, lives next door. Now while Johnny enjoys a month long trip to Hawaii that Athena meticulously planned for their honeymoon she's trapped beside judgy-McJudgerson.

When Matthew first met Athena at a party he had no idea who she was. The two of them had a wonderful discussion, they seemed like soulmates, until Johnny landed the bombshell that this was his fiancée. Matthew loves his younger brother, in fact he practically raised him so he's half older brother half father figure, which is perhaps why Johnny has never grown up properly. Matthew paid for Johnny's college education and medical school, he even paid for the honeymoon, and now he and his business partner are covering Johnny's clients at their paediatric clinic while he enjoys a solo honeymoon. The trouble is Matthew just can't say no to Johnny. So now he'll do anything in his power to help Athena, get her a job, get her some friends, get her a better job, but he would never try to poach his brother's girlfriend.

This romance tackled some serious issues which affected both Matthew and Athena, and by-and-large it tackled them very sensitively in my opinion. Matthew and Athena seem to be the only ones who really see the other person and recognise what they are going through. However, I get the feeling that to alleviate the serious topics Olivia Dade went for some comic relief in the form of a book club that enjoys erotic creature romances, a baker who listens to erotic creature romances on audio books at full blast ... well you get the picture. It was funny once but then it felt silly. If it hadn't been for that this would have been a four star read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

View all my reviews