Review: One More Time

One More Time by Emily S. Morris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lucy is a professor at a small town university, on track for tenure. She is in Las Vegas for her daughter's week-long wedding extravaganza. Lucy's first ex-husband (yep, there are three) is a hedge fund millionaire who has bankrolled the entire wedding - hence why Lucy and her daughter (and most of the guests) are staying in a super high-end Vegas hotel in the sort of suite usually only for the mega rich. Despite the money being thrown at the party and the hiring of a wedding planner, Lucy is juggling willy toys and trying to find her room key when she literally bumps into Nicky Broome, lead singer of global rock band Super, who also happens to be her high school crush, who ghosted her after one incredible night together. Despite it being 28 years since they last spoke, and there is a 'thing' about that, Nicky and Lucy immediately recognise each other and are just as madly in love/lust as they were when they were teenagers.

Cue lots of flashbacks to discover how Lucy and Nicky broke up and the big secret they are keeping. There is some good stuff about the 1990s (mixtapes and the like) and also a lot of references to music/musicians - which may or may not appeal to readers.

Lucy has a sassy straight-talking BFF (since high school) who likes to give her advice at every opportunity, and her daughter isn't averse to putting Lucy into awkward situations eg inviting all three ex-husbands to be at the wedding!

Nicky didn't really get any character, he was a bit of a cardboard cut-out and because of that, of course he can't have any personal growth or change of heart it all has to come from Lucy. There is a reason why Lucy has three ex-husbands but it gave me the ick. Overall, I think there were lots of things that only seemed to be in the book to make a scene/plot device work rather than being integral to the plot (eg Lucy's ex-husband being so rich).

I found my biggest bugbear with this book was it wasn't really sure what it wanted to be. The cover gave off Annabel Monaghan vibes, but Lucy wasn't like one of her heroines. It sort of went down a 1990s music nostalgia route, like Nick Hornby, then dropped it. It wasn't spicy or sweet enough to fall into one category or another. There was a lot of personality dissection as if it were women's fiction, but then it had the rockstar romance in Vegas rom-com vibe.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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