It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
by Kylie Scott
Release Date:  June 11, 2018
Publisher:  independently published
Standalone
Number of Pages:  287
paperback
Source:  Melcat
Contemporary Romance M/F
Rating:  XXX
Read 5/9/19 to 5/10/19

 

Returning home for her father’s wedding was never going to be easy for Adele. If being sent away at eighteen hadn’t been bad enough, the mess she left behind when she made a pass at her dad’s business partner sure was.

Fifteen years older than her, Pete had been her crush for as long as she could remember. But she’d misread the situation—confusing friendliness for undying love. Awkward. Add her father to the misunderstanding, and Pete had been left with a broken nose and a business on the edge of ruin. The man had to be just as glad as everyone else when she left town.

Seven years on, things are different. Adele is no longer a kid, but a fully grown adult more than capable of getting through the wedding and being polite. But all it takes is seeing him again to bring back all those old feelings.

Sometimes first loves are the truest.

Although I know that the author, Kylie Scott, is Autralian, all the books I’ve read by her have taken place in the United States.  It was interesting to read a story in a country I’ve always wanted to visit. 

This story didn’t go quite how I had thought it would, but I wasn’t disappointed.  There was a definite trajectory this book had to take and the author took it there, and then some.  I didn’t know whether to feel bad for Pete for the situation he was put in, or feel sympathy for Adele for the humiliation she felt from her past declarations to Pete.

The age difference between Pete and Adele could have ended up creepy because of her age when they first met.  Yet, because the author kept this narrative from Adele’s perspective, it never crossed that line.  For all intents and purposes, Pete really did keep things on the up and up with Adele in the past.  She was a very good friend and confidant to him, but his feeling for her never seemed to pass over into the inappropriate area.  Of course, the friendship Adele and Pete forged was viewed quite differently through the eyes of a teenage girl.

I didn’t get the same amount of warm-fuzzies as I usually get from this author.  They popped up here and there, but Pete’s idiocy and treatment of Adele at times kept me from going all in.  I’m not really saying that’s a bad thing though.  The story was tough and real and was more angsty than butterflies and flowers, so it seems fitting I wasn’t a ball of warm-fuzzies throughout.

There are quite a few fun little exchanges this couple has.  Adele has a lot of sass and she made me laugh.  Toward the end of the book there is a Harry Potter conversation that will make me love Adele forever.

4 stars