Book Review: Home is Where You Are by Melissa Grace

Rating: ☆☆
Audience: Contemporary romance
Length: 328 pages
Author: Melissa Grace
Publisher: Self-published
Release Date: October 27th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Olivia Sinclair left her dreams of a music career behind, along with her hopes for love and a family. With her husband having left her for more fertile pastures, she’s content to focus her energy on her thriving bakery, a new home, and an ornery rescue cat named Mama. That is until Liv’s best friend drags her to a concert where she meets the handsome (and much younger) frontman of the popular band, Midnight in Dallas.

Jaxon Slade is looking for a little inspiration. Up against a deadline, his ability to write music has escaped him. But when he meets Liv backstage, all of that changes. Jax is instantly captivated by her witty sense of humor and effortlessly beautiful voice. As the two grow closer, he begins to see a future with Liv by his side. All he has to do is convince her that their connection is worth the risk.

But when Jax suggests taking their relationship to the stage as a duo, fame makes some of the most painful details of Liv’s past public, testing her belief in their relationship and herself. Liv must decide between being the woman the world and her ex told her she was, or choosing the woman she was always meant to be. Home Is Where You Are, the first in the Midnight In Dallas series, is a story of love, friendship, and the family we choose.

NO.

Yeah, I should have DNFed this. I acknowledge that choice. I kept thinking there’d be a turnaround. There was not.

First mistake, the instant, first chapter, all consuming, I’m in love with this person. I know this can be accomplished well, but here, there was absolutely NO ANGST. None. I wanted to feel something for these two, but being thrown into love within the first chapter annoyed me. I knew nothing about anyone before the entire plot was laid out. You knew exactly where things were going. I could have told you the plot (including “twists”) without reading more than the first chapter.

The initial issues ramped up the pronounced drama throughout. There’s some good moments in here about a few things, but that was the small good I found.

I didn’t like how some of the characters were portrayed either. A lot of it bugged me.

I think I’ll stop here. It’s enough.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary romance
Language: strong
Romance: kisses to closed door
Trigger/Content Warnings: discussion of infertility and a past miscarriage, growing up in foster care, a parent with a drug addiction, losing a spouse to cancer, losing a spouse to an accident, divorce