TW/CW: Cancer and Mental Illness

The best way for me to describe this is that it's okay. I didn't absolutely hate anything about it. I just didn't love anything about it either.

I liked Carter. I did think there was a bit "too much" going on with him. We have his farm, the fact that he's doing this interview with Summer, the new business he will be starting, his mom and her new love interest, his PTSD, his dealing with his brothers. While I'm all for a well-rounded character, I didn't feel that many of his stuff was fleshed out because there simply was so much of it. He was okay to read about, but I don't feel like we got to know him.

As for Summer, I liked her at first. Sadly, I found the same issue with Summer as I had with Carter. Just getting to know Blue Moon and its residents, and the conflict of her career would have been enough. The cancer storyline was just one too many thing on the list of Summer's character profile. I also thought the cancer storyline was handled poorly. I get that this is fiction, but I wasn't buying that Summer went through treatment for cancer, all while working an obscene amount of hours and attending the proper social engagements, and no one knew she was sick. And then she did the whole "I can't be with you because cancer" thing. Also the "I live in the city and my career is my life" thing. Again, it was just too many things.

I think this book suffers from the fact that with so many things, you don't have much of a focused plot. I can barely describe the actual plot. It's a bit everywhere. Carter is dealing with all of the things I mentioned above and the same can be said for Summer. They just don't really come together. It seems like two separate stories. The romance seems rushed. I would have liked to get to know both characters before they are just suddenly together. Obviously, the author has set up roadblocks as to Carter and Summer being together permanently (Summer's secret cancer, her job) but the problems just were kind of shoved away until the last part of the book. There was a whole section of the book where things just seemed stagnate.

On the plus side, I loved the side characters. Jackson, Joey, and Beckett were all way more interesting and entertaining than either Summer or Carter. Full disclosure: I'm writing this review after reading some of the other books in this series (both Beckett's and Jackson's books). This book wasn't the best of the ones I've read.

So, while this one wasn't really for me, I was interested enough in the series to continue on with it. I'm not sure I'd recommend this one, if you're looking for a book to read as a stand alone. However, I think if you're interested in other books in the series, this is still worth a read because it really does set up the other books well.