Friday, March 25, 2016

Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Beth K. Vogt

        Paramedic Vanessa Hollister has put her adolescence behind her, including the unwanted label of being the new kid in town over and over again, thanks to her father’s military career. She’s overcome what her mother called “the biggest mistake of her life” and is planning an elegant destination wedding in Destin, Florida, with her new fiancé. But will the reappearance of her first husband from her what-were-you-thinking teenage elopement disrupt her dream of an idyllic beach wedding?
        As a professional storm chaser, Logan Hollister is used to taking risks. However, a reckless decision during the last tornado season has him questioning the future of his team, the Stormmeisters. Coming face to face with his ex-wife eight years after their divorce compels him to confront his greatest regret: losing Vanessa. Does their past give him the right to interfere with her future?

        A fast-moving, powerful hurricane throws Vanessa and Logan together as they evacuate to a storm shelter along with other residents of the Florida Gulf Coast. Forced to spend time together, the pair battles unexpected renewed feelings for each other.
        Vanessa and Logan are faced with a choice: should they accept, once and for all, their teenage marital mistake? Or is God offering them a second chance at happily ever after?


        Crazy Little Thing Called Love is the first book in Beth K. Vogt’s Destination Wedding series, and was also the first novel I had ever read by her. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect going in, but the storyline sounded like something I would enjoy, so I was pretty excited to read this book. However, it didn’t exactly live up to all of my expectations. Although it was a sweet story with interesting twists and turns, some of it felt a little forced, and some of the conversations were a bit stilted. I did still like this story and the characters but unfortunately, I just didn’t love it.
        I felt for Vanessa Hollister throughout the entire course of this book. She suffered so much from the constant moving she faced as a child, from her lack of long-term relationships, and from the mistakes she and Logan made back when they were first married. Now, eight years later as she’s moving on and getting married again, she still faces the same fears of being unable to connect with people, as she’s constantly expecting the relationships are just going to end. As someone who struggles with some of the issues with retaining long-term relationships, my heart hurt for Vanessa the whole time I read about her.
        Logan Hollister was a bit harder for me to relate to. Honestly, I was angry at him for a good amount of this book because of the way he just let Vanessa go. He wasn’t the husband he should have been to her all those years ago—now granted, she wasn’t the perfect wife either—but I really felt like he didn’t try half as hard as Vanessa did to make things work. He did grow on me eventually, however, and I was able to forgive him, maybe even a little sooner than Vanessa did. In his heart, he is a good guy, he just doesn’t always use his head when making decisions.
        All in all, this was a good book, but I just didn’t love it, and that gives me no choice but to award it only four out of five bookshelves. I did enjoy it, and I would definitely recommend it, there were just some stylistic things that as a writer, I just couldn’t get over. But, it still is a good story, and I’m still looking forward to reading more books in the series!
        Happy reading!


To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Beth K. Vogt and Howard Books.

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