Jaime Clevenger

When a little rest and relaxation turns into something more... Julia Maguire can't wait to spend two weeks in Hawaii with her best friends. She's been dreaming about this trip for years and all she wants is to lay on a sandy beach with an icy cocktail in her hand. But those vacation goals change the moment she meets Reed Baxter. Reed is a busy doctor with family demands. She's in Hawaii to let go, not find love, and she's not interested in any commitment. Adding a little heat to the vacation seems like a good idea as long as there aren't expectations for anything more.

A Paradise Romance

Three Reasons to Say Yes

Lucia Correa

4 Stars for a romance with a few bumps in the road.

Julia Maguire and her two best friends, Mo and Kate go on the 2 week vacation to Hawaii that they had promised themselves in college to take before anyone got married. Julia hadn't taken a vacation in 5 years from her high stress job and with Kate engaged, it was now or never. 

On the plane, Julia meets Reed Baxter, MD and her twin 4yo daughters, Bryn and Carly. As luck will have it they are all staying at the same resort. As bad luck will have it, Julia badly sprains her ankle and Reed applies first aid. Julia is sidelined from joining Mo and Kate on their planned outings such as surfing. Julia ends up spending more time with Reed and the girls than with her friends. Neither Julia nor Reed are looking for a relationship but agree on friends with benefits while in Hawaii. They didn't count on their growing friendship and Julia becoming attached to the twins and vice versa.

Clevenger did a great job with all the side characters, Mo, Kate, Bryn and Carly. Each had their own stories and distinct personalities. Bryn & Carly fight and play together with the same intensity. As I was reading it, I thought it was a bit much. But then I remembered my cousin's two boys. Not twins but ruff and tumble brothers (4 & 8yrs). They were visiting and the youngest runs in tears, Mom! Aiden hit me in the stomach! Mom: "Well, let me see, lift up your shirt. Are your guts falling out?" "No." "Then you are fine, so go play with your brother and cousins." "OK" And off he went. All better. I finally was able to let out a laugh when he ran off. So anyway.... Mo and Kate are also really well drawn with their own storylines but it doesn't detract from the main story.

We see a new friendship being formed that gets complicated when the vacation ends. There is enough drama, angst, sex and friends who mean well to make it a really good romance. I hope there will be a sequel. 

One more thing - what bugs me are continuity errors. Julia shows up with an ankle brace. After she insisted on a wrap only. Where did she get the brace?

When a little rest and relaxation turns into something more… Julia Maguire can’t wait to spend two weeks in Hawaii with her best friends. She’s been dreaming about this trip for years and all she wants is to lay on a sandy beach with an icy cocktail in her hand. But those vacation goals change the moment she meets Reed Baxter. Reed is a busy doctor with family demands. She’s in Hawaii to let go, not find love, and she’s not interested in any commitment. Adding a little heat to the vacation seems like a good idea as long as there aren’t expectations for anything more.

Jude Silberfeld

I’ve read a few Clevenger books and while not mind-blowing, they were all pretty good. For some reason I had missed this one but I saw the sequel was coming out so added it to the top of my list.

On her way to Hawaii with her two best friends, Julia meets Reed, a very sexy butch who also happens to be a mom to four-year-old twins. Neither Reed nor Julia is the fling type but the attraction is too strong to fight and they agree on casual sex during their vacation, then keep going afterwards. The no commitment thing quickly fails with neither woman ready to admit to it. Julia falls for Reed’s kids as much as for her, which only complicates things. Add to that the fact that Julia is convinced she’s the worst lover ever until Reed proves her wrong…

I’ve said it before, I’m always wary of kids in romance novels. More often than not, they’re written as mini adults, more annoying than cute. That is not the case here at all. They play a real part in the story, and it’s also a welcome change for their mother to be so unapologetically butch. Both little girls have very different, very endearing and very believable personalities. They’re silly and sweet and noisy. They’re also a good example of Jaime Clevenger’s talent with secondary characters. Julia’s best friends are another. Kate thinks she’s straight and is engaged to a man her friends dislike. Mo likes to believe she’s better off being single yet she’s engaged to her current girlfriend, whom her friends dislike just as much. There’s something going on between Kate and Mo that they don’t want to acknowledge. Luckily for us, the sequel, All the Reasons I Need, is about them and I can’t wait to get to it.

Megan Cooper

From the cover and the blurb, you may be expecting that Three Reasons to Say Yes will be a light and airy vacation fling story but it goes beyond the initial set up to weave a more in-depth romance. This is a great read – just the right enough amount of sun, sand, humor, chemistry, real life and likable characters to suck you right into Julia and Reed’s story.

The relationships that Clevenger builds stand out – they are real and authentic and you are able to easily connect with both the primary characters of Julia and Reed as well as with Mo, Kate and the kids. The deep connection between Julia, Mo and Kate is wonderfully demonstrated on the plane where they joke, tease and snipe but there’s an obvious great love between them, but they still annoy and have their foibles which they all accept. There’s also a great subplot that focuses on Mo and Kate – their friendship is obvious, but there’s a level of tension there that simmers nicely in the background, setting things up for the next book in the series. This subplot is subtle and provides a bit of realism that, although they are the main characters, stuff is happening outside of Julia and Reed.

This isn’t a slow burn, but is also not an insta-love. I think its more of a “get your head out of your ass and make it work” kind of romance. 🙂 Reed is a bit of a mystery at first – nerdy buff butch with twins, she is a nice bit of eye candy for Julia. Although things start as a fling, it’s obvious that neither one of them is comfortable with the idea but at the same time, the attraction is there. There’s a nice build up and definitely chemistry, but even more apparent is the level of comfort they have with one another – spending time with one another and with the kids. They are kind of perfect for each other – which becomes more apparent as the story progresses – if only Reed could get her head out of her ass and get out of her own way.

Once the vacation is over, they try the friends with benefits route and you can see the bonds growing deeper despite their insistence that this is not a dating thing. Although Julia seems to be more willing to try for more in the relationship, Reed is cautious – her focus and attention is primarily on the kids, and her utter devotion to them leaves her very little left for a romantic relationship. It’s interesting to see that Julia, who’s self-confidence was pretty much null due to some rather shitty exes telling her what a crappy partner she was , is the more self-aware one in the pairing. She feels herself getting more invested in Reed and the kids and pulls herself back in order to protect herself, but still tries to reach beyond Reed’s fierce and stubborn insistence on shouldering all her responsibilities alone. Reed seems to accept the chaos and mess that twins bring to life, she has an underlying need for control and order and she seems to struggle with wanting more with Julia but at the same time establishing an artificial distance. It’s a interesting dynamic and level of melodrama, but it is not overwrought – just more of a realistic portrayal of two people trying to figure out how to make things work.

I must say that Reed’s children, Bryn and Carly, are probably the most realistic children I’ve come across in a lesfic romance. They are cute as hell – but are also little Tasmanian devils, especially Bryn. They are running, fighting, screaming, giggling and cuddling fools and at times I couldn’t figure out why Julia didn’t run during Bryn’s many meltdowns. But even in that, the obvious love, patience and just pure joy that Reed demonstrates with them solidifies her character. She’s obviously devoted parent that manages to wrangle and control two messy chaos demons on her own, and they truly are the complete focus of her life. Cute factor – yes. Would I run in the opposite direction if I met them – yes. 🙂

Three Reasons to Say Yes is a lovely romance that is more than what you would expect – funny, sweet, romantic with some really great characters.

Recommended

Three Reasons to Say Yes A Paradise Romance

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