Name: Olivia's Awakening
ISBN: 9781635556131

Ronica Black

When the daring and dangerously gorgeous Eve Monroe is hired to get Olivia Savage into shape, a fierce passion ignites, causing both to question everything they've ever known about love.

Olivia's Awakening

Lucia Correa

3 Stars for Ronica Black’s Olivia’s Awakening

I requested this book from NetGalley because it reminded me of one of my all time favorite short stories, Learning to Ride by Fletcher DeLancey (found in Ylva’s anthology,Spread the Love). In Black’s novel, after a divorce, Olivia Savage decides to get in shape starting with walk/run up a mountain trail. She makes it to the top but sprains her knee and over exerts herself. At the top she meets fitness trainer, Eve Monroe who helps her recover and get back down the mountain. Eventually, Olivia hires Eve to train her. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as DeLancey’s short story. In DeLancey’s story, Dana buys a used bike and begins to ride a popular route for local cyclists. She first sees Morgan, or rather she sees a blue blur race by and hears a woman’s voice yelling a greeting. The next time she sees Morgan she almost crashes into her, not knowing that “On your left!” means to veer right and instead she veers left almost wiping out Morgan. The story ends when they are in their 70s and planning their 1500th ride together. What I liked about the story is Dana’s slow but determined progression to fitness. She does much of it on her own because Morgan is a faster biker but would slow down or stop to give advice and encouragement.

What I didn’t like about this book is the Insta-Love/Lust between Olivia and Eve. At their first meeting when Eve helped Olivia down the mountain, both fall instantly in love with the other. Normally, instalove doesn’t bother me, but this one did. Maybe because I didn’t feel it. The second thing that bothered me was that although Olivia had a number of serious issues to deal with (i.e. verbally abusive ex-husband, judgmental parents and body image issues) - in other ways she was a superwoman. After her divorce, she went back to school and with a photographic memory, she is cruising through her college classes. Really, photographic memory? She also was naturally strong. When she takes up Eve’s offer to train her, Eve is astonished at Olivia’s natural strength. She had to keep upping the weights on various exercises before Olivia could feel the burn. At one point Olivia was doing one exercise using the same weight that Eve normally uses. Really? And finally, Olivia had completely forgotten a very significant childhood event. Really?

What I did like is Olivia and Eve’s best friends. There is Olivia’s gay and fellow student, Jake. They meet every Monday afternoon for coffee, conversation and advice. Jake tells Olivia that she is the most clueless smart person he knows and with absolutely no common sense. And Eve’s longtime client and bestie, Karen. Karen who knows Eve too well and doesn’t hold back with advice and admonishments. I just wish the two friends met each other. Actually, I would have liked to have seen when Jake met Eve and Karen met Olivia.

Oh well. It appears that a number of readers enjoyed this story more than me. So as always, your mileage may vary.

 An ARC was given to me by Bold Strokes books and Netgalley for an honest review.

Megan Cooper

This one was a miss for me. I had a hard time connecting with either of the characters in the book and the pacing seemed to lag. I could sympathize with Olivia as she began to rebuild/reclaim herself, but the situation with her husband/family just seemed too black and white and too angsty.

Olivia's Awakening

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