Name: Add Romance and Mix: A Garriety Romance
ISBN: 9781948232067

Shannon M. Harris

Briley Anderson hasn't been in a serious relationship for the past two years. Leah Daniels is a divorced mother of two and a grandmother at the age of forty-nine. Love was the last thing she was looking for, especially with a woman sixteen years her junior.

Add Romance and Mix: A Garriety Romance

Lucia Correa

3 Stars. It looks like most readers liked the book more than me - so your mileage may vary.

This is a love story between two neighbors. There is 34 yr old Briley, single, a house flipper and a talented home baker and 50 yr old Leah, a writer and mom of 16yr Evan, 24 yr old Madison who has 2 kids of 3 and 2 yrs old. Leah is divorced and her ex-wife, Kathy who remarried and has a 2 yr old daughter, Griffin. The other main character is Briley's older sister Kat who recently quit her job and moved in with Briley while she figures out what to do next.

So why "only" 3 Stars? (average on my scale). Overall the writing itself is well done, but I just didn't feel any chemistry between the two leads. Zip, nadda, zilch, nothing. Try as I might, I can't put into words why I felt this way. It is written via Briley's POV, which may have been the problem? You get that Leah is attracted to Briley, but at first she feels too old for Briley and she comes with kids and grandkids. But it really wasn't too much of an issue. To me Leah was a mystery too. She said she was a freelance writer for top notch magazines, traveling around the world (a travel writer??). But she cut down traveling when Evan was born. So she hasn't written much in 16 yrs?

Also, except for Briley and Kat (who was my favorite character), you really don't get to know any of the other characters. We never meet Madison. Evan we know a little bit, but he doesn't show up until the last third or so of the book and he seems much older than 16. Granted because of circumstances he had to grow up quickly and he did. Kat becomes a confidant and mentor to Evan and she doesn't reveal what they talk about. So another mystery of how Evan is coping and who he is. It might had been better if he bonded with Briley so we could get to know him better?

Ok, I am also comparing this book to two of my all time favorite books which are Lynn Galli's Mending Defects and Georgia Beer's Starting from Scratch. Both feature neighbors falling in love and one of the MCs in both are avid bakers. So Add Romance doesn't compare in my opinion. Which basically how I rate books - how does it compare to other books I've read?

Add Romance and Mix: A Garriety Romance

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