Susan Mallery

The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery will be available May 31, 2022. Preorder your copy today!

The Boardwalk Bookshop

Kristen Claiborn

I used to have a secret love affair with romance novels. For some really idiotic reason I felt like I needed to keep it to myself. Like I was somehow less of an intelligent person because I love to read romance. I can tell you now that it’s a load of bullshit. Once I got to a certain point in my life, I read exclusively for pleasure, and since I enjoy romance so much, I decided keeping it to myself was really just denying myself that inner peace we all strive for. I have quite a few books I have imposed on myself as “need to read,” when I get to the romance books on that list, I come pretty close to jumping for joy (at my age and, *ahem* body shape, jumping really isn’t a good idea). 
	For my faithful followers (or follower, thanks Jeremy), you all know that I love Susan Mallery. It is largely her that pushed me into this book reviewing journey. Becoming part of her review crew completely changed my life. Because of that, I almost always default to five stars for her books. I love to read them, I love how easy they are to follow, how they flow seamlessly. It’s also nice that her books frequently focus on relationships that aren’t always romantic. This one is about the bond of friendship between (amongst?) three friends. These women lift each other and help each other out across all aspects of their lives. I loved how Mallery dug into relationships with parents and in-laws in this book. 
	Ashley was absolutely right to stick to her guns about marriage, although some of her reasoning was a bit flawed. She mentioned potentially having kids and them being confused if the parents aren’t married to each other. That’s really not a thing…millions of kids have unmarried parents (at least to each other), and they are fine. Bree’s emotional constipation was justified yet frustrating. Then there’s Mikki. Mikki jumped into dating with a gentleman she knew in passing, Duane, the father of a child that had gone to school with her kids at one point. From the first date, I found Duane to be completely cringey. His topics of conversation seemed to be focused on how sexy he found Mikki. Don’t get me wrong, as a middle-aged fat woman, I know how nice it is to hear that. But that was ALL he talked about (at least it felt like that anyway), and it just seemed to border on inappropriate. Duane just seemed sleezy. So by the end of the book, I was so disappointed that Mikki made the decisions she did. That would be why this book only got four stars. Duane was icky.

Overall a nice read that I'm glad I experienced. I enjoyed following the stories of the three friends as they grew as people and friends and overcame their personal and relationship struggles together. 

The two main reasons I gave this one 3.5 stars instead of 4:

- the naming and constant mentioning of the sex toy. over. and over. and over. It got old and I didn't think it was funny.

- some parts felt redundant. I found myself thinking, "Okay, I get it. She doesn't trust. Time for something to actually happen." I understand that's not always how personal growth works but it felt like I was reading the same thing a few too many times. 

Glad I read it! Would recommend to a friend who reads the genre and is looking for a fresh read but not the first thing I'd recommend to someone newly exploring the genre.

Joelle Kern

Overall a nice read that I'm glad I experienced. I enjoyed following the stories of the three friends as they grew as people and friends and overcame their personal and relationship struggles together. 

The two main reasons I gave this one 3.5 stars instead of 4:
- the naming and constant mentioning of the sex toy. over. and over. and over. It got old and I didn't think it was funny.
- some parts felt redundant. I found myself thinking, "Okay, I get it. She doesn't trust. Time for something to actually happen." I understand that's not always how personal growth works but it felt like I was reading the same thing a few too many times. 

Glad I read it! Would recommend to a friend who reads the genre and is looking for a fresh read but not the first thing I'd recommend to someone newly exploring the genre.

The Boardwalk Bookshop

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