Friday, October 25, 2013

Three Little Words by Susan Mallery

Synopsis: Isabel Beebe thinks she's cursed in the romance department. Her teenage crush, Ford Hendrix, ignored all her letters. Her husband left her for another…man. So Isabel has come home to dust off her passion for fashion and run the family bridal shop until her parents are ready to sell it. Then she'll pursue her real dreams. At least, that's the plan, until sexy, charming Ford returns and leaves her feeling fourteen all over again…..
Seeing Isabel all grown-up hits bodyguard trainer Ford like a sucker punch. Back when heartbreak made him join the military, her sweet letters kept him sane. Now he can't take his eyes—or his lips—off her. The man who gave up on love has a reason to stay in Fool's Gold forever—if three little words can convince Isabel to do the same.

My Thoughts: After finding Just One Kiss just OK and Two of a Kind a little bit better than that I had high hopes for Three Little Words. Despite that some of the books in Mallery's Fool's Gold series are simply average contemporary romances I found this one to be better than most. Matter of fact, I thought she hit this one out of the park.

What Worked: The characters of Ford and Isabel. Ford's charming sense of humor coupled with Isabel's awkwardness around him make for interesting dynamics and some giggling on my part. Their combustable sexual attraction didn't hurt either. I thought it was great that they both were a bit stunned by it rather than the expected reaction of her being stunned and him getting all cocky saying "of course it's good. I'm the man! High Five!"

Although the plot is basic in it's concept it was nice to read a book where what you see is what you get. There were no uber bad guys threatening children. There were no life threatening illnesses to deal with. The only issues were those between adults who agree to 'fake-date' to throw off a marriage happy mama who find that they were actually 'real-dating' instead.

The setting is also a plus. In the past I have felt that Fool's Gold had a bit of a creepy vibe (Standford Wives kind of creepy) but in this book I felt none of that. Even the ever present and all seeing Mayor Masha seemed less...um...everywhere which was a good thing.

What Didn't Work: Just a few very minor things actually. First would be the secondary romance. I typically love a secondary romance but really, Consuelo is such a strong woman with a lot of background baggage adding her romance as a secondary one is short changing her. Her story should have been more than what it was.

In addition, some may find it a bit weird to have Ford date one sister then eventually date the other. I honestly didn't have an issue with this. I thought Susan handled the situation very well.

One more thing. I do think that a new reader to Fool's Gold may have trouble following along with all the secondary characters. There are quite a few. Some are old having been introduced ages ago and some are actually quite new. This is the only reason I would recommend that this book should get read in order. If you aren't inclined to read all 11 previous Fool's Gold books first at least read Just One Kiss and Two of a Kind first. Susan sets her books up as trilogies with a common connecting theme (the town of Fool's Gold).

In a Nutshell: I truly enjoyed this book. From the witty banter to the smexy parts and everything in between I thought this was a winner of a book. Perhaps not for everyone, as it is a pretty basic concept of a romance but for me it worked.
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