The River House by Carla Neggers

Title: The River House
Author: Carla Neggers
Series: #8 in the Swift River Valley series
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: MIRA (April 1, 2018)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ☕1/2

Synopsis: Felicity MacGregor loves organizing social events for others, but her own personal life is a different story. After a brief but failed attempt at a career as a financial analyst, she returned to Knights Bridge, where she enjoys running a thriving party-planning business. Then Felicity's life gets a shake-up when her childhood friend Gabriel Flanagan returns unexpectedly to their tiny hometown. Now a high-flying businessman, Gabe always vowed to get out of Knights Bridge, but he is back for the local entrepreneurial boot camp Felicity's been hired to organize. Together again, they'll finally have to face each other--and their complicated past. Gabe and Felicity soon realize their reunion is stirring up long-buried emotions. While Gabe has big plans for his future, Felicity is discovering that hers doesn't depend on fate--she must choose what's right for her. But if they can find a bridge between their diverging paths, they may just discover that their enduring connection is what matters most.

My Thoughts: OMGoodness! I normally love a good small town romance. Unfortunately, I just couldn't like this one.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: I normally like to start my book reviews with the good I found in the books I read. Unfortunately, I really don't have anything good about my experience regarding this book.

What I didn't like about this book was the first 25% of the book was a recap of who each of the enormous cast of characters. Their background. Who they are married to. Their happiness or problems they may have  had. So and so separated for a short time (I learned this tidbit twice). Even after Felicity and Gabe came together in the present we spent an even greater amount of time recapping their past. They used to go to the swimming hole. They used to hang out on the campsite sitting by the fire. They used to be best friends. Now you'd think they would have had a falling out over something significant but what it actually was about was Gabe giving Felicity unwanted advice about her career choice. Yep. That's it. He didn't cheat on her. She didn't use him to make a boyfriend jealous or do something super bad to make him hate her. Also, this was actually only 3 years ago so it makes it hard to believe they have grown up so much at this time.

The conversations between Gabe and Felicity are boring and pretty much just rehashing their past. As a matter of fact all the dialogue in this book is boring. There was a woman thrown into the story to add as potential conflict but that was only half realized and just weird.

One last thing...all the women in this story are purportedly strong and independent women. Yet all the men are the high powered educated millionaires. In one case one man is a multi-billionaire. Gabe just sold his start up company. I still have no idea what he does but he's a millionaire and his official title is (actually unofficial as this is my take on him) is start up company entrepreneurial. So, the women...one is a party planner, one is a caterer, one is children's author, one is an innkeeper, one is an ex-librarian, and one is the current librarian. None of these are shabby careers by any means but I find it grating the men in this book are all high powered ultra-rich CEOs. Why aren't any of the women architects or owners of the security firms?

In a Nutshell: I really thought this book was tedious. I couldn't wait for it to end. I'm sad this was my take on it because I really wanted to like it. I just couldn't.