Review: California Summer by Anita Hughes

California Summer

by Anita Hughes

Publisher: St Martin's

Pages: 304

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Ben and Rosie are Hollywood’s newest director/producer dream team. After hitting it big at Sundance, it seems that their ten years of love and hard work are finally paying off. Rosie is happy making independent films, but Ben wants the A-List celebrity package: a house in Beverly Hills, fancy cars in the driveway, and his name on the biggest blockbusters. He’s willing to do anything, even sleep with the most famous producer in town, to get them.

Rosie is devastated by Ben’s affair, and she decides to take a break from show business. She accepts her best friend's invitation to spend the summer at her parents' estate in Montecito. It's far away from L.A., the perfect place to start over.

In Montecito, Rosie meets a colorful cast of characters including Rachel, who owns a chocolate store, and Josh, a handsome local who splits his time between surfing and classic cars. Suddenly Rosie has new friends and a new purpose. She starts a business in the village, and her luck seems to be turning around. But Rosie knows all too well that success comes with a price, and the price might be losing love...again.

Kritters Thoughts:  To start let me say that I have a history with Anita Hughes books.  I either absolutely love them or really dislike them, there is no middle with me and her books.  I read the synopsis really close before I accept a Anita Hughes book for review and this synopsis sounded so so good.  I was so excited to read this, but my experience went downhill with each page.  

I loved the premise of Rosie escaping Hollywood and the fallout of a relationship for a small California town and trying to rebuild herself.  And the bits of the book that centered around Rosie working on herself and rebuilding her life were so fantastic.

It is the bits that were around Rosie and Josh that were beyond frustrating.  Maybe it is my own personal preference in men, but reading a man that runs after ever disagreement bothered the heck out of me.  I just couldn't see him as this manly man that Rosie could fall in love with AND with that they went from chatting and getting to know each other to in love and Rosie talking marriage WAY too fast for me.  The term instalove is used in YA fiction and I would have used it with this book, it was like relationship whiplash!  

But even after not loving this Anita Hughes, I still have hope for the next book with this author.    


Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 51 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from St Martin's Press.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.