Call Me Maybe Book Review

Title: Call Me, Maybe

Author: Ellie Cahill

Genre: Romance, Fiction, Modern, Mainstream

Plot: Clementine Daly is the third child of four in the very wealthy Daly family. Raised by her grandparents while her parents traveled the world, Clementine is a total bookworm and now that college is all done, she's struggling to find her place in the family business. Or rather, businesses. Her grandfather is set on her finding a career that makes her happy, yet somehow connects to the powerful family foundation. So she accompanies her brother Honor to visit the building side of things in California. But a chance encounter at the airport with a charming blue eyed stranger winds up with a stressful tale of swapped phones for several days. When the mix-up is sorted out, Clementine and the handsome Justin agree to meet back up in their native Chicago to exchange phones.

Instead of dropping the issue, they begin to text and call, getting to know each other in a comfortable long distance way till they can finally meet up again in person. And when they do, oh how the sparks fly! There's just one tiny problem; Justin doesn't know Clementine's real last name or her family connections. And she's been burned once too many times to trip up and make the same mistake twice, right?

Likes/Dislikes: Scrolling through the titles on NetGalley can be almost as addicting as scrolling through the vast array of books on GoodReads, the library shelves or my ever growing Amazon wish list. And coming across a new title is always exciting and filled with just a little bit of wonder and intrigue. Will I like this book? Will the characters be people I can relate to? How did I end up in the romance section anyway? Often I will stick with tried and true favorites - authors, publishers and genres. But once in awhile, I'll dip my toe into a neighboring pool and see if I like it. Sadly, this book is a reminder of why I tend to skip mainstream secular romance. With a intriguing opening plot gambit, this dainty looking sweet morsels lure you in, promising an exciting well written story with plenty of passion and blissful romance, and then, somewhere about halfway through {for in this case, about chapter eight or so}, the sweet coating wears off and you're left with increasingly stupid characters sinking into a vanishing plot. I was really rooting for Clementine at first; she had an interesting name and loved books. The whole bit about the books was so great! Why couldn't there have been more books bits? But then she had to go and get all repetitive and just, well, dumb. And Justin, while not my cup of masculine tea at blonde, had real potential and probably was the best part of the book overall, but he was a total guy and just didn't play well as the hero. On top of the weak plot, there were over a dozen F bombs dropped, s**t was mentioned almost as much and the Lord's name was used very frequently as an exclamation of shock or surprise way too often for my tastes. Mentally censoring this book became a drag. There were about four or five sex scenes, detailing heavily on the foreplay end of things and then just skimming everything else. I'm not really sure why I was surprised to find the ex scenes in a romance, but I was surprised at how dispassionately they were written. Overall, a good try but not my cup of tea.

Rating: PG-18 and up, mature readers only.

Date Review Written: November 20th, 2015

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I wasn't required to write a positive review and the opinions expressed in the above review are my own.