Release & Review - Not in My Wildest Dreams (McKenna #2) by Jamie Hollins

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Not In My Wildest Dreams
(McKenna Series #2)

Author: Jamie Hollins

Publication Date: February 7th, 2017
Category/Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

It really sucks to be in love with someone who sees you as nothing more than a friend. Darcy Owens knows this from personal experience. From the moment she met Sean McKenna as a shy ten-year-old, he’s owned her heart. So when he asks for her help with an important construction project, she can’t say no.

Building a boutique hotel on Boston’s waterfront is a career-making opportunity, and Sean needs Darcy’s interior design expertise. She’s incredibly talented, and there is no one he trusts more. He knows he can always count on his childhood friend, but doesn’t know why he’s thinking about her tight skirts and blue eyes instead of tight deadlines and blueprints.

When Sean and Darcy’s excitement about their work turns into an entirely different kind of excitement, it’s a sexy surprise. But they soon realize that building a new relationship is more challenging than building a new hotel, especially when life-long habits and old insecurities create cracks in the foundation.

Goodreads

Buy Link: Amazon 

3.5 "Realistic best friend romance" Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you!

Warning #1: Due to the holiday season and the lack of Internet access, I’m keeping my reviews short & sweet. Back to the normal speed next year. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, guys!

I didn’t realize this until much later, but Not in my wildest dreams is the second book in a romance series. Like most cases, it stands alone, but I did catch myself wondering more about the couple from the previous book (fans of the first story will be happy to know they’re featured in this one often) than the two people getting together in this story.

That’s not to say that Not in my wildest dreams wasn’t a good book. It was. But having read so many contemporary romances, and some really good ones about best friends falling in love, I have to say this read lacked a bit of chemistry.

Here’s a list of what I liked and what I didn’t about Not in my wildest dreams:

Positives: This was one of the most realistic stories about best friends falling in love I’ve read. Not only their friendship felt real— as people who knew each other since forever and had a good friendship, but didn’t walk around each other half naked or lay down together and stuff, because really, who has that kind of male friends? I’m not saying it’s impossible (I’m sure there are friends like that out there), but I don’t know many people who act like that. Their romantic relationship was also very realistic. They had normal-people problems, and that was a plus because it made it easier to relate to them as individuals and a couple. Same goes for the non-romantic plot. The whole deal with the hotel project was well-planned and interesting, and it made sense for the MC to be involved in it because of her relationship with the love interest. Like I mentioned before, the side characters intrigued me and made me want to learn more about them. I was especially interested in knowing more about the LI’s sister: the perfect human being who is clearly hiding a very unhappy life.

Could’ve been better: I would’ve liked the chemistry to have burned hotter, especially when in the LI’s POV. There were good romantic scenes between them, but it wasn’t angsty or sweet enough.

For a BFF to lovers story, what this book lacked on chemistry, it made up on realistic and relatable.

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.