The Romanceaholic

Expected Release Date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Dutton
Author’s Website: http://juliegarwood.com/
My Source for This Book: Netgalley
Part of a Series: No
Steam Level: Steamy

Official Blurb:

Dr. Ellie Sullivan has just completed her residency at a large urban hospital. While jogging in a park nearby, she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of wanted criminals, a couple identified as the Landrys. The only person to see the shooter’s face, Ellie is suddenly at the center of a criminal investigation. Agent Max Daniels takes over the Landry case. A no-nonsense lawman, he’s definitely not the ideal man that Ellie has always imagined, yet she’s attracted to him in a way she can’t explain.

Ellie heads home to Winston Falls, South Carolina, to attend her sister’s wedding. Shortly after she arrives, though, she receives a surprise visitor: Max Daniels. The Landrys have been captured, and she’ll be called to testify. But they’ve been captured before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence-or disappear before they can take the stand. Max vows to be Ellie’s shadow until the trial, and it isn’t long before sparks fly.

**REVIEWER’S NOTE** This was an uncorrected advanced copy, so it’s possible that some details may be changed by the publication date.

I do believe that I am now officially a Julie Garwood fangirl. *nods decisively*

Ellie was a child prodigy, with a tortured past.  Intelligent beyond her years, she attracted a deranged stalker at the tender age of 11, making her life a living hell; multiple attacks, restraining orders, and finally being sent out of state to live with strangers in order to protect both her and her family has left a mark on her that no amount of education or professional success can erase.   When she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent, she’s suddenly thrust into danger yet again, despite the fact that she cannot make a positive identification.

Max bursts into her life as an FBI agent attached to the case, and the sparks fly between them. They both know that nothing can come of a relationship — she lives in the midwest while he lives in Hawaii — and yet neither can resist the other.   When she flies back to her childhood home for her sister’s wedding, she faces not only the threat of being silenced before she can take the witness stand, but also of having to face her childhood nemesis, the deranged stalker who has until that point dropped off the face of the earth.

What worked for me:

• Despite the fact that I would rate this book as “steamy” as opposed to “hot”, I have to say that the chemistry and UST between Ellie and Max was absolutely delicious.  I also enjoyed how they both tried to resist falling for the other, and yet were hopeless from the very start.
• I also enjoyed the family drama that unfolded with her sister’s wedding. The wedding that Ellie has flown home to attend is that of her sister Ava and her ex-fiancée – the same fiancée that Ava slept with the day after Ellie brought him home to meet the family. I wanted to smack Ava on so many occasions, and to be completely honest never warmed up to her even by the end of the novel, but I was still glad that eventually things seemed to work themselves out.

  SPOILER ALERT	SelectShow Spoiler
  Though, I’m spiteful and still wouldn’t have agreed to be in Ava’s wedding in the end lol
• I LOVED the small side romance for Ellie’s other sister, Annie.  At first I thought that there was the setup for a future novel, and was honestly a little disgruntled about the fact, but everything was resolved beautifully in the end, and I have to admit that made me a very happy woman.
• I enjoyed the suspenseful elements with both the stalker and the danger that the Landry’s posed, and loved how things weren’t always as resolved as they first seemed.

What didn’t work for me:

• I felt like the blurb was slightly misleading. It becomes clear very early on that Ellie can’t positively identify the Landry’s, and there’s no mention of her stalker, which took up quite a bit of the action of the novel. I do understand that blurbs are necessarily short, however, so I can forgive the publisher for this oversight, but it still felt slightly misrepresentative.

Overall, I absolutely adore it.  There was enough action to keep me on my toes, blended beautifully with just enough romance and steam to keep me intrigued.

The ending was also absolutely lovely. After reading the last line I literally said “awwww” and closed the book with a smile, and that more than anything is why I cheerfully give this book 5/5 Stars

You may also enjoy: