Beyond the Book: Review

Blurb:

Faye Taylor grew up in the world of Thoroughbred horse racing, though she’s afraid of the animals herself. She stays in the background, balancing the cost of feed against the horses’ earnings (or lack thereof) and couldn’t handicap a race to save her life. It’s provided her with a home, albeit not the most stable one, and a steady supply of non-relationships — just the kind she likes.

Now she’s trying to get over the jockey she made the mistake of falling for, she’s losing her biggest client, and possibly her best friend — and the Thoroughbred farm she and her brother inherited isn’t having a stellar year. The racing world that’s given her the life she’s come to know is looking even less stable than usual.

When the opportunity to take over a local café presents itself, Faye sees a chance to start something new. Then along comes Will Callaghan, a complete outsider to the racing game. He’s both too tall and too nice — but he’ll make a fine reset button for the disaster that is currently her life. While she clues him into her strange world, he starts breaking off pieces of the shield she’s created to protect herself from her past.

Faye is sure she can keep Will where she wants him. She’ll enjoy his part-time band, his part-time cat, and his baking skills might come in handy at the café. She’s not looking to get attached. But all the little things are starting to add up into something more.

♥ Bonus — includes recipes for Butter Tarts and Butter Tart Squares, because that kind of Canadian goodness needs to be shared. ♥

My Review:

Things I liked:

1.The cover is cute.

2.The book seems well written.

3. Supporting characters add some depth to the story.

Things I didn’t like

1.The heroine.

I know that Faye had a lot of trauma in her life.She lost most of her family in a tragic accident that wounded her deeply and affected her subsequent behavior. At the book’s opening she is heart broken because she’d let a jockey get past her defenses and started to care for him. Then her best friend stole him away from her. Faye decided that she had been right to have only light, superficial romances in her life. She finds a lot of them too. When she goes to the track she decides which jockey will be her one or two night stand. Then she chooses another man. I’m sorry but her behavior isn’t pleasing to me, and I really don’t like her. By the end of the book we see evidence that her attitudes are changing as she is falling for another man. By looking at the good reviews on the book some people had no trouble with her behavior so maybe they saw something in Faye that I missed.

What about you? Would you read a book without liking either the hero or heroine?