Series: 1st installment in a the Roman Holiday serial
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 11, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | ARe*
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission for purchases made through these links.
Blurb from goodreads:
Meet Ashley and Roman—complete opposites who can’t hide their attraction—in Episode 1 of Ruthie Knox’s eBook original serial, Roman Holiday.
Ashley Bowman is having a bad week. Reeling from the death of her beloved grandmother, she returns to the Florida Keys only to learn that a heartless Miami developer has gotten hold of the crappy vacation rentals she calls home. Ashley has one day to clear out before Roman Díaz destroys the only place in the world that matters to her. Chaining herself to a palm tree in the bulldozers’ path seems like a good way to stop him . . . until she realizes she should’ve brought food and water. And pants. Also, it would help if the evil developer weren’t so ridiculously hot.
The last thing Roman Díaz needs is some sun-kissed blond protester getting her picture in the newspaper and messing up his plans. He bought the property fair and square, and the resort he wants to build on the site is the key to realizing his highest ambitions. But when a hurricane blows through, Roman has to hustle Ashley to safety if he wants to protect his reputation—and that means giving in to her unreasonable demands.
Roman needs to learn a little compassion, and Ashley’s decided to teach it to him . . . even if she has to drag him all over the Eastern Seaboard to do it.
Bea's Thoughts:
If you like stories where opposites attract, this is your book. Ashley is emotional, impulsive, loyal, and carefree while Roman is controlled, uptight, organized and following a plan. When Ashley's grandmother
dies, she's crushed and it doesn't help that grandma didn't keep her word and leave Sunnyvale Vacation Rentals to her as promised. Feeling bereft and adrift, Ashley tries to talk to Roman, the man who bought Sunnyvale from her grandmother, but he ignores her. Ignoring her becomes difficult to do when she impulsively chains herself, minus supplies or a plan, to a tree on the property when the demolition crew arrives.
In this first installment, we meet Roman and Ashley and get the set up for the rest of the story. Knox provides us with glimpses into both Roman and Ashley, enough to intrigue us and make us want to come back for more. Sparks are flying already between them and there laugh out loud moments. I made the mistake of reading while I was out for dinner one night and I was laughing out loud in the restaurant. Ah well, I didn't get too many looks.
"Chained" is a good start to "Roman Holiday", with humor, believable conflict, hints of past trauma, and interesting people. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
So, it sounds like a fun read. However, I am not at all a fan of this serialising of relatively short novels.What is wrong with giving me as the reader the whole story in one go? It seems like it wont be all that long in the end, around 150 pages if it is chopped into three equal parts. That is too short to divide into parts in my opinion. It just means I will finish that part in about an hour and then be annoyed because I will need to find the other parts of it or even wait for the next installment. *grump* It will also make a mess in my lists and organizing as what is essentially one book will show as three.
ReplyDeleteHi Line, I'm not a big fan of serializing either but Ruthie is an author I like enough that I figured I'd give it a try. Also, it's definitely longer than three parts. This is from her newsletter -
DeleteRandom House had the idea of treating it as though it were a television show, with two “seasons” of five episodes and a gap of a few months between seasons. When I started writing, I really wanted to honor that format. I tried to craft each episode as an individual piece of writing with integrity—theme, character arcs, some kind of rising and falling action, resolution.
The episodes aren’t precisely novellas, but they aren’t just sheared-off story chunks, either. They’re designed to be a reading experience—half an hour, an hour, ninety minutes—that feels complete. At the same time, if you read all ten episodes straight through, you get one continuous story with a unified timeline, main plot and subplot, and grand-scale character development, plot, and romance arc.
Ah, that makes it more interesting. Still not sure it will be something I would enjoy but that is a different set up. :-)
DeleteLove the opposites attracting bit and that she chained herself to a tree with no plan. smh too funny.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to wait for the rest of them to be released and give it a go then :)
Hmm, I love opposites and enjoyed her Camelot series, so I need to check this out!
ReplyDelete