Up to the Challenge by Terri Osburn

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After reading Meant to Be and absolutely loving it, I immediately jumped into Up to the Challenge. This is the second book in Terri Osburn's Anchor Island series. I was also able to apply this read to prompt guy on the right for Summer of Swoon board 2.

After seeing Lucas lose his fiancé in Meant to Be, we see him coming back to the island a few weeks later. His father has had a heart attack and he comes home to help out with the restaurant. What everybody doesn't know, is that he was on leave before the hospitalization since he was struggling. He decides to spend his time off on the island helping out. Pulling away from Joe's charter boat is Sid. She's usually his assistant and boat mechanic, but help is needed more at the restaurant. She has been in love with Lucas since high school, but he's never really noticed her feelings or her at all. Now that they are working close together, they both start to connect.

This was a little more angsty than the first book, but I kind of expected it going in. This isn't too long after Meant to Be, so Lucas is still struggling with his emotions. While he acknowledges that him and Beth wouldn't have had a good marriage, if they even got that far, and he does want them to be happy, he's still hurt by the situation. I loved how he kept snapping at people, but immediately apologizing and being upfront that he's trying to not to be bitter but it's hard sometimes. I also loved that while Sid kind of hero worshipped Lucas, it was more. She saw more of him and I feel like she did love him. It was fun to see her love change to being in love with him. 

There was great banter between them and I think I enjoyed their banter a little bit more. There was also more steam here, and it started earlier. Before then though, the sexual tension was once again on point. Terri Osburn so far is writing great chemistry and tension between the characters. I also loved how Sid was unabashedly herself. While at first Lucas thought it was because she was mechanic and she had a Napoleon complex, but she just was who she was. Yeah she wears snarky shirts and curses like a sailor, but she enjoys the shirts and works with sailors all day. It didn't feel like a front at all which was so nice. 

This just wasn't quite a 5-star read for me. When I finished, I just didn't feel like it was. When I started to think about it, there wasn't really anything to detract from it, but because I was struggling on how to rate it I realized that it meant it wasn't. After having some space and time from finishing, I didn't like a couple things. The main conflict at the end was kind of predictable, but it bothered me that it was a miscommunication and omission from both of them. I think the biggest thing I didn't like was Sid pushing against any help whatsoever. I am very much a person that doesn't like to ask for help as well, but she pushed so much against it that I got a little frustrated. Yes Lucas went a little overboard helping her without consent. But as I grow as a person I've been really trying to learn to be comfortable not only asking for help but accepting it as well. I just wish that that portion of their relationship was addressed as well instead of Lucas talking all the fault (for that specific situation).

I really enjoyed this series and the small town vibes I'm getting. I will definitely continue reading the series and also added Terri's backlist to my tbr. She has country musician series that sounds pretty fun too! I'm not going to immediately go into the third book, Home to Stay, right away though. We kind of get hints about Will's past and I know there's going to be some sort of trauma about abuse of something similar. I just need a little bit of a better mood before jumping into that one. I will get to it though.

Have you read Up to the Challenge?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STASISTICS: Up to the Challenge, Terri Osburn, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 350 pages, published in 2013

Meant to Be by Terri Osburn

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After reading Megan Wade, I was still in a contemporary mood. I remembered seeing a book recently that I added to my tbr that had my favorite trope, so I opted to go for that. The first book of Terri Osburn's Anchor Island series is Meant to Be. This is also her debut novel! This book also covered the prompt water on the cover for board 2 of Summer of Swoon.

Beth is headed to her fiancé's small town on Anchor Island. She's going to be meeting his family. They both work for the same law office, but Beth is more on the research side while Lucas is in the courtroom. They were supposed to travel together, but there's an issue with one of Lucas's cases. What he doesn't know is that Beth is very afraid of water. They have to take the ferry to the island and she's trying to not have a full blown panic attack in her car. Joe and his dog Dozer stumble across Beth and help calm her down and keep her distracted for the trip. There is a spark between them, and low and behold, Beth finds out that is her future brother-in-law. So beings the twisty relationship between them.

First off, my favorite trope is wrong sibling. I just absolutely love it. Knowing this was a contemporary and not a historical, there's a harder I feel like for authors to pull it off. While this could be considered emotional cheating, there is one scene where Joe and Beth kiss. She is completely drunk and pushes herself on Joe. It didn't bother me, but if you are sensitive to cheating of any kind, I just wanted to put that out there. Now, outside of the drunken kiss, there is no steam in this book until the very last chapter. Which is fine and made sense, but the sexual tension was on point for this point. I don't have to have steam, but I do prefer more than was in here. As I said though, the sexual tension between them was so nice that it didn't really feel missing here to me. 

This is also really a way for Beth to really evaluate herself and her life and find herself and what she wants. I loved the quirky small town and it's been a while since I've read a small town book that gave me this feeling. In high school I was absolutely obsessed with Jill Shalvis's Lucky Harbor series and it was my go to. Jill Shalvis is still one of my favorite authors, although it's been a bit since I've read her. I really feel in love with small town and contemporary back then because of her. I think part of the reason I stepped away from a lot of contemporary romance is that I wasn't getting the same feeling. This book felt so new and nostalgic for me. I can't tell you how much this book made me crave for the small town sense of belonging again. Honestly it makes me want to reread Lucky Harbor and get back to getting through Jill Shalvis's backlist. I know I've made good headway, but I'll have to check it out. 

Back to Meant to Be. I loved Dozer. Joe is a completely grumpy cinnamon roll and I loved how he pushed Beth to really say what she felt and not be so much of a people pleaser at such detriment to herself. While my tendencies are nowhere near as extreme, I do a lot of similar things to keep the people around me happy. I really connected to her. The only thing that really bothered me about the book was how everyone, including Beth, kept referring to her fear as irrational. She's afraid to be on the water because she fell off a houseboat when she was young and started to drown. Maybe her child mind thought the situation was more serious than it was, but it was more that she had trauma and not an irrational fear. 

I am super happy to find a new small town romance series and look forward to moving forward in the series. It's always fun to find a new author, but as I've mentioned before, I'm not the biggest contemporary reader. This book really hit the spot for my mood lately and also felt nostalgic in a way. I can't believe this is Terri's debut and definitely intrigued to see how she develops as an author. With different tropes moving forward, I'd like to see how she handles the steam and if it has more and starts earlier in the book.

Have you read Meant to Be?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Meant to Be, Terri Osburn, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 348 pages, published in 2013