WAIT FOR IT by Jenn McKinlay

 

Publisher:      Berkeley
Published:      August 10, 2021
ISBN:      ‎  ‎ 978-0593101377
Genre:     Chik Lit
Format:    Print from Publisher
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

THREE -1/2 HEARTS                                                                    

Annabelle Martin has been married.  Twice. Before she turned thirty. Both marriages were in reaction to her mother, who she was so very close too, died way too young. She has stayed friends with husband number 1, Jeremy. So much so that she knows the exact moment he is going to ask her to marry him again. This is not what Annabelle wants and while she was going to turn down a job offer from her very best friend, Sophie, in Arizona, before Jeremy can pop the question she blurts out that she is moving to Phoenix to take the job with Sophie.  Sophie and her husband, Miguel have arranged what on the surface appears to be an ideal cottage for her to live in.  Ideal if your landlord is an elderly curmudgeon who you expect to yell “get off my lawn” at any moment.

Said landlord, Nick Daire, isn’t exactly an elderly grump. He is, in fact a thirty-something, absolutely gorgeous man who sadly had a stroke several months before and now spends his days being miserable using a wheelchair. He doesn’t want Annabelle on his property but he owed Miguel and Sophie so there she is.  His life wasn’t all roses before the stroke and with Annabelle in his guest cottage he’s not so sure it is now. And then on top of it his younger sister, Lexi, shows up out of the blue after twenty years. 

While Nick is fending off Lexi, Annabelle is dealing with a sneaky, passive/aggressive bully at work who is after her job. Can three disparate people come together? Or is it too late for all of them?

I’ve been a Jenn McKinlay fan since the debut of her Cupcake series in 2010.  I’ve missed few of her books and she (almost) never disappoints.  There have been a few lemons in there but pretty much every book is entertaining, has interesting tidbits I hadn’t known before and are just good reads.  WAIT FOR IT is one of those really good reads.  Normally Chik Lit is not my thing, but McKinlay’s are pretty close to sweet romances and sometimes you just need romance in your life.  There were points her cozy mysteries were crossing over into romance and cozy devotees mostly don’t want all that romance and love triangles. I was thrilled when she started writing romance. 

WAIT FOR IT deals with an issue we don’t often see in fiction—stroke happening to someone so young. McKinlay deals with it matter of factly and with compassion for those involved.  That Nick is rich makes it somewhat easier for him to navigate his care, but she adds the element of how he cares for those less fortunate. 

What she doesn’t tell us is just what is the debt Nick owes Miguel and Sophie. Not that it was a major plot point, I just would have liked to know. When the bully is finally dealt with he was just briefly confronted and tossed out with the trash—I don’t think he was quite done.  Unless there is a second book coming with Lexi and Jackson’s story where he shows up causing trouble, I’m not satisfied that he got his.  Maybe he’ll show up in a cupcake book and Angie and Mel will deal with him. I just want it to happen.

McKinlay tells the story in first person, alternating chapters from Nick and Annabelle’s points of view. The problem is that they both sound the same. There is really nothing differentiating the characters aside from a notation at the beginning of the chapters whose point of view it is. McKinlay is a better writer than that.

The story is entertaining and an easy read. Just what you need to relax and have some romance to take your mind off day to day drama.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.