Need
You Now
By
Emma Douglas
Publisher:
St. Martin’s
Release
Date: August 29, 2017
Reviewed by Janga
Reviewed by Janga
Faith, like her older brother Zach, inherited her
father’s musical gift, but, unlike Zach, lead guitarist for a rising indie rock
group, Faith does not want the kind of life her father led. She likes her life
on the island with her mother, her younger sister, and a few close friends and
without the frenetic pace and paparazzi-plagued existence that accompanies
celebrity, but she is looking forward to her post-festival vacation. A
friends-with-benefits relationship ended six months ago when the guy fell in
love, and Faith is ready for a vacation fling. She likes sex, but she is not
interested in commitment. Because she places a high value on her privacy, she
has maintained a policy of no affairs on the island. She has no expectations of
meeting someone on the island who will tempt her to break her rule.
Caleb White is one of the elite in the world of
professional tennis. After shoulder surgery, he recognizes that it is unlikely
that he can continue to perform at his current level of success. Preferring to
go out at the top of his game, he announces his retirement shortly after he
reaches the semifinals of Wimbledon. As a star athlete, he is accustomed to
media attention, but he is not pleased with the media frenzy that follows his
announcement. When his friend Liam Sullivan, an entertainment lawyer, invites
him to spend part of the summer on Lansing Island and offers a ticket to
CloudFest as added inducement, Caleb accepts. Free for the first time since he
became serious about tennis at twelve, he accepts Liam’s invitation, looking
forward to some down time and perhaps an island fling. He does not expect to be
staying at the home of Danny Ryan, once Blacklight’s lead guitarist. Even less
does he expect a life-altering encounter with a woman whose name is more famous
than his.
Faith and Caleb meet, and the attraction is immediate,
mutual and strong. At first Faith is reluctant to get involved, but when she
has a meltdown set off by a festival crisis, Caleb proves a more tempting
distraction than booze. What starts as an island fling soon becomes more
complicated, but Faith has watched too many men she loved leave to trust
easily. Can she allow herself to become vulnerable to love?
Need
You Now is the first book in the Cloud Bay series by Emma
Douglas, aka MJ Scott and Melanie Scott. I had a mixed reaction to this novel.
As an introduction to a series, I give it an enthusiastic 4.5 stars. Cloud Bay,
the principal town on Lansing Island, and its connection with an iconic rock
group makes a fascinating setting. A dozen or so characters are introduced, each
with the promise of an interesting story. Grey Harper is dead before this novel
opens, but he is very much a presence in the book. Clearly, Faith is only the
first of the Harper offspring to have her story told. Faith’s mother, Lou,
Grey’s second wife but the matriarch of the family and mother figure to Zach
and Mina, Grey’s children by his first and third wives, is intriguing, as is
the aging Danny Ryan, semi-reformed bad-boy rock star and protective father
figure. Faith’s friends, Caleb’s friend Liam, and various island characters all
have potential as protagonists. So, as the start of a series, Need You Now hooks me on a fictional
world and leaves me eager for more books set there. In that sense, it is a
winner.
However, the novel is less successful as a romance.
First, the balance between Faith and Caleb is skewed in her favor. The reader
knows a great deal about Faith’s history and her emotions, but Caleb remains
largely unknown. The reader is told that he makes some decisions about his
post-retirement life, but very little of his process is revealed. The novel is
essentially Faith’s journey, and Caleb’s role is a supporting one, more in the
vein of women’s fiction than of romance. The conclusion comes with astounding
swiftness. I find quick, simplistic resolutions to complex problems
unsatisfying. Finally, readers who long for an HEA will be disappointed to be
left with a barely there HFN. As a romance, I, after considering a 2.5 rating,
gave NYN three stars.
Despite the mix
of enthusiasm and disappointment the book evoked, I’m glad I read it. I
recommend it to readers who like small-town romance with a bit of an edge, a
complexity of characters, and low-key conflict. Next up is the story of Grey’s
youngest child, Mina, a twenty-three-year-old widow who has become something of
a recluse since the tragic death of her young husband. A Season of You, a Christmas romance, will be released October 3.
Zach’s story, No Place Like You,
follows shortly (December 5). I have added both titles to my must-read list.
Thanks for your review PJ. This sounds like it's along the line of Christie Ridgway's Royalty series about the nine children of three band members.
ReplyDeleteEileen, since I wrote the review, I'll take the liberty of responding to your comment. Having read all of the Rock Royalty books and now the second Cloud Bay book, I think readers who really like the rock music connection might like both series but will likely conclude that the differences are significantly greater than the similarities. The lead characters in the Cloud Bay books are all the children of one father rather than the more loosely connected children of band members as in the Rock Royalty series. Also, Grey Harper, although deceased, is a presence in these books in a way that the Velvet Lemons are not in Ridgway's books; one of the Blacklight members is a secondary character. The Douglas books are also lower on the sensuality scale than Ridgway's, and the settings are dramatically different.
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