Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Weak at the Knees

Have you noticed I've been on a reading kick? I have, that's true. I'm kind of out of control in the best way possible.

Weak at the Knees - Jo Kessel
Weak at the Knees
“We got so busy living life that we forgot to live our dreams.”

Danni Lewis has been playing it safe for twenty-six years, but her sheltered existence is making her feel old ahead of time. When a sudden death plunges her into a spiral of grief, she throws caution to the wind and runs away to France in search of a new beginning. 

The moment ski instructor Olivier du Pape enters her shattered world she falls hard, in more ways than one.

Their mutual desire is as powerful and seductive as the mountains around them. His dark gypsy looks and piercing blue eyes are irresistible.

Only she must resist, because he has a wife – and she’d made a pact to never get involved with a married man.

But how do you choose between keeping your word and being true to your soul? 

Weak at the Knees is Jo’s debut novel in the new adult, contemporary romance genre – a story about love, loss and relationships, set between London and the heart of the French Alps


I signed up for this one to review because you know I love a romance novel and the cover was kind of great. Unfortunately, I don't know if it's the book persay or the fact I was reading this between other books, but I didn't love it. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it enough to write you a raving, must read review for it. 

The story centers around Danni, who after losing her best friend unexpectedly, she decides to dump her long term boyfriend and skip town. She ends up going to the French Alps to assist on a ski hill. She has a quick fling with a hot guy, and that was nice, but he leaves and she meets Olivier. The rest is basically romance history because it's a forbidden love since he's married, she's conflicted, we have a danger element, and then a happy ever after. 

But what annoyed me a bit with this book is the voice of Amber (the best friend) that Danni hears. And I mean, I understand why having relations with a married man was a no-no in Amber's book- if you were dying, would you really emphasize that with your friend? No. It just felt weird and not plausible. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Amber also wants Danni to dump her boyfriend Hugh, who doesn't do it for her, and that is probably the only admirable thing? I mean, if someone isn't right for you, you could wait a thousand years and it still won't be right, so there's no use in faking it. 

The romance between Olivier and Danni is nice, it's got a little bit of heat to it, and that was enough to keep me going until the end. And then I don't know how I feel about the ending either. I mean, you see it coming but it didn't give me the satisfaction as a finished book as I thought it would? I also know next to nothing about skiing, so there are sections of the book I could have skipped over because it didn't bring anything to the greater story. 

Overall? It was good. It wasn't great, it isn't really book club, rave about this worthy, but if you're looking for a decent romance novel to get you through the winter? Here you go. Found it. Maybe I'm getting picky with age or I've just read a string of phenomenal books that make it hard to put this one up there with them. And that's OK. But like always, I challenge you to read the book and tell me I'm cranky and wrong. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you enjoyed this one even though you didn't end up loving it.

Thanks for being on the tour!