125Pages

Oh, Tracy Ewens, you did it again. I do so enjoy her books. Reserved is now the third book I have read in the Love Story series (fourth book in the series) and I can say that I have enjoyed them all. Makenna is a harried single mom who spends way too much time with her brothers to even think about dating. Travis is the womanizing chef at her brother’s restaurant, and while he is amazing to her daughter she knows there is no future with him. Travis noticed Makenna the moment he first saw her. He knows she is way out of his league but he can’t get her out of his head. The added bonus of her amazing little girl just makes it harder for him to ignore her. Breaking through both of their comfort zones will give them a chance at a happy ending, if they can deal with the painful past.

Reserved is a well written, smart romance. The writing is nuanced and full of emotion. The pacing was spot on and the story never dragged. The plot was solid and the situations were believable. The world created was well structured, although it may be confusing to those who have not read the others in the series, as much was built off of them. The only thing that bothered me, was it was never stated how Makenna’s husband passed. I could not remember if they touched on it in any of the other books, but when a driving force behind a lot of the emotion is the death of a spouse, it would be helpful to know what happened. The characters, oh the characters. This is where Ewens truly shines. She creates real people. Full of emotional depth and heart that elevate what could be a generic romance to something special.

Yes, this is a romance. So, yes, you know that in the end the two main characters will get together; just like the majority of all other romance novels. The difference is in the way the story is told. Tracy Ewens is able to wrap her characters with a realistic viewpoint, and that makes a huge difference in the scope of the story. You root for her characters, you feel with them, you ache with them and you fall in love right along with them. Romances can be very cookie cutter but Ewens is able to put a spin on them that makes them rise above the other entries in the genre. Reserved shone, and I will happily read whatever Tracy comes out with next.

Favorite lines – Relationships could work on the fringe; they didn’t all have to be dive in head first or cannonball leaps of faith. People fell in sensible, safe love all the time, but at the moment, Travis was kissing the sensible right out of her. Apparently, sensible wasn’t in her cards.

I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.