Book 271: Too Busy For Love – Tasmin Baker

I always wonder whether to count novellas as full books when I’m tallying for the year, but why shouldn’t I? I won’t lie and say I requested a copy of this book from the publisher because of the blurb, I’ll be completely honest and say it was the cover. I received a copy of this from the publisher and received no compensation for my honest opinion.

So clearly this is a case where the marketing worked and will probably get the book a lot more readers than the story itself. I mean just take a moment to appreciate it. Now, I don’t want to completely mislead you, the novella wasn’t horrible, it just could’ve been so much better. I think the biggest problem I had with the novel was that I couldn’t tell where the story was set and the language was off. There seemed to be a strange mixture of American, British and Australian English and this really kept me out of the story.

Aside from this, the story had a lot of potential and just didn’t reach it. It felt as if this was a story pitch rather than a finished product. The story wasn’t long enough to allow readers to connect with the characters and the “One Year Later” epilogue only served to further highlight this. There were definite pros to the novel as well, Baker’s descriptions were excellent and she has a knack for putting you into the characters, which is why not building a relationship with them seemed so much more egregious!

As a note, I definitely appreciate the publisher’s classifying this as erotica and not just a romance novel. Many can and should be labeled both, knowing going into an erotica novel sets your mind in a completely different place than expecting a romance.

Recommendation: It’s short enough that you could definitely check it out and Baker shows a lot of potential. I would probably read another story, but it would have to have a very intriguing blurb.

Opening Line: “Have a good day, sir”

Closing Line: “Luke nodded and brought his lips up for a kiss. ‘Maybe later.'” (Whited out.)