Title: Meet You Under the Stars
Author: Traci Borum
Series: Morgan Grove #2
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 236
Read: November 30, 2020

After her ex broke up with her on Valentine’s Day, Chaynie Mayfield wants nothing to do with it. Sadly, she has been put in charge of the Valentine’s day event at the Morgan’s Grove library. When Greg Peterson, architect and former schoolmate, is put in charge of the library’s renovations, Chaynie’s spirits are lifted. Greg helps her brainstorm event ideas, remodel the children’s section, and pushes her to reach a dream.
From this blurb, this book reads as a romance novel. Sadly, for me this was more of a general fiction novel instead of a romance. Greg and Chaynie are more friends than lovers, even after they admitted they liked each other, at 95%, it didn’t feel genuine. The story is told from Chaynie’s POV and we get a complete lack of attraction for Greg through the majority of the book. She pushes her friend to go after Greg multiple times, which was a major turn off for me. And even after she gets some butterflies towards him, she even states that she feels they sputtered out. We never get Greg’s POV in this book and I feel that didn’t help the situation. Greg ended up feeling like a flat character. We barely get any real emotion from him and while he is nice and courteous, there was never a real spark between them.
What I did like about this book was that it showcased great friendship and family environments. Chaynie and her mother had a very strong bond. They have meaningful conversations, they are writing a book together, and they always supported each other’s decisions. Greg and his father also had a great relationship. They worked together to renovate the children’s section and you could tell they cared about each other. The other side characters, like the Sassy club members, were all great characters as well.
I feel that if this book had been listed as just a general fiction novel, I most likely would have rated it higher because I would know what to expect going in. But since this was listed as a holiday romance, I expected more emotion and attraction between the characters, which made me disappointed in this book.
*ARC provided by the author for an honest review.*
Previous books and reviews for the series: