Rating:
Genre: Adult Contemporary
She was the fresh faced college student warned to stay away from his womanizing ways. He was the campus Casanova intent on living up to his bad boy reputation. But it only takes one run in for Kennedy Monroe to change her mind about Memphis Adams. Twelve years later the duo are closer than ever, the best of friends, but one night changes everything and soon Kennedy finds herself risking it all. – The Writer’s Coffee Shop
Risking It All is a light read with an OK premise. The protagonists don’t really stand out and the story is palatable but doesn’t make you want to delve into it too deeply. There’s no lesson to be learned, no plot to speak of. It’s a story about two best friends who love one another yet don’t know it. In all honesty, this book reads like mediocre fanfiction. At any rate, I was able to get through the story without too much trouble. I wanted to finish it to know how things worked out, but I wasn’t happy or sad by the end of the book. It left me feeling “meh.”
I need substance in my romance novels. Introducing us to the characters, giving us a bit of back story and throwing them into drama, drama, drama isn’t an effective way to pull me into a story. I’m going to want more. I wanted to know more, to feel more for these characters. I felt nothing but frustration and anger toward our heroine, Kennedy, who couldn’t make up her mind about what she wanted, and frustration for our hero, Memphis, who knew what he wanted but couldn’t get it. The constant angst was unnecessary. Memphis and Kennedy had realistic conversations that made me feel like they weren’t just made up characters. But here’s the thing: the conversations got them nowhere. So I couldn’t help wondering: What was the point of the arguments and conversations? Were they supposed to carry the story forward or just add to the unnecessary angst and drama that fills the pages of this book?
None of the characters felt real to me. I think I may have liked Memphis more than Kennedy because he had a tiny bit of depth to him. He wasn’t just a two-dimensional guy crafted to fulfill women’s fantasies. He had feelings and could be a real person in the real world. Kennedy, on the other hand, was too immature for her age. I’m not sure how a woman in her early 30s can continue in an unhealthy relationship because she doesn’t want to be alone. This is what she does with the handsome Doctor Brooks for the sake of keeping herself from what she truly wants. Insecure female protagonists annoy me more than anything. I kept yelling at her to grow a pair and take charge of her life. I don’t like yelling at fictional characters.
With that in mind, the writing is a touch above mediocre, but there are too many inconsistencies for me to consider it anything more than that. I don’t care for redundancies or story points that don’t connect. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if I weren’t pissed off at the asinine decisions Kennedy made in her love life. But, that could have been Schmidt’s intent. I would only recommend this book to anyone who likes a quick, somewhat romantic, read that doesn’t require any thinking.
I was provided an ARC by NetGalley through the publisher, The Writer’s Coffee Shop, for an honest review.
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