Tracey Garvis Graves

Surprise Pregnancy Mars Otherwise Excellent Romance Tale. This is one of those types of romance tales that is going to be divisive in a couple of different ways, but the biggest is that there is a surprise pregnancy around the 50% mark at all. Which comes completely out of the blue - there is not one iota of a hint that this character may be interested in having kids some day *at all*, then *BAM*, pregnant. Which from reading other reviews, even those who *do* have kids don't always enjoy this particular type of surprise. Much less the childfree or childless.

Outside of the surprise pregnancy though - which *does* dominate the back half of the book, though there *is* some solid character development despite/ through the pregnancy - this was actually a strong book featuring some atypical angles (such as geocaching) and some solid characterization of grief and loss in various forms and through various backgrounds.

Overall a strong tale that perhaps could have been stronger with a different back half, but which many will find perfectly solid as is. Very much recommended.… (more)

Not sure if the author got the title from The Marshall Tucker Band song but to me it doesn't relate besides the music part unless it will later in the book. As the author mentioned in her acknowledgements, it wasn't literal.

It has a good plot and pretty good for chick lit. The characters are in their late 30s and mature. Layla (no, she's not named after the Eric Clapton song as she has to relate it time and time again), is a music teacher at an elementary school and loves music and was in a cover band in college. She's back into playing guitar again after her 10 year marriage broke up and now divorced. She meets Josh who is a parent of Sasha of an adorable 5 year old. He got married when he was 18 and now divorced after 18 years. He calls on Layla once in a while to dog sit his dog when he needs her to. She's happy to do it.

I liked how this turned into a sort of potential friendship with maybe more and then a slow romance over time. Which is exactly what happened. It wasn't cheesy or sexy just right.

Did I like the ending? It is what it is! Overall, I liked the book.… (more)

What I Loved

knew nothing about this book going into it except that my friend loved it and thought I should read it. That was good enough for me! Plus when the sun starts warming up outside I feel the need to read contemporaries and since YA contemporaries have never made it very high on mu list of things to read, I decided to kick it up and go with some NA this year. I was not disappointed! That slight age jump made the book better in my opinion. I’ll be sticking with NA in the future!

I loved the whole concept of this book. I found the author did the whole stranded on an island thing pretty realistic. I mean it was as realistic as it probably could have been. I don’t think many people would have survived though but it was cool to read. I found that they didn’t have it easy on the island which is good because who would? I’m glad there was some challenges because I’m a fan of action and I found that the possibility of them dying at some points during the story made up for the lack of action in this kind of book.

I’ve also been craving some romance lately and this book definitely helped with that. I thought the romance was very sweet and even though there was an age difference I think it worked. I also loved the ending of this story. It was never easy for this couple but the ending still left me satisfied.

What I Didn't Love

The only thing I would have liked to see was a little more action or adventure. Just a little something more to really grab my attention. It would have gotten 5 stars with just a teeny bit more! That’s all personal opinion though. I’m used to reading fantasy so it’s hard for me to like a contemporary. A 4 stars on a contemporary is basically a 5 stars on a fantasy book.

Who I'd Recommend To

I’d recommend this to anyone looking for something romantic and sweet. If you liked The Martian but would have liked to see more romance in that story (not that it would have worked) then this is a great book for you to try! There’s even some humour to the story during some parts which was really appreciated!… (more)