Abandoned by Booklikes

The Girls of Mischief Bay (Mischief Bay #1) by Susan Mallery.

Genre: Romance/Women's Fiction/Contemporary

So. Have you ever read a book that you felt like was three books in one and you wished that the author had just written three separate books? That is definitely this book here.

I don't know if this latest series by Ms. Mallery means that she will not be writing anymore books based on the Blackberry Island series or not, but I hope she does since I am not a fan of the Fool's Gold series and this book though at times intriguing, did not move me at all.

I only gave this book three stars because though I loved one character a lot, the other two characters in the book were not as interesting. Also there were three separate plot lines going on and trying to mash them all together in this one book really didn't work. I think the idea is that there will be three books in this series with each character getting to be the 'lead'. I think in this case that perhaps the character of Pam was the lead in this book. I honestly don't know. Or perhaps it is Shannon since we do get somewhat a HEA with that character. There was a mention in the back of my book that Nicole would be the "lead" in the next book. I don't know how one is a lead when you have equal amount of chapters devoted to all three characters, but I will just go with it.

There are three main characters in this book, Nicole, Shannon, and Pam.

Nicole, who is trying to run her pilates studio while also dealing with her husband deciding to quit his job to write a screenplay.

Shannon who is the chief financial officer at her firm and has so far not been lucky in love.

And Pam, who is dealing with the fact that though she has been happily married for decades, she feels old and like her life is in a rut.

Out of the three women the one I was most interested in was Shannon. I tend to like books with career focused women. Shannon was interesting because though she wanted romance she was very clear on what she did and did not want to give up in terms of her life and career. Her romance to me was a bit boring though I love how she stood up for herself in the relationship. Usually women in romance novels tend to somehow always be apologizing to the hero though he was the one that messed up. It was a refreshing change to have Shannon realizing that the hero may be more trouble than he was worth. And for once no wicked ex cliche-ing (yep using cliche as a verb) all over the place.

Nicole's character was very interesting since you had her struggling with her resentment and rightful anger towards her husband who decided to follow a dream and not allow her to be involved with his decision to not work. I wish that we had actually gotten more sense of what kind of man Nicole's husband was prior to their marriage since I really could not see what about him drew Nicole to him. I think that's always a problem in romance novels when you have one character being the "bad guy". Their motivations have to make sense or they have to be something redeemable about the person, otherwise the heroine is just a fool that put up with someone's nonsense because of random reasons. Nicole's husband was written like a cartoon villain and the ending with him just didn't ring true at all.

Pam started working my nerves a lot going on about how she was 50 and about to be a grandmother which apparently means that the world is at an end. I just wish I could be more excited about this character. She was dealt a left curve in the book, and then of course I felt like a jerk for disliking the character so much. There is a hint at something involving one of her children and someone else that was introduced in this book which I am hoping I am wrong about.

The setting of Mischief Bay really didn't come alive me at all (it could have been Anytown, USA) though it is supposed to take place in California and be pretty close to Los Angeles. I think it would have helped if we got more descriptions of the houses, scenery, smell, something. One thing I love about the Blackberry Island series is that I feel like I am right on that island when someone is describing places and people. While reading this book I forgot twice that this was supposed to be taken place in California.

The writing I thought was good depending on which character was "speaking". Once again I liked Shannon's voice the most while reading. Pam's voice became grating to me after the character started bemoaning how old she is. Nicole's voice at times seems confident and strong, and then just seems to go into a tailspin here and there. I wish that Ms. Mallery had just kept one woman as the lead in the whole book since we were provided interesting tid-bits about all of the character's background, but of course there is not enough pages to get into all of that.

Finally, the ending was left open-ended (since there are three books in this series I can guess why) and did not leave me with a feeling of a happily ever after which is why I read romance novels. Heck I want everything tied up in a bow when I am done with the book. I don't like lingering questions for my romance books besides the how many kids will the hero and heroine have together.