TEST
Looking at the cover, you may assume that Positively Pippa is a contemporary romp that involves some wild sex. That assumption wouldn’t be wrong. After a debilitating humiliation on her national television show, Pippa Turner returns home to Ghost Falls, Utah to lick her wounds and see her beloved grandmother. Swearing to only stay as long as it takes to get her career back on track, her plans are derailed when a few distractions pop up. The principal one of these is Matt Evans, her one-time crush who has grown into quite a special person. As they tumble their way through their sexual chemistry, they both realize that life is more complicated than they think and also more beautiful when you let others share your burdens. Positively Pippa is a charming novel with a menagerie of characters, a satisfying happily ever after, and is a good introduction to a new series.
Pippa has always been a firecracker. Born to a mother who could double as a Stepford Wife, Pippa took more after her grandmother than her mother. Grandma is a world-renowned opera singer, who reached such echelons in her profession that she has rightfully claimed the title of Diva. While Pippa and her mother have never understood each other or had any sort of relationship, the bond between Diva and Pippa is iron clad. So, when Pippa’s ex-boyfriend uses his power as her producer to ruin her career, the only place she wants to be is back in her grandmother’s eccentric but warm embrace.
Staying in Ghost Falls was not Matt’s choice. He was a senior in high school when his father died, leaving behind a construction company in a mountain of debt, an emotionally unstable wife, and four younger children. Although Matt was on his way to a bright future with a full college scholarship to play football, he turned it down, rolled up his sleeves, and took care of everything. Nearly twenty years later, he’s still doing it.
Pippa and Matt grew up together, but never acted on their attraction before Pippa left for Hollywood when she was eighteen. Ghost Falls is a small town in which all its resident families are interconnected and Matt is particularly connected to the Diva (he built her house for her and now continues to maintain it), so even though Matt and Pippa pretend sex is just sex, you know it’s not and all the characters around them know it’s not. There are too many links between them already, too much history, including their terms of endearment for each other. (He calls her by her legal name, Agrippina, and she calls him Meat. It’s charming, really.)
The book switches their points of view often enough that we get to know both characters pretty well. Both are cursed with being good people who forget to ask for help when they need it. For Pippa, this meant pursuing her dream of fame at the expense of relationships with her mother and sister. For Matt, it was about being the family provider, and he’s long past the point where that turned to martyr. Their chemistry is explosive – there’s a reason Pippa is tousled on the cover, y’all – and they both convince themselves sex is a temporary way to blow off steam while Pippa cools her heels and plots her next steps. She’s leaving Ghost Falls as soon as she can and he’s never leaving, so why should they bother falling in love?
Well, of course they bother. What I liked about how this all plays out, however, is that their growth arcs happen parallel but mostly separately from each other. For Matt, his propulsion out of his rut comes through a business offer from his younger brother. (Oh, yeah, there are five Evans siblings, and the teaser at the end of this book tells us that Sheriff Nate’s story is up next and I will be pre-ordering as soon as I can). Matt’s sense of duty has so clouded his understanding of himself and his place in the world that he has become – metaphorically – frozen. Pippa’s motivation comes from her family as well, in a believable and emotional plotline that forces the Turner women to be honest with each other for the first time ever. Thus, when Matt and Pippa reach their HEA, I completely bought that the emotional junk keeping them apart for most of the novel had been dealt with and they were ready to build something new on a fresh foundation. I had a big grin on my face when I finished this book.
Now, there are some problems and the book suffers from a touch of first-in-a-series-itis. There’s a lot of information to impart, a lot of ground to cover, and sometimes it feels like all the backstories are coming too thick and fast. While it was a delight to get to know ten people in the course of the story, and it certainly made me more invested in the series going forward, it slowed things down. Now that the scene-setting is mostly out of the way, I can see this series taking off and becoming one I follow devotedly, but we’ll have to see if the following books deliver on the promise shown by this one.
Overall, I would recommend Positively Pippa to fans of contemporary romance. It’s a mixture of friends-to-lovers and second chance tropes in a way that should satisfy fans of each one. Like I said above, it builds promise for future stories but also manages to deliver a satisfying HEA for Pippa and Matt. I can’t wait to see where the author is going to take us next.
Grade: B+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 02/06/17
Publication Date: 05/2017
Voracious reader, with a preference for sassy romances and happily ever afters. In a relationship with coffee, seeing whiskey on the side.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.