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It is much easier, and infinitely more enjoyable, to write a review of a book that I either love or hate. So, revisiting and critiquing Christina Lauren’s Twice in a Blue Moon has been a challenge. This ‘meh’ contemporary second-chance romance is entertaining, but unmemorable.
While visiting London to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, California girl Tate Jones meets and falls hard for Vermonter Sam Brandis. The besotted young adults quickly become inseparable, spending tender moments together in the garden of their hotel. Tate’s affinity for Sam prompts her to reveal to him a family secret – her true identity. Tate Jones is actually Tate Butler, the estranged daughter of famous Hollywood actor Ian Butler. As Tate and Sam’s time together nears an end, they tacitly agree to continue their relationship at a distance. However, their romantic plans are ruined when Sam abruptly leaves London without a goodbye. Devastated by Sam’s betrayal and the drama that subsequently unfolds, Tate is unable to trust men. (By this point in the narrative, I had become completely hooked.)
Fourteen years later, Tate is a movie actress preparing to star in her first leading role alongside her narcissistic actor-father. She is stunned when she learns that Sam is the screenwriter with whom she must work for the next two months. (Sam is described as “Tom Hardy, but taller.” Any and all comparisons to Tom Hardy automatically receive my enthusiastic thumbs up.) While on location at a remote California farm, a penitent Sam explains to Tate his reason for suddenly dropping out of her life. (His confession is a little far-fetched and questionably forgivable. By this point in the narrative, I had become officially unhooked.) Tate’s anger toward Sam is quickly replaced by love and desire. But, she is conflicted. On one hand, Tate yearns to rediscover love with Sam; on the other, she wants to run from the man who broke her heart.
The first ten chapters of Twice in a Blue Moon are thoroughly captivating. Christina Lauren beautifully describes first love – the exhilaration of infatuation and the beauty of connection. Young adult Tate and Sam are a charming pair; their fondness for each other is deeply felt on the pages. I fell in love with them as they fell in love with each other.
Unfortunately, adult Tate and Sam are not as endearing or as well-drawn as their younger selves, and their reunion lacks the time and reflection necessary to truly start anew. This gives their reignited passion the appearance of inauthenticity. Slow, uneven pacing is ultimately to blame. Too much time is spent on inconsequential characters, a tepid flirtation between Tate and her movie co-star, and Tate’s obsessive inner dialogues. Sexual tension does not gradually build to a satisfying crescendo and not enough focus is placed on Tate and Sam’s acquaintance. (After all, it has been fourteen years since they last spoke to each other.) Their second-chance journey lacks the excitement of rediscovering friendship and exploring new depths as lovers, and the intriguing turn of events that occurs at the very end of the novel – which raises the stakes on Tate and Sam’s new relationship – is resolved quickly and with relative ease. Christina Lauren delivers a romantic conclusion to Tate and Sam’s story that is sure to satisfy readers, but although Twice in a Blue Moon’s message of hope in reclaiming lost love is hard to resist, it is, ultimately, a middling romance with more style than substance.
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 24/10/19
Publication Date: 10/2019
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.
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I completely agree, Nan! As an older reader I frequently have no idea which current celebrity is being referred to. I rarely watch TV, don’t go to movies, don’t follow music. I read. So unless you mention Richard Gere or Paul Newman as your prototype, I won’t get it. And 30 years from now your daughter won’t get it either.
I was an older college student, about 25 when I enrolled. I was on campus the day Cary Grant died, and I mentioned it to a younger classmate. “Who’s Cary Grant?” was her reply. I rest my case.
Thanks for commenting on my criticism about using celebrity names. If it makes you feel any better, I had to look up who Tom Hardy is before writing my comment!
Part of me thinks writers sometimes name-drop out of a desire to appear “with-it,” and also out of laziness. It’s frankly easy to say the hero “looks like” Richard Gere, Paul Newman, Tom Hardy, or whoever. But actually *describing* how a hero looks can be tough! Case in point, when I self-published my first m/m erotic romance novella in a series I came up with, I based the appearance of one of the two heroes on an obscure, deceased celebrity. (I won’t say who.) But when I pulled up the guy’s picture on Google, I really had to work at it to put his face to words. I think I eventually did him, and my character, justice- but it was a lot trickier than having his love interest think his crush “looks like the late actor (blank).” And actually, that would be kind of weird and creepy anyway.
Oh, and name-dropping could potentially be a turn-off for the reader. Even if all the readers knew who, say, Richard Gere is, some might say, “Oh, Richard Gere? Yum!” but others might say, “Ugh! Richard Gere? Yuck!” And then you could lose that “yuck” part of the audience just because you name-dropped a celebrity who didn’t appeal to them. At least using words to describe a celebrity prototype gives the reader a lot more freedom to imagine the hero’s appearance exactly as she pleases. But if you throw a name out there, that essentially takes away the reader’s ability to do her own casting.
In the wonderful Adrien English series, the author makes it clear that AE is supposed to strongly resemble the late actor Mongomery Clift. But she never actually says Clift’s name, she just slyly references him. So we have descriptions of Adrien, but those of us who get the references know exactly what he looks like.
Cultural references are another potential time-bomb for writers. Characters in CRs are texting all the time, living on social media, doing online dating. That stuff will age out, and new crazes will take their place. Anyone remember desktop computers? Rotary dial phones? Tube TVs? (I do! Yes, I’m that old!!) And when I read a book with references to those things, it is instantly dated. If you’re trying to evoke a time and place, that can be helpful. But if it’s just an old book, well, writers need to be careful about including too many of those kinds of things in their work. I’m not too crazy about the Twilight books, for example, but Meyers has very few references to technology in those books, especially the first one. That will help help them stand the test of time, imo.
I haven’t heard of Adrien English, but it sounds like the author does a good job using descriptions and covert references to conjure up the image of Montgomery Clift without dropping his name.
Ditto about cultural and tech references. There are definitely times when technology should be used to ground the reader in a certain time or place, but there is such a thing as overkill. It reminds me of the overuse of special effects in a lot of movies today. I don’t mind when effects *enhance* the story, but they better not be there as a *substitute* for a good story.
Nan, if you haven’t read (or listened to – the audios are awesome!) the Adrien English books, then you really must! And I agree about the subtlety of the way Adrien’s likeness to Montgomery Clift is stated; Clift was reckoned the handsomest actor of his day, I believe, so it’s no small compliment!
Nan, the Adrien English series is an MM romantic mystery/suspense series written by Josh Lanyon. I think the first book is Fatal Shadows. There are five books in the original series, and a Christmas novella was released several years later. It is truly a slow burn love story with no real resolution to the romance until the fifth book. The series considered a classic of the genre, and is much beloved. Highly, highly recommended!!
Quoting from How Not to Write a Novel :
“It is even worse to play the Julia-Roberts-plus-or-minus game (a shorter Julia Roberts, an ugly Julia Roberts, an Asian-American Julia Roberts) because the reader is now doing math in his head whenever he should be thinking about your character.”
The book goes on to add :
“It is fine if your character looks like Julia Roberts, but when you tell us about her, describe Julia Roberts, don’t just invoke her, and never, ever mention Julia Roberts. “
Thanks for finding the source and direct quote to my point. I don’t think it’s where I originally saw it, but I’m sure lots of writing books have given the same advice.
“because the reader is now doing math in his head whenever he should be thinking about your character.” I love this line. Thanks for sharing!
“Sam is described as ‘Tom Hardy, but taller.'” With no disrespect intended toward your approval of this line, and Mr. Hardy, comparing a character to a celebrity by name is a risky tactic in writing. I don’t just mean for privacy concerns or the fact that a celebrity could be annoyed about being referenced in a work of fiction (even if mentioned in a flattering way), but it’s one of those things that can date a book very quickly. It would be like if an author wrote in a book many years ago, “He looked like Rudolpho Valentino, only even more handsome- with the toughness of George Raft.” You can see where that could be jarring to someone reading today. Having to look up a deceased or has-been celebrity could potentially take a reader out of the story. As both a writer and reader, I agree with the advice that using celebrities for inspiration can be great as long as the author *describes* the hero’s appearance instead of name-dropping. It kind of goes under the whole adage of “show, don’t tell.” Also, then the reader can imagine the character as his own unique being- even if he looks exactly like Tom Hardy in both the description and the reader’s imagination.
Sorry if that’s a nitpick of the review, and “Twice in a Blue Moon,” in general, but the line jumped out at me and I felt compelled to comment.
Plus, not everyone thinks Tom Hardy is swoonworthy (I don’t!) so likening a hero to him will put off part of the audience!
Unfortunately I have no idea who Tom Hardy is, so this description was meaningless to me. That’s a good thing about fantasy and historical romance – zero chance of “hero looks like a celebrity I’ve never heard of and might have to stop reading to Google” comparisons!
I had pre-ordered this one over the summer and read it last night. I regret now that I bought it. It’s a fine book to check out from the library, but I wouldn’t spend the money. I didn’t feel like Sam and Tate spent enough time together in the second half. She went from hating him to jumping him at warp speed considering the his betrayal. Plus, I didn’t like the ending. I really felt like he should have gone to her.
Team Lauren’s been disappointing me for awhile; this is pretty in line with the grades I’ve been giving them lately.
Thank you for the review. Was thinking of buying, but will wait until the price comes way, way down or ignore all together. “Roomies” by Christina Lauren is one of my all time favorites, but while the writing in Christina Lauren books is always good, the stories and character development are hit or miss as far as I am concerned.