All It Takes by Sadie Munroe

New adult romance

Publication date: 06/30/2015
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No

via GIPHY

Confession time. I’m addicted to the A&E show, Hoarders. All the episodes are pretty much the same, but I sit in the front of the TV, unblinking, and drink in every gross episode, super thankful that smell-o-vision isn’t a real thing. I can’t explain it, but I find the psychology behind the disorder to be really fascinating.

So when I found a romance novel about a girl who has to go in and deal with her hoarder mother’s estate...well, I was all in. And for the most part, I’m really glad I read this one. 

Here’s what works:

1. There’s no insta-love. Ash and Star work together, develop a friendship, THEN fall in love. It’s a nice slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance, and who doesn’t love those?
2. Ash was a great hero. He was tortured and a little angsty and grumpy, and despite having made a horrible mistake that landed him in prison, he’s back home in a place where everyone hates him, doing his best to turn his life around. I liked him a lot.
3. The dog lives. Sorry for the spoiler, but if you’re like me, you’ll worry about this, and I just want you know that he’s safe and happy. It’s all good.
4. Star is a good heroine, too. I maybe didn’t like her as much as Ash, but that’s OK. She was kind and non-judgemental, and surprisingly well-adjusted for someone who’d grown up as the child of a hoarder.
5. Star’s friends were FABULOUS. We should all have friends like Roth and Autumn.        

Now, here’s the not-so-glowy stuff:

1. Other than Star, there’s really only a handful of people in the whole town who aren’t completely awful. I mean, I wouldn’t live in that town on a dare. Not even on a double dog dare. Welcome to Assholeville USA, folks.
2. Ash’s parents did a big flip from truly awful people in the beginning to good people by the end of the book, and I didn’t buy it. It was all too easy.
3. I have a small problem with the premise of the book, because as someone who has seen every episode of Hoarders, it’s just not possible for 2 people to clean out a really hoarded house in a few weeks. And even if the place isn’t full of dirty diapers, dead cats, rotting food and sewage, there are ALWAYS bugs and extreme damage. The idea that Star was going to go in and clean the place up to sell quickly was misguided at best. The only way to deal with a hoarded house is to call 1-800-Got-Junk and have them bring out several trucks and a crew.
4. The ending of this book was MESSED UP! It was a total non-ending. Not a cliffhanger, mind you. A non-ending. I was left with so many questions that I finished the book and set my Kindle down in the time-out corner for a minute so that it could think about what it had done.  

But, gripes notwithstanding, I still enjoyed this one, and I loved Ash. So, if you’re a fan of romance and Hoarders, you might want to give this one a 1-click. I think you’ll like it.   

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
No stigma here. This one is clean and sober.

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