Buzzworthy

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Title: Buzzworthy
Author: Elsie Moody  
Publication date: 11/03/2017
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: No

This is one of those tough stories to rate, because it had a ton of great stuff going for it. But at the same time, there were also a few things here that irked me a bit. Nothing that made me want to dismember any of the characters (and yes...i’ve had those feelings before. I’m seeking help. Don’t worry), but stuff that impacted the rating a wee bit. (Keeping in mind that I’m a harsh grader, so a 3.5 rating out of 5 isn’t AT ALL bad for me. It could’ve been WAY worse.)

So, I’ll start with the stuff that was really great about this book:

• Kate is a great heroine. She’s been burned by love in the past, but it hasn’t emotionally crippled her. She made a few poor boyfriend choices, but she accepted the inevitable end of those relationships and moved on, all the stronger for having survived them. She was tough and smart, and I loved that about her.
• Nick was a famous actor who wasn’t a manwhore. Praise be, and hallelujah!
• Nick was a sweet, sensitive, beta hero who also happened to be really hot. You just don’t find that kind of hero too often in romance land where alphaholes seem to rule the playground. This was a refreshing change of pace.
• The pacing of the story was nice and quick. There was no “saggy middle” to the book, which I totally appreciated.
• Dialogue was smooth and had a really natural feel to it. (I simply can’t abide stilted dialogue)    
• The world of an entertainment reporter was a really interesting one. It’s not a perspective I’ve seen too many stories written from, and I really appreciated the uniqueness of it.

And then for the not-so-perfect stuff:

• I won’t give away any plot points, but there was one point in the story where I found myself screaming “Just tell him what’s going on!” at my Kindle. It was like watching a horror film and seeing the young heroine go down into the dark, scary basement all by herself to check out a weird noise. You just KNOW she’s going to end up dead, but no matter how loudly you scream at your TV, it all goes down just like you knew it would. This scene was like that. No one died, but I knew how it was going to end, and the heroine in this book (much like heroines in horror movies) didn’t listen to me. Not at all. Grrrr.
• At one point in the story, someone seeks revenge against the heroine and the hero manages to turn it all around and make it all about him. Later on in the story, I figured out why Nick felt the way he did (and it was a good reason), but at that point in the story, I wanted to throat-punch him. I wanted to throat-punch him so bad it tainted my opinion of him as a character for the rest of the book.
• I would’ve liked to see more about the hero and heroine’s early courtship. We got to read about two dates, then we were told that the couple had several more dates that we (as readers) weren’t privy to. Now, I’m not saying that I want to read every nitty gritty detail of those dates, but without knowing anything about them, when the characters eventually exchanged “I love you’s”, it felt like it had all happened really fast, even though we were told it happened over the course of a month or so. But the way it was written, it had a vaguely instalove-y feel to it.     

But, slightly irksome moments notwithstanding, overall, this was a fast-paced, enjoyable romance. I think this author will only get better and better the more she writes, and I expect great things from her going forward.

Disclaimer: We received an ARC from the author at no charge.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s well-written enough that it avoids contributing to the stigma.

Other reading suggestions
This was a debut effort, so there’s no backlist to check out (sadly). But for another great, funny, sexy contemporary romance about a famous actor and the not-so-famous woman he falls for, try the Julie James classic, Just the Sexiest Man Alive.

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