Summer Magic by T.M. Cromer

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Publication date: 04/17/2018
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: Yes

This is one of those tough-to-rate books, folks. There’s lots and lots of great stuff here. But...there’s also the fact that I hated the hero, Cooper, with the heat of a thousand suns, which is somewhat problematic in a romance novel.

But before I get ahead of myself, here’s the good stuff:

1. The world building is pretty good. And it’s not easy to find good world building in paranormal romance that doesn’t include vampires and shifters.
2. There is some truly hilarious banter between characters throughout the story. It was really well done. The author has a nice, flowy, fun writing style that’s really fresh in the paranormal market.
3. I liked all the side characters in Summer’s family. They were pretty obvious sequel-bait, but that’s OK because they were fun and interesting in their own unique ways.
4. Morty the chimp. He paints and plays jokes on people. He’s awesome. That is all.    

And then, the bad…

Cooper
I’m not even exaggerating when I say I hate this guy with the heat of a thousand suns. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve hated a romance novel hero as much as I hate Cooper. I can forgive him for purposefully crushing Summer’s heart in high school because he was just a dumb kid. A cruel asshat of a dumb kid, but a dumb kid nonetheless. What I can’t forgive is all the times he hurt Summer when they were grown ups. Even after he tells her he loves her and won’t ever hurt her again, he STILL manages to hurt her a few times. One time he even manages to hurt her physically because he acted a fool. And I don’t find it AT ALL believable that a guy who is THAT concerned with whether or not Summer has the ability to control his mind would ever truly accept her for what she is. He was a fair-weather boyfriend and if I was Summer, I would’ve nut-punched him and walked away forever. He was jealous when he had no right to be, short-tempered, stubborn, arrogant, and narrow-minded. He’s lucky he’s good looking, because in my mind, that’s his only redeeming quality.

Summer
Summer would be a decent heroine if not for Cooper. There’s something about Cooper that turns her into a weak doormat. The fact that she didn’t at any point nut-punch Cooper irks me to the point that I’m not sure I can forgive her as a character.

Keaton
Cooper’s brother Keaton is set up as the obvious sequel-bait hero in the next book in the series, and sadly, he’s just as much of a tool as Cooper. I hated him just about as much as I hated Cooper. He was a complete ass to Summer and her sister, Autumn, and he has the same small-minded jackass tendencies that Cooper showed. So, even though I really liked Autumn as a character, I’m not sure I can stomach watching her end up with a fuckwit like Keaton.

All the surprise relatives…
Oh, Lord, there is a lot of family drama going on here. In my personal opinion, there should only be 1 jaw-dropping family secret per book. It’s just TOO MUCH to have surprise relatives and shocking family revelations popping up in every chapter. And since most of those surprises were also obvious sequel-bait...well, it got old REAL fast.

Cliffie alert
Yep, it’s a cliffie. There is no resolution in this book. You’re left with a HFN for Cooper and Summer, but that’s about it. Cliffies often feel like a ploy to trick me into reading other books in a series and I don’t really appreciate that. I tolerate them in urban fantasy, but not so much in romance. Boo, cliffie!

So, long-story-short, even though I violently hated the hero and had some problems with other characters and the cliffie, I still read the whole book and found parts of it to be super enjoyable. I’m not ruling out the possibility of reading other books in the series, but Keaton better grovel A LOT or else I’ll DNF his ass so fast his head will spin.            

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s not doing anything to contribute to the stigma. It’s a fairly unique premise, so I’d say it’s doing its level best to crush the stigma, even with Cooper dragging the whole thing down with his asshattery.

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