Exclusively Yours

Keri Daniels is a star reporter for a Los Angeles based tabloid magazine. When Keri’s boss finds out Keri has intimate knowledge of reclusive author Joe Kowalski, she sends Keri to get an exclusive interview against Keri’s very strong objections.

Keri and Joe were high school sweethearts and when Keri left to pursue her career, she left Joe with a broken heart. So when Keri re-appears in town looking for Joe, his initial ploy to get her to leave backfires and he finds himself caught up in Keri once again. He invites her along on his family’s vacation and for every day spent participating in good old fashioned family fun, Keri gets to ask Joe one question.

As the vacation progresses, both Keri and Joe realize they both still have feelings for each other.  But Keri is leaving once the two weeks are up. Can they make their relationship work this time around or is Keri going to leave Joe with a broken heart all over again?

I liked Joe, who wouldn’t love a hot writer who still pines for the one who got away. I needed more from Keri. She came across as a little shallow in the beginning and throughout the book she never reaches her full potential, she stays shallow for me.

Keri and Joe’s romance wasn’t a new one, but it was a familiar one. Neither of them ever forgot the other and their time spent together is spent reacquainting with each other. They were high school sweethearts and both have loved each other for years, but they loved each other with a burning passion for twenty years? Joe killed her off wickedly in his first novel (funny, but obviously no closure there) but he turns into an alcoholic after she leaves. It just seems a little silly to me. I understand great love but to turn into an alcoholic at eighteen because you lost your sweetheart just seems a bit over the top.

In addition to Joe and Keri’s re-developing love story, there are flashes of the marital discord between Joe’s twin Terry and her husband Evan as well as Joe’s brother Mike and his wife Lisa. While I like a touch of another love story in a romance, two is a bit much. I liked Mike and Lisa but I didn’t really care for Terry. She just came across as a bitch the whole story until the end.

I did like the premise of the family vacation and Joe does have a really great family. They are super close and would do anything for each other. Although Terry, who claims she is just looking out for her brother, takes it to a new level of bitchiness. Terry’s rocky relationship is tangled up in the plot and while I am inclined to leave her labeled as such (a bitch), the author tries to redeem her at the very end but it was a little too late for me.

There was humor throughout the book which I love in a romance and both Keri and Joe, as well as other family members (namely Kevin) are good for a few laughs. Kevin’s story is the next novel in the trilogy and I will give it a try and hope it’s better than the first.

All in all, I think it was an ok read. It wasn’t exceptional, but not many are. I’m not jumping up to read the rest of the trilogy but I may give them a try over time, I hate to leave a trilogy unfinished.