Review: Hook, Line and Sinker

 

 

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King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he’s a guaranteed good time—in bed and out—and that’s exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She’s immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his… personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is. Now, Hannah's in town for work, crashing in Fox’s spare bedroom. She knows he’s a notorious ladies’ man, but they’re definitely just friends. In fact, she's nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport’s resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker’s eye… yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can't deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost. Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she’s walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and… and… man overboard! He’s fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he’s all in, she'll choose him instead?

Genre: contemporary romance

Publication date: March 2022

Mature content: yes

Review: The first part of Hook, Line and Sinker was more or less OK. I didn't find any of the characters all that convincing, but I did love their conversations, especially the messages exchanges between them. 

But after a while, the plot became repetitive - and quite frankly, a bit boring. Hannah's crush on her boss is flimsy at best and her plans to be the "leading lady" make little sense. Fox keeps repeating to himself (over and over again, to the point of exhaustion) that he's a player and therefore should not get romantically involved with Hannah, that he just wants to be his friend, but then sends off all the wrong messages. The sex scenes are explicit in a way that doesn't seem to match the rest of the actions and words of both characters. And to top it off, the plot is very unsubstantial. Even the epilogue is weird and I have yet to make full sense of it.

So, overall this book was a bit of a disappointment. Hook, Line and Sinker is supposed to follow a previous book, It Happened One Summer. I have read in some of the reviews that book one (which I haven't read yet) is way better than this one, so one of these days I'll give a try and read about Brendan and Piper (Hannah's older sister).

 

Happy readings otherwise!

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