Review: 'Undone' by Shannon Richard

Undone by Shannon Richard

(Country Roads #1)

Publication Date: February 25, 2014

Publisher: Forever Yours

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance

Reviewed By: Christina Mock

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Buy Links: Paperback | Kindle | Nook

Goodreads

Synopsis:

Things Paige Morrison will never understand about Mirabelle, Florida:

Why wearing red shoes makes a girl a harlot
Why a shop would ever sell something called "buck urine"
Why everywhere she goes, she runs into sexy-and infuriating-Brendan King

After losing her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend, Paige has no choice but to leave Philadelphia and move in with her retired parents. For an artsy outsider like Paige, finding her place in the tightly knit town isn't easy-until she meets Brendan, the hot mechanic who's interested in much more than Paige's car. In no time at all, Brendan helps Paige find a new job, new friends, and a happiness she wasn't sure she'd ever feel again. With Brendan by her side, Paige finally feels like she can call Mirabelle home. But when a new bombshell drops, will the couple survive, or will their love come undone?

Review:

Paige is a free spirited artist, forced to return home to her parent’s house after losing her job, her roommate, her apartment, and her boyfriend, all within the span of two months. Unfortunately, Paige’s parents no longer live in her childhood home back in Philadelphia. After retiring, they moved down to the quaint little town of Mirabelle, FL, population five thousand. What happens next is a hilarious, sometimes heart-breaking look at small town living at its finest.

After another dead end job interview, one set up so that the interviewer could merely collect gossip about Paige, Paige’s Jeep breaks down on her way home. Enter Brendan King, grandson of the local mechanic. The two immediately hit it off; unbeknownst to them of course, the sexual tension between the two of them is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Brendan has preconceived notions of big-city Paige, and Paige has her own of redneck Brendan.

Brendan quickly helps Paige find a job and goes about getting her settled into her life in Mirabelle. Unfortunately, like in a lot of small towns, there’s a contingency of people, usually older women, who like to cluck and gossip about anything that might be deemed “different” than what is acceptable in wholesome Mirabelle. Paige and Brendan’s relationship quickly becomes fodder for the lead story on the town’s gossip web page and the two find themselves uniting in a fight for their own reputations. Will love be enough when it seems like the whole town is against them?

Undone was another NetGalley find and it was a fun, light, read. I was able to finish it in the span of an afternoon and it was a nice distraction from some of the other heavier, more emotional books I have been reading lately. It was a little predictable, and the dialog was a little clunky at times, however I did thoroughly enjoy the book and I plan on continuing with the series. Ms. Richard has well-developed and likeable characters (except those few that are truly despicable, but of course they’re meant to be!) and the plot moved at a comfortable pace. Again, the plot was kind of out of the “romance genre” playbook, but I think Ms. Richard did a great job of really making the characters people the reader would care about and the storyline caught and kept my attention throughout.

I would give Undone four stars, as it was a fun read that served its purpose, to entertain. Of course there’s no expectation of fine literature here, but if a fun, romantic, flirty story is what you’re looking for, you can’t go wrong here!