ICYMI: I Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force @marieforce ‏@BerkleyRomance ‏ @BerkleyPub @JulieYMandKAC

Posted February 19, 2018 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 2 Comments

Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


ICYMI:  I Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force  @marieforce ‏@BerkleyRomance ‏  @BerkleyPub  @JulieYMandKACI Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force
Series: Green Mountain #2
Published by Berkley on June 3, 2014
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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one-half-flames
One StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star

For the Abbott siblings, the Green Mountain state has always been an idyllic place to call home. But it isn’t until they open themselves up to love that they’ll truly discover how fulfilling life can be…
Almost seven years after losing her husband in Iraq, Hannah Abbott Guthrie isn’t sure she’s ready—or able—to move on, but the attentions of a lifelong friend are making her think about it for the first time. The memory of the sweet kiss she shared with Nolan Roberts hasn’t strayed far from her thoughts, but she also fears that pursuing something with him would mean betraying her husband’s memory.

Nolan has loved Hannah for years, but he’d been giving her the space she needed to heal from her devastating loss. Now, when an opportunity arises to show her how he feels, Nolan can’t resist, but he knows earning her love will take more than a kiss. Somehow he has to prove to Hannah that finding love twice in a lifetime is possible—and well worth risking her heart.

 

ICYMI is a post from my early days of blogging at Yummy Men & KickAss ChicksI Want to Hold Your Hand is from the Green Mountain series by Marie Force, now changing to be the Butler Vermont series as it is now self-published. There are many, MANY 5 star reads in this great series. Oddly, this is my least favorite but still a good book. I wouldn’t miss it.  You can see the original review here.

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I Want to Hold Your Hand is the second book in series. I read the first book, All You Need Is Love, to prepare and enjoyed it so much I gave it 4.5 stars. It did a nice job of setting up the town and the Abbott family, which has TEN children (6 hot men and 4 lovely ladies). The story is set in Vermont mountain country. It’s beautiful, the small town vibe with its quirky characters is nice and there are those sweet family values and closeness.

In this book, we learn more about Nolan, who owns an auto repair shop. Hannah makes custom jewelry for her family’s country store. Hannah is a widow whose husband, Caleb, was killed in Iraq seven years ago. Hannah, Caleb and Nolan grew up together. I understand and appreciate the backdrop of Caleb and how everyone loved him, including Nolan. But I felt as though the group getting together for so many years and all, even after his death, seemed unrealistic. It would be great but many people can’t afford so much.

Nolan is a great guy. He works hard, helps people, and is honest and well-liked in the community as well as by the Abbott family. He got interested in Hannah at one of the events about two years after Caleb died and has been waiting for five years for Hannah to be ready to go out with him. Nolan has a tortured family background which no one knows. They only seem to know he grew up with his grandfather.

Hannah has been on hold for seven years and finally agrees to spend time with Nolan. She has had his kindness, her family and friends, but now she is ready for more than grief and work in her life. For whatever reasons, I didn’t connect with her as much as I would have liked.

I enjoyed reading this book. However, I didn’t like the way this couple talked to each other as well as the couple in the first book, nor did I think this one was quite as funny as the first book. I did really love the way all the family members continued to be complete people and have conversations; they were more than two dimensional people mentioned only in passing. There were bits of other stories and life around the main couple.

I didn’t like the way Nolan’s family issues were not really resolved. But that is how things are sometimes. Perhaps this storyline will be a small bit in a future book. I just had trouble with the way this couple handled their issues overall. So many things were over-the-top compared to real life. I guess this is fiction which means escape but it didn’t work as well as the first book for me.

The guys in this series are seriously hot but also totally whipped. It felt slightly detached from reality. The falling in love and sex comes quickly in this series. The sex is handled nicely, not too graphic but at least a few details.

I was excited to read I Want to Hold Your Hand and I’m looking forward to the next book, I Saw Her Standing There, which will be out in November 2014. This family has endeared themselves to me and I want to see how they grow and change over the series. I hope they continue to have significant small bits about other couples scattered into each book.

 

Giggle-worthy quotes:

They stood together in the bathroom to brush their teeth and then Cameron rushed into bed, pulling the down comforter up to her chin as her teeth chattered. She couldn’t believe it when he emerged from the bathroom naked.
“Are you for real? I’m freezing, and you’re naked?”

“I only seem to care?” he asked, pretending to be insulted. “Let me set the record straight. I care greatly. Tremendously. Incredibly.” He curled the end of a long strand of her silky dark hair around his finger. “Enormously. Hugely. Vastly. Extremely.” By now she was giggly softly, which he adored.

 

 

About Marie Force

Marie Force is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 contemporary romances, including the Gansett Island Series, which has sold more than 2.3 million books, and the Fatal Series from Harlequin Books, which has sold more than 1.2 million books. In addition, she is the author of the Green Mountain Series as well as the erotic romance Quantum Series, written under the slightly modified name of M.S. Force. All together, her books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide!

Her goals in life are simple—to finish raising two happy, healthy, productive young adults, to keep writing books for as long as she possibly can and to never be on a flight that makes the news.

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Posted February 19, 2018 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Book Review / 2 Comments


2 responses to “ICYMI: I Want to Hold Your Hand by Marie Force

    • This is one of my favorite contemporary romance series. It started out as Green Mountain, and is now Butler VT. But it has such a feeling of family. The people and relationships feel authentic. They face issues many people have and it is good to see their feelings and how they resolve or live with those feelings.