Tag Archives: Gravity Series

Sarina Bowen’s Catalogue

book review November 26, 2016 1 Comment

Recommended books are in bold.

Bowen’s books are all contemporary romances and the new adult works are so noted. She started out really strong with the Ivy Years books and I have not enjoyed her later work nearly as much, except for Wes and Jamie.

Ivy Years Series – New Adult Sports (Hockey) Romance
The Year We Fell Down (Hartley/Corey) – start with this, buy the set
The Year We Hid Away (Bridger/Scarlet)
Blonde Date novella (Andy/Katie) – standalone novella & a CLASSIC
The Understatement of the Year (Graham/Rikker) – LGBTQ
The Shameless Hour (Rafe/Bella)
The Fifteenth Minute (DJ/Lianne) – skip this one, seriously
Studly Period (Pepe/Josephine)- stand alone novella, cute
Yesterday (Graham/Rikker) – Understatement follow up novella

With Elle Kennedy –
Him – LGBTQ, New Adult
Us – LGBTQ, New Adult
Wags Series
Good Boy – I can’t decide if I recommend it or not, I did enjoy it.
Stay – S’alright.

With Sarah Mayberry –
Temporary (Callan/Grace) – meh

The Brooklyn Bruisers Series
Rookie Move – review pending, pretty good, not great
Hard Hitter – decent
Pipe Dreams – didn’t bother to read it
Brooklynaire – DNF

The True North Series
Bittersweet – good not great, down-to-earth plot
Steadfast – skipped it, didn’t like the idea of the story
Keepsake – nice, gentle, okay

The Gravity Series
Coming in from the Cold – shows potential, but not strong
Falling from the Sky
Shooting for the Stars

Gravity Series: Coming In from the Cold by Sarina Bowen

book review July 17, 2015 Leave a comment

I gave this book a try because I enjoyed Sarina Bowen’s excellent new adult romance series, The Ivy Years, but lightning did not strike twice. Coming In from the Cold was enjoyable enough and Bowen is great at setting a mood and the scene, but the story never quite came together for me and I felt that the resolution was achieved too easily.

Summary from Amazon: Ski racer Dane “Danger” Hollister does not do relationships, though he keeps his reason a secret. The real-life curse he’s inherited from his mother will eventually cost him everything. Reluctant country girl Willow Reade meets Dane by accident. Literally. Her skidding truck forces him off the road during a blizzard. Stranded together in his Jeep as night falls, the two loneliest people in Vermont find themselves sharing more than they’d planned. And not just conversation.

That’s an excellent summary, Amazon. Well done, you!

Willow and Dane are both struggling with being grown ups and, despite their seemingly adult lives,  it isn’t going so well for either of them. Dane has lots of professional success, but his personal life is a morass. Willow is struggling financially and is stuck in a situation that puts her life on hold. When they get trapped together in a snowstorm, they are able to connect physically, but their emotional connection is more troublesome. Frankly, Dane is a bit of an ass and handles just about everything badly. Just as meteorological events forced them together for a night, life events force them together for the longer term and create a less comfortable connection. Things get sorted out and Dane’s realization of his manifest failure to act like a decent person was very satisfying, but I’m not sure he earned his transformation; conversely, Willow was practically perfect in every way even though self-esteem issues were thrown in to flesh out her character. Coming In from the Cold just felt too neat in the end.

Sarina Bowen’s catalogue can be found here. Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.