Review of ‘Just one Reason’ by Jaime Clevenger, Audiobook narrated by Abby Craden
This is book three and final installment of the Paradise Romance series by Jaime Clevenger. The series tells the story of four friends who find their love interests while on holiday in paradisaic tropical destinations. Well, all except this, as the characters meet and their relationship develops mostly in a work environment.
Elizabeth ‘Sam’ Samuels’s grandfather has left her forty-one million dollars as long as she follows the stipulations of his will and takes over his family practice. The only problem is that she doesn’t want to become a doctor. Going through the motions in her second year of residence, she meets Dr. Terri Anderson, a brilliant but aloof pediatric attending. After they casually meet, sparks fly but Terri is adamant not to get involved with any residents and Sam is making big life decisions. But their attraction is so powerful as hard to resist…
I have to admit that this was my least favourite in the series. Ms. Clevenger builds the main characters’ physical attraction strongly and their push-pull was done really well. There’s no doubt that this author can write hot sex scenes and this book is no exception though they sounded less convincing than in the rest of the series. The fact that there is a good amount of BDSM isn’t an issue but, in my opinion, their sexual chemistry isn’t reflected in the emotional parts of their relationship. I wasn’t convinced by their transition from casual lovers to life partners and I wasn’t really invested in their happily ever after.
The forty-one million-dollar plot felt tricky to me. Call me materialistic, but it seems too good an offer to even consider throwing it away when Sam was so close to achieving it, even after taking into account her family context. In my opinion, the whole subplot didn’t seem very believable and its resolution was too convenient to be credible. I’m not sure if the author’s idea was to show Sam as an altruistic person but, to me, she seemed self-absorbed and immature. Terri didn’t seem much better either, and if I cannot respect the characters and their choices, it’s hard to cheer for a happy resolution of their conflict.
On the positive side, this book allows us to catch up with the two couples of the previous installments, Reed and Julia from ‘Three reasons to say yes’ and Mo and Kate from ‘All the reasons I need’. If you liked those books, it’s really nice to see where their relationships stand in the future.
I’ve listened to the full audiobook series, all narrated by Abby Craden. Her performance of this book was impeccable as usual and it pushed my rating to 4 stars. What I really like about this narrator is that all her voices are distinctive and all the emotions feel real. She did a great job and made this series really worth it.
Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
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