Review of ‘White Horse Point’ by Andrews & Austin

This was a quirky little book. There were parts I thought were quite clever, which I enjoyed, but other parts not so much. This toaster oven romance is really coming down in just the okay category for me. It was an entertaining enough way to spend my night social distancing, but it’s not a book I would go out of my way to recommend to people.

I am not that familiar with the authors Andrews and Austin. I read their book ‘Summer Winds’ maybe eight years ago. What I can remember of it I enjoyed it quite a bit and was going to be on the lookout for some new releases by them. Unfortunately, that never happened because they didn’t write a new book. After a little over a decade, they are finally back with this book. For that fact alone, I was excited to read this comeback book. Also for that fact, I wish this would have worked a little better for me.

This is a “toaster oven”, age-gap romance. I’m not sure of what the younger characters age was, either I missed it or it was never said. I just know one of the characters was in her 40’s and she mentioned the other woman being younger quite a few times as it became a concern for her. Besides the romance, this is almost a teeny tiny thriller? I’m putting that question mark there because I’m trying my best to label this. I was going to say mystery, but what happens isn’t much of a mystery, but there is some excitement so I think calling it a little, baby thriller might work better. There is also a little bit of a ghost story to tie in some history, but I’m still trying to figure out if it was enough of a ghost story to put the paranormal tag on this or not. And on top of all that, this book had a little humor too.

In listing all those categories this book fits in, I think it was all a little too much. This book would go from witty and clever to the point that I have a big smile on my face, to “oh crap, what the hell?!” It was this odd mix that I just don’t think all worked together. And because of me feeling like this didn’t all mesh together, I found myself only liking parts of the book instead of the whole book. There are a lot of good ideas here, they just didn’t all come together as I hoped.

This book is in first person from the point of view of Taylor. I did like Taylor quite a bit. Most of the funny moments and some great dialogue lines came from her. There were a few times she said something and I thought ‘what a great comeback’. At times she was really well written. Other times she acted like a complete idiot. For instance like not caring about her personal safety at all. And just like another reviewer pointed out, women living in New York City, they know better than that.

When it came to the romance I struggled a bit. I was all for Taylor finding a love interest but I wasn’t crazy about her choice.  I did just complain quite a bit but this book did have its good parts. There were some witty and even humorous parts like I mentioned, and also some exciting scenes that kept me turning the pages. I just think this story was trying too hard to do too much, so I can’t say that it was anymore more than just okay. Since I did enjoy the book Summer Winds, I would give these authors another read for sure. 3 stars.

A copy was given to me for an honest review.