Gale Reads: Hotshot by Julie Garwood

Happy rainy Monday everyone! Please keep safe and dry so that you won't get sick like me hehe :)

I have finished another book so let's talk about it now. As I have mentioned before, Julie Garwood is one of my all time favorite authors since I started reading novels during high school so it's obvious that I'll get any new releases as soon as it hit the shelves. I won't need to read the synopsis or the excerpts before I buy the book because I know that Julie Garwood's work will always be good so it's definitely a must buy. Her latest release is called HOTSHOT which is part of her contemporary series.

TITLE: Hotshot
AUTHOR: Julie Garwood
GENRE: Contemporary, Romance
RELEASE DATE: August 8, 2013
PLOT:  
*from goodreads.com*
Peyton Lockhart and her sisters have inherited Bishops Cove, a small, luxurious oceanfront resort, but it comes with a condition: The girls must run the resort for one year and show a profit only then will they own it.A graduate of a prestigious French culinary school, Peyton has just lost her job as a food critic. Out of work and in a bad place personally, a year doing something completely different sounds wonderful.There are countless challenges and too many people who want to stop the sisters from succeeding. Among them are Peyton's contentious cousins, who are outraged that they didn't inherit the resort, as well as a powerful group of land developers who have been eyeing the coveted beachfront property.Its soon apparent to Peyton that their efforts are being sabotaged, but she refuses to let the threats scare her until shes nearly killed. She calls on her childhood friend and protector, Finn MacBain, now with the FBI, and asks for his help. He saved her life once; he can do it again.

COVER TALK:
I actually liked the cover because it doesn't show the whole face of the model so there's still space for me to imagine what he looks like.  It also showed that Finn MacBain is an FBI agent so just by looking at the cover of this book, you will automatically know that it's part of Julie Garwood's contemporary series that consists of characters working for the government: FBI, Justice Department and even as Detectives. There will be no mistaking this as part of her historical romance creations.


MY REVIEW:
The premise of the story became more interesting to me after I've read the excerpt when it got available in Julie Garwood's website early this year. I have been actually waiting for this for a long time and got so overjoyed when I was able to purchase an ebook copy a few days after its release date. I immediately read it and I finished it in one sitting since I have the time.

Hotshot revolves around the life of Peyton Lockhart who is an adorable character and can be interesting because of her quirks. She knows what she wants and she's not afraid to take chances and fight off those who doesn't treat her right. She actually have an undying hero-worship crush with her childhood friend Finn MacBain (who is almost perfect in everything) after he save her when she was still 6 y/o and Finn was 14. They met again as an adult after years of just contacting each other through emails so you can just imagine the reaction of Finn when he saw Peyton again and she's not the scrawny little girl he remembers. That storyline alone can give a good backdrop for a lot of interesting twists and conflicts especially when you make Peyton a magnet for trouble and Finn having a hero complex who wants to save everyone.

But then came the disappointment after I finished reading the book. I think I have too much expectation for it and it felt short. Even my best friend who love Garwood's works as much as I did is unsatisfied after reading Hotshot. We are both used to reading book after book of great stories from her since her first book that reading a so-so one is kind of a let down, to be honest. It's not even the editing because it still doesn't have any kind of grammatical errors which can put me off. I think it's just the way how the story unfolded itself that left the author with no space to create entertaining twists or something. Hotshot is so mediocre in my opinion and it hurt me to say it because I really love Garwood's stories and I can't believe this one is not as good as the others.It actually made me feel like I read a book written by a novice writer.

I finished it in one seating but everything about it is so forgettable that right after I read it I didn't felt any gratification. There's no "wow!" factor to be honest and it seems a little empty and it don't have the depth of story that I got used to when it comes to Garwood's creations. Even the villains in the story is predictable and not interesting especially if I will compare it with her other contemporary works like Heartbreaker and Slow Burn (now, those two are great). I guess having a perfect male lead character with no flaws is kinda boring for me. The lack of interesting twists in the development of the romance between the two main character is also another factor why this became boring and not a page turner.


OVER-ALL RATING: 3/5

This rating is so hard for me to give to a Julie Garwood creation but I need to be honest in a review so I will give Hotshot a 3/5 rating. This book is not bad but it's not that entertaining either and that's the main reason why I can't give it a higher rating. I would still suggest you read it if you're already a reader of Julie Garwood so you can formulate your own reaction but if you're new to Julie Garwood's novels I would suggest you try her earlier works first because this can't be used as a basis of her writing skills. I even suspect that either she is lacking inspiration or she have a ghost writer who is writing for her because her latest books are going downhill in the entertaining department.


Thanks for dropping by! Stay safe everyone!