Making Chase
by Lauren Dane
2.5 stars
**
This book was not my cup of tea, unfortunately. This was my first read by Lauren Dane, after friends raving about her, and I was definitely disappointed.
This is Tate and Matt's book. Tate is a hairdresser/salon owner, raised in a trailer park by an abusive, alcoholic father and a mother who is gone stepping out on her father half the time. She has raised her younger brothers and sisters and made something of herself now. Matt is a fireman and the youngest and last single Chase brother. His wealthy family is the golden family of the town. The two work across the street from each other, but don't meet until Tate is hit by a car on the street and Matt comes to the rescue. They become friends and one day Matt realizes he actually is interested in her romantically. She is very skeptical, pushes him away a lot and has terrible self esteem, but they begin dating. They have so much pushback from the townspeople that they must overcome, but it all works out in the end.
My issues with this book were many. This book hinges on, harps on, bashes the readers over the head with two things: 1. Tate is "fat" or "heavyset". People talk about her weight or she talks about it on pretty much every page. Tate's poor self esteem was also harped on so much. There was way too much and it was overdramatic. 2. Tate is poor white trash from the trailer park and not good enough to date a Chase.
The townspeople were all against Tate and Matt being together, going up to them wherever they went to confront them about it. That continued to very end. What century was this? It was not at all believable, understandable or relatable that a whole town cared so much about two people dating simply because of a supposed class difference. It annoyed me so much. That was pretty much the focus of the whole book- the couple fighting against the mean townsfolk and it hurting Tate's feelings, contributing to her poor self esteem. It was very repetitive.
This book also has so much OW drama and it bothered me so much. Women Matt used to date come up to her wherever she goes to make fun of her and tell her she is too fat or poor to be dating Matt. He also used to date his SIL, before she married his brother. He even wonders in the first few pages of the book if he lost his "one" in her. I felt like Matt was just desperate to get married to anyone because his brothers were all married. And the SIL is around all the time during the rest of the book and Tate has to be around her. Of course, SIL is beautiful and thin, while Tate is "fat" with poor self esteem. Matt was also the SIL's best friend and he blows kisses at her whenever he sees her. What guy does that, anyway?
Also, I felt the writing was poor. The book felt long and drawn out. This book is written in 3rd person and we get both hero and heroine's thoughts, but it was sometimes in the same paragraph, which gave me whiplash. I didn't feel any chemistry, emotion or love between the couple. I felt like the general story had potential, but the execution ruined the book for me.
Overall, this was a miss for me. I guess this author just isn't for me.
****
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599987597/ref=x_gr_e_nl_newreleases_sin_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_e_nl_newreleases_sin_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1599987597&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2
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