Loving Romeo by Laura Pavlov

Narrated by Samantha Brentmoor and Connor Crais

First in a spinoff series. Stands alone fine.

Loving Romeo was my first Laura Pavlov book. It’s been about 2 weeks since I finished it (I was traveling, then I got sick) and honestly can barely remember it, so this review is from the little notes I wrote. I listened to Loving Romeo in one day which is part of the reason I forgot it so quickly. Sometimes the ones I binge on like that just don’t stick as well.

Demi finished college and returned home to her small town of Magnolia Falls to open a coffee shop. Her family was wealthy and well-connected but she wanted to be independent. Romeo Knight owns the boxing gym next door and he hates Demi’s entire family—with good reason, but she had no knowledge of it all. Romeo tried to hate her but she had already softened up his friends, so it didn’t take too long for the hate to suddenly become love. And I mean suddenly. If you don’t like insta-love you may want to skip this one.

This was one of the corniest things I have ever read in a book: Each time Romeo and his friends exited, they said “Ride or die. Brothers till the end. Loyalty always. Forever my friend.” So, so cringe. Add to that, Demi had a beautiful name but insisted on being called Beans. BEANS. Really.

“I think you’re a little scared of me, Romeo.” She didn’t have a fucking clue. She terrified me. The way she made me feel. The way I wanted her. All of it.”

Likes:

I liked all the characters.
Amazing friend group/found family.
Cutler, aka Beefcake
Fast-paced and kept me very engaged.
The suspense.
The boxing.
The family drama.
The texting
Laugh-out-loud moments

Dislikes:

Very cheesy dialogue, especially their parting mantra.
Hate turned to love like a page later.
I can hardly remember it 2 weeks later.
There was a lot of telling instead of showing.

The Narration:

Samantha Brentmoor and Connor Crais did a great job and their voices seemed tailor-made for the characters.

The Down & Dirty (TLDR):

I got really engrossed in Loving Romeo and ended up listening in a day. The problem is, now that I’m reviewing it even my notes aren’t refreshing my memory fully. The thing I remember most is the uber-cheesy friend chant the guys do and how quickly the couple went from hate to love. I decided to read some other reviews to refresh my memory and I noticed a pattern: the people who loved Loving Romeo have loved her Cottonwood Cove series so maybe they have the background I needed to love this. My rating is hard for Loving Romeo because I didn’t want to put it down and it entertained me, but there was a lot of cringeworthy, cheesy moments that had me rolling my eyes.