When Stars Collide
By Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Release Date: June 29, 2021
Ebook Available from WV Reads!
2 Stars - Oddly enough, this rom com suffers from a lack of sparkle. Phillips had all the ingredients of an excellent story but they just don't mesh that well. Olivia and Thad are made out to be so different but actually they had very similar personalities. Not all in good ways, yet they did seem good for each other and had sparks. There's some suspense mixed in with the romance and humor here, but I think even some devoted fans may be disappointed.
Phillips is actually more of a vet of the romantic comedy genre than a lot of the authors today, many of whom switched from romantic suspense, erotica, or new adult to the more fan friendly rom-com genre. So, it pains me to give her a slightly negative reason when she does know her stuff. The original Chicago Stars stories just had more pizzaz than this. Olivia is a blurb-proclaimed diva but she's just a little too prickly and cold. Of course, eventually, Thad melts that shell and we get her sweet side. We also can certainly understand her holding herself and other to high standards. Oddly, Thad was almost the same.
The push-pull aspect felt thinly disgusted as Thad wasn't exactly a 'rough' football player with redneck roots or anything. These two on paper seem like a good match from the jump. Why they were so antagonistic to each other never really made sense. This book is almost certainly too long though at almost 400 pages. Bits of dialouge felt like copy/paste jobs. Yes, we get some intrigue and suspense mixed in, but there's just too much detail at times. It bogged down any fast-pace tension it built. And the part of the story where Thad is accused of sleeping with Alyssa felt so off. Phillips used to have a racier side to her couples but that seems to be mostly absent here. Thad and Olivia aren't quite setting the sheets on fire or the pages for the majority of the stories. There's more bickering, or bantering, depending on how you look at it. Huge Stars series fans with probably find this worth the read, devouring the latest story. But anyone not yet into Phillips' work should star with earlier Stars novels before deciding whether or not she's a keeper.
(NS)
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