Ever After (Rachel Lacey)
3.5 stars
The third book of Rachel Lacey’s Love to the Rescue series features opposite couple, animal activist Olivia Bennett and Sheriff’s Deputy Pete Sampson. Pete caught Olivia red-handed, when she was in the process of vandalizing the wall of a chicken processing plant in Dogwood, which had gained reputation of abusive treatment of the animals. That should be the end of it, except that Olivia also became a target of some threats after her action…
On the surface, I should have loved this… There was a sweet chemistry between Pete and Olivia – as he starting to care for her and feeling protective towards Olivia especially after she became a target of some vandalism as well. Pete was a nice guy – even if he had baggage of his own – and I should admire Olivia for her passion towards saving the animals. I liked that Pete didn’t immediately antagonize Olivia, even if his boss told him that Olivia was a suspect of other vandalism as well. I also liked that Olivia didn’t just back down.
However, something stopped me from loving this more than I should. I had to think about it overnight because it made me wonder. Then I realized that I wasn’t feeling Olivia 100 percent. I didn’t love her “I don’t know what to do with myself and let me wait until I’m 30” attitude. At first, I thought it was because her parents were the pressuring kind, so she was suffocated by it. But it didn’t turn out to be that way. Her father loved her – and supported her in every way.
Then, her method in saving the farm-animals: online with Facebook and blog. She seemed to really care about the ‘likes’ number. To me, if she really is an activist, she should just ‘go to the street’ and be more proactive about it. Do real action and not just worry about online content. Olivia also seemed ‘clueless’ about the result of her demand, that shutting down a factory would actually make thousands of people lose their job. She didn’t get that.
So in the end, I could only see Olivia as rather immature in her actions, another rich kid with ‘a rich kid’ problem. That’s why I didn’t love this as much as I wanted it to, even if I still enjoyed the whole set-up overall. Besides, the animals were there to give another form of entertainment. Olivia’s stray cat and foster dogs, along with Pete’s dog, amused me every time they were on page.
The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.
The third book of Rachel Lacey’s Love to the Rescue series features opposite couple, animal activist Olivia Bennett and Sheriff’s Deputy Pete Sampson. Pete caught Olivia red-handed, when she was in the process of vandalizing the wall of a chicken processing plant in Dogwood, which had gained reputation of abusive treatment of the animals. That should be the end of it, except that Olivia also became a target of some threats after her action…
On the surface, I should have loved this… There was a sweet chemistry between Pete and Olivia – as he starting to care for her and feeling protective towards Olivia especially after she became a target of some vandalism as well. Pete was a nice guy – even if he had baggage of his own – and I should admire Olivia for her passion towards saving the animals. I liked that Pete didn’t immediately antagonize Olivia, even if his boss told him that Olivia was a suspect of other vandalism as well. I also liked that Olivia didn’t just back down.
However, something stopped me from loving this more than I should. I had to think about it overnight because it made me wonder. Then I realized that I wasn’t feeling Olivia 100 percent. I didn’t love her “I don’t know what to do with myself and let me wait until I’m 30” attitude. At first, I thought it was because her parents were the pressuring kind, so she was suffocated by it. But it didn’t turn out to be that way. Her father loved her – and supported her in every way.
Then, her method in saving the farm-animals: online with Facebook and blog. She seemed to really care about the ‘likes’ number. To me, if she really is an activist, she should just ‘go to the street’ and be more proactive about it. Do real action and not just worry about online content. Olivia also seemed ‘clueless’ about the result of her demand, that shutting down a factory would actually make thousands of people lose their job. She didn’t get that.
So in the end, I could only see Olivia as rather immature in her actions, another rich kid with ‘a rich kid’ problem. That’s why I didn’t love this as much as I wanted it to, even if I still enjoyed the whole set-up overall. Besides, the animals were there to give another form of entertainment. Olivia’s stray cat and foster dogs, along with Pete’s dog, amused me every time they were on page.
The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.
5