Ami's Hoard

This is my first book of Christi Snow, which I found thanks to a status update from a friend. There were some things I really like and things that really annoyed me (and influenced my reading experience). Okay, let's see ... let me start with what I liked from the story.

I thought it started strongly. I loved the beginning -- the descriptions of the library with so many books in sight. I mean, this sentence alone -- The aroma of paper and ink permeated his senses like nothing else in this world. Being in the midst of all this literary brilliance was honestly his favorite time of the year -- made me want to weep. The beauty and joy of being readers *sigh*. Only us could appreciate the aroma of paper and ink, right?

Also the theme of book and reading, and love for books or written text being executed in a different form of art by someone who enjoy books through different means (since Tommy was dyslexic he found his love for books by listening to audiobooks) -- that was something I truly appreciated. I liked that Ms. Snow created a thing of a challenge for his character, Mac, in order to see that celebration of books and stories can come in so many ways.

When it comes to character, I did like Mac. Sure, he did something that I thought bordering to creepily stalker-ish in the beginning but I could also see that he was a hopeless case because he liked Tommy. So I was able to forgive this sucker a little bit *lol*. The female characters were also likable; always nice to see women who takes non sense when it comes to the men in their lives.

I enjoyed the secondary plot related to Tommy's younger brother, Ryder. It provided a kind of angst -- a good one, because when it came to angst between Tommy and Mac, I thought it was unnecessary, but I'll get to that later -- in addition to giving a different take on Tommy. I was slightly annoyed with Tommy as a character (which I will explain) but I couldn't deny his love towards his brother. It helped his case, so to speak.

Now, the things that I didn't fully enjoyed...

Tommy was a bit too prickly for me, and he also quickly jumped into conclusion, which contributed to the unnecessary separation. I'm NOT a huge fan of Big Misunderstanding theme in romance, and this definitely had one. The whole thing about men don't talk about things, and the idea of "you should make your move first" grates on my nerves every time. Tommy could easily asked Mac about why he decided to do that with his character (yes, Tommy made a conclusion without even reading Mac's book). Tommy could also picked up a phone and talk it all out.

I also had big issue regarding the flow. I think about the last third of the story, Ms. Snow decided to include excerpts of Mac's book (in order for Tommy to understand Mac's feeling). Not just one but ten installments. It became "a book within a book" and for me it disrupted the flow. It felt like an attempt to add more pages and extend the separation between Tommy and Mac. I found it not effective nor efficient (I ended up skimming this part).

But in conclusion, I still thought this was a good introduction of a new series. I am especially excited when I see the couple for book two, because that sounds like a recipe for great romance story.



The ARC is provided by the author via Netgalley for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.