Review: Love Finds You in Romeo, Colorado by Gwen Ford Faulkenberry

Love Finds You in Romeo, Colorado Author - Gwen Ford Faulkenberry Time It Took for to Read - 3 Days Rating - 4 out of 5 Stars Would I Recommend: Yes

Claire Caspian is a first-rate professor, teaching even the most cynical student to find beauty in literature. But with her own personal story, she isnt as successful. Having recently lost her husband, Claire returns with her young son to the tiny desert town of Romeo, Colorado, where she grew up. There she settles in with her feisty old Abuelita, the richest woman in the county and attempts to rebuild her life. But love comes searching for Claire in the form of attractive local doctor Stephen Reyes. Will another tragedy prevent her from accepting love the second time around? Or will she embrace her new Romeo and finally find a happy ending?

What I Loved...

I have never read a book, within the genres that I love to read, where there is a Puerto Rican hero (I am of Puerto Rican descent) and Spanish spoken throughout. Never say never. Although I had no clue based off the back cover, I was so pleasantly surprised as I read it.

I loved the Spanish spoken throughout and although I am not from Colorado or of Mexican descent, I still felt like I had better understanding and deeper connection to the characters than I usually do.

What I Liked...

This was a nice love story and I really enjoyed most of the characters. I think they were written well and I could see them as real people. I think my favorite character was a tie between Stephen Reyes and Abuelita who were boht sincere and funny. They were easy characters to like.

Other...

There were many times throughout the first half of the book that I felt the author was a novice author. I found myself wishing she would have worded things differently. The sad part was that I didn't go into reading it that way, but it seemed so obvious to me. After a few chapters of being distracted by some of the writing, I looked and found that the author does not have many novels (I admit that I did not do a thorough search) and can only attribute some of the quirks to being a novice author.

The book does get better later on and I found myself more and more into the story and in the second half can't recall being distracted by the writing style at all. I don't know if it was due to the
storyline or improved writing style.

The one character that was a bit disappointing was the son Graeme. He was five years old and spoke like a ten year old. While the story did mention him as smart, it didn't say much after that and I just couldn't see a 5 year old having such conversations just because he was "smart." he was not a believeable character. This story needed a kid, even a 5 year old kid to make the story work, but it was forced. It just didn't flow.

The end of the book was clever but disappointing for me. I felt cheated.

Having said all that, there were a few funny moments and swoon moments, so I gave this one a 4 out of 5 stars and I would read Gwen Ford Faulkenberry again. She redeemed herself in the second half of the book, even if I particularly didn't like the ending.