This is an even-paced, even-tempered simple age-gap romance.
Life is far from good for Penny Rothmoor. She had brought
her boyfriend, Bryce, on board the casino her family owns as the security head.
First her cheated on her and then her walked away taking half the casino’s security
staff to a rival casino. When her turns up at the casino again, Penny has
something of a meltdown on the floor, with the result that she is ‘asked’ to
take time off. Serendipitously, Penny has a dinner engagement with her dead
mother’s erstwhile best friend, Lauren Hansen, the same evening. Lauren is a
fairly successful Chicago-based photographer who is on her way to Hawaii for
what should’ve been an anniversary celebration. Except that she has been
unceremoniously dumped and is on her way to the all-paid-for holiday week alone.
Egged by Penny’s friends, Lauren and Penny decide to vacation for a week in
Hawaii together, solemnly agreeing to not think or work or terrible exes, but
just be vacation people.
For a workaholic, casino heiress, Penny is surprising soft
and vulnerable. There is something very young about her. We loved the mini-breakdown
she has and her self-aware revelation that she is not ‘vacation people’; she
doesn’t go with the flow, she is a person who stresses about things. Lauren is
also likeable enough. The two together are very sweet. Despite the
mom-connection, there is nothing discomfiting about the attraction between Penny
and Lauren. Potentially drama and/or angst inducing situations are dealt with
without putting the MCs (or the readers) through an emotional wringer. We liked
that by the end, both of them are equally willing to make sacrifices and major
changes to their lives for the other. What we didn’t quite get is Penny’s
relationship with her father and her standing in the casino (which is destined
to someday come to her).
On the whole, this not-too-long book is an easy weekend read.
⭐⭐⭐
