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  • Caitlyn Lynch

Book Review: No Place Like Home by Maxine Morrey


I was genuinely shocked, when I looked up this book in order to write the review, to discover it’s being published by a Harlequin imprint, because in my experience of late, Harlequin books are really well edited, and this is frankly a hot mess of head-hopping, confusing time skips and way too many side characters. And that's if you can get past the almost-fatal domestic assault perpetrated on the heroine right at the start of the book.

Was it really necessary, for example, for us to find out the first name of the doctor who treats the hero's brother-in-law for a serious head injury, who only appears in one scene? And was it REALLY necessary to slip into said doctor's point of view for one page, solely so that the doctor can think about how cute the main couple look together?

All this came at the expense of character building such that at the end of the book I could tell you little about the heroine other than that she was some sort of artist. There were plot holes galore, like the heroine’s parents not being invited to the wedding of her best friend, who was ‘like a second daughter’ to them, but instead the heroine brought Kate, a random female friend whose sole purpose was to hook up with Tyler, the hero's friend who was there to… actually, I don't think there was any point to Tyler at all apart from adding to the word count.

There might have been a good story in here somewhere, but it needs a ruthless editor with a red pen to cut out all the extraneous filler to find it, and it would probably be barely half as long afterwards. Two stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

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