REVIEW: Ready to Fall by Olivia Dade
Elementary school teacher and part-time librarian Sarah Mayhew has the perfect plan: show off her cycling skills at her school’s bike retreat and attract her oblivious coworker in the process. Her end game? Fall in love. Only one problem: she needs to find someone to teach her how to ride a bike pronto. But when she catches sight of Chris Dean, her best laid plans are about to go off track . . .
Chris is not looking for a girlfriend. He’s getting over his last one by focusing on his bike repair business. So when a feisty, sexy schoolteacher urges him to help improve her cycling skills, he does it strictly for the money. He vows he won’t repeat history, even for a blond bombshell like Sarah. But when the two find themselves alone on the road, they can’t help taking a detour straight into each other’s arms . . .
Dear Ms. Dade,
The secondary character of part time librarian Sarah Mayhew jumped off the page in Technicolor/surround sound when she appeared in “Hidden Hearts” and seeing that she already had her HEA in Chris Dean – who is much more sedate than his 4ever woman – I jumped back and picked up this novella to try next.
Sarah is a pint sized, curvy larger than life woman who fears her “out loud” personality has driven off all her past boyfriends. None of them have stayed the course for more than a few weeks before exhaustion kicks in and they ditch the relationship. She fears that, given the lack of men working in her field, her choices are getting fewer and she decides to proactively pursue a possible guy. But to make her move during the summer recess and have time to develop anything, she’s got to start now and now is a faculty retreat on bikes. One problem: Sarah has never mastered bike riding and in fact thinks the things are Satan’s instruments of death.
How to get ready for the all day outing in less than 96 hours? First she’s got to buy a bike – shiny purple streamers, anyone? – then she’s got to find someone to teach her how to avoid dying on it. When her coterie of library friends all have to decline due to previous engagements, Helen comes to the rescue with the name of a newcomer to the area who owns a bike repair shop.
Chris isn’t thrilled about the job but it’s going to pay a lot of money which his struggling new business needs and Sarah announces from the start that she isn’t after his bod but that of a fellow library worker. Helping Sarah nab another man sounds doable until Chris begins to see the insecurities hiding behind Sarah’s brash LOL personality and vavoom sexy body. Good thing he can stand behind counters a lot to hide what she does to him in his tight bike shorts.
Sarah talks all the time and Chris tends to man-grunt along but will they ever get on the same page their attraction to each other is leading to?
Sarah is still her hilarious self in this book while Chris is the same strong, silent type we see in “Hidden Hearts.” No changes there. But this is a novella so things have to move fast and it seemed they shot along a little too quickly for me to totally buy into the relationship especially seeing how often these two misunderstood each other even after supposedly laying themselves on the line. It literally takes another couple playing counselors to get this relationship back on track. I still liked Sarah and Chris and think they’re great for each other but part of that comes from seeing them carry on into the next book. This novella feels a little rushed. B-
~Jayne
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Oh, I enjoyed this book very much! I read a lot – for me to recall the plot of a book out of the blue is rare – but this perfect mix of bicycles, books and humor has a permanent home in my heart.
@LML: I hope Sarah will be in many future books in the series – she’s a blast.