REVIEW: So Wrong It Must Be Right by Nicole Helm
Book Reviews / C- ReviewsAmerica / Business woman / Contemporary / dysfunctional family / family relationships / FarmerComments Off on REVIEW: So Wrong It Must Be Right by Nicole Helm
It’s all fun and games until fantasy gets real . . .
At twenty-seven, Dinah Gallagher thought she’d have it all figured out. Instead, she’s having mind-blowing online sex with a man she knows nothing about and fighting for her rightful place in the family business. Part of that battle means expanding their century-old restaurant by getting the stubborn urban farmer next door to sell them his lot.
But Carter Trask is tired of being pushed around—especially by rich families like the Gallaghers. All he has left is the little farm he’s scratched out of his grandmother’s yard. At least he can blow off steam with the anonymous woman he’s been emailing for the past eight months, who makes his every sexual fantasy come alive—even if it’s only online.
When Dinah suddenly realizes that Carter’s gardens look just like some of her mystery man’s photos, she can’t resist trying to turn her dreams into reality. Against his better judgment, Carter joins in the game. But in real life, passion has a way of becoming very complicated, very quickly. And sometimes the wrong choice can turn out to be oh so right . . .
Dear Ms. Helm,
Wow, this one sounded like fun. Strong business woman meets determined farmer and then toss in some sexy emails that – whoops! – they’ve been exchanging for months without knowing each other. I read the blurb then read an excerpt and it was all systems go. Too bad I ended the book feeling almost sorry for the hero that he’s fallen for a woman who can’t see past her nose and tired of reading the same arguments – mental or spoken – three or four times.
Very early in the book, it’s made clear that if you are a member of the Gallagher family, the family business comes first, last and always and anything else be damned. Dinah lives and breathes Gallaghers and I’d swear (she would too) that, if cut, she would bleed Gallagher. I will give her determination though. She’s got that in spades. She is going to get the spot in the family business she’s always worked towards no matter if she can’t see the toxic stew the business is or the soulless predators her family are.
Carter has been pushed around by people like the Gallaghers and lost almost everything else in his life before coming back to his grandmother’s house to take care of her. Later he turns the yard around her home into an organic farm and he’s not going to let the arrogant, demanding Gallaghers buy him off of it. His first glimpse of Dinah is when she arrives determined to fulfill her family mission and find his breaking/turning point.
Something about his garden seems vaguely familiar but it’s not until later that evening after a sweaty round of IM sex, courtesy of her email fuck buddy, that all the pieces fall into place. Since his garden is right across the street from the place where she worships – yep, the family restaurant and bar – I find it surprising that it takes her so long but … whatever.
Their confrontation leads to some intense real sex because – why not? In a world neither feels totally able to control they can control this. It tastes like a plot device to me but it’s sugar coated with the information that for the last few months, their hawt emails have begun to include a little bit of caring and sweetness along with the orgasms.
But Dinah still has her Gallagher blinkers on and nothing will stand in the way of her getting Carter’s land because Gallaghers must have it and she lives for Gallaghers because she just does. I might have bought her almost militant obsessive fixation on Gallaghers, Gallaghers, Gallaghers if we had seen some happy scenes set in the bar with loyal patrons or if anyone in her family besides her cousin actually felt one iota of love for each other. Instead I’m left wondering about her sanity. I was stressed just reading this short contemporary book. I can’t imagine being so loyal to a place or family that gives nothing back besides the need to watch your back for the knife. Her cousin is the only smart one there and that’s because she sees the need to get the hell out of there.
Dinah and Carter do eventually come up with and work out some plan that will benefit them both and leave Carter owning his land. Dinah does finally notice that most of her family are soulless scorpions except for grandma who is a black widow. She’s still devoted to Gallaghers, though, so even though she and Carter exchange “I love you’s” I’m not seeing a bright future. C- and it’s Carter who raises the grade to that.
~Jayne
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