Review: Heat Wave by Karina Halle (Goodreads Author)

Heat Wave by Karina Halle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

NOTE: MINOR SPOILERS

Karina Halle has a distinct voice and a very unique writing style which never fails to engage me - each book of hers that I have read - and I have read a lot of them - has been a total "reading" pleasure for me.

I have mixed feelings about Heat Wave, her newest standalone novel. Okay, I didn't hate the story - there were some things that I really liked...but.........let me just write down some points.......

What worked for me:

1. The setting of Kauai is so vividly descriptive that I almost felt I was actually there.......

2. The scene where Logan is teaching Ronnie to surf and tells her to sing her favourite song whilst trying to stay on her surfboard..........

Led Zeppelin is my all-time favourite band (I even named my little miniature Schnauzer Zeppelin!!!) and Kashmir

is one of my all time favourites of theirs...after Stairway to Heaven.......

3. The plot..........second chance love story.

4. The lifestyle in Kauai....food

and scenery is woven into the story so well.....taste, smell, touch, feel, see........it touches all your senses.

5. I liked Ronnie and Logan at the beginning of the book.....however, when they meet up again years later in Kauai.....see what didn't work for me........

6. The quirky and engaging secondary characters...........

What did not work for me - and why a 3,5 star rating only:

1. I felt that Veronica came second best in her life including with Logan.........why did she have to be his second choice even when he met her before his sister!!!! I hear his reasoning at the end of the book when he get his POV...but it still "pissed" me off!! In essence...okay, I didn't dislike Logan....I still had this little niggling feeling that...maybe she could have been someone else's FIRST CHOICE!!!!

2. I was irritated a few times with Veronica.......I wanted her to grow some backbone and stop allowing everyone to dictate what she can and can't do with her life.........the most annoying of all was her relationship with her parents.......WHAT........she's prepared to give up the man she supposedly loves because it might cause a scandal to her beyond horrible mother's career!!!! I couldn't believe that she gave in so quickly........I was totally bummed out!!!

3. I wanted the two to be together....that's what I thought would happen in the beginning......but I couldn't get past the whole second choice thingies!!!

It's a good story from a fabulous author.

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