Review Wednesday: Right Under Your Nose by Holly Tierney-Bedord

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Standalone

Released: 2015

117 pages

Blurb:
"This is a novella length book.

Ariadne Daniels seems to have it all: A successful career as a pastry chef, a Victorian home in a trendy neighborhood, and her dedicated boyfriend Scott who she's been with for years.

Her life is great until the day she stops by Scott's apartment to surprise him and finds out that he's not so dedicated to her after all. Shocked and too depressed to celebrate, she decides to skip Christmas. Her best friend Jess does his part to convince her otherwise, but Ariadne's determined to wallow in her misery, at least until spring.

Life has other plans for her, however. Some helpful meddling from a new friend at a local bookstore, along with some questionable behavior on the part of Jess’s girlfriend, turn Ariadne’s ho-hum holiday plans on their head."



Review:
I received a copy of Right Under Your Nose through Lola's Blog Tours.  All opinions expressed are my own.

This is so adorable!  Honestly, it would have been so much better if I would have had the foresight to read it during the winter season because this is the perfect book to curl up with a mug of hot chocolate with in front of a fireplace. Regardless, I still enjoyed it in the summer!

1.  The characters.  This book (or should I say novella) is rather short and it can be difficult to get an audience to care about so many characters (in this case, basically five major ones) in such a small timespan.  This author pulled it off without a hitch!  I loved getting to know Ariadne and Jess specifically and their dynamic with each other is so lovely and hilarious.  They've been friends since childhood and it definitely shows.  There is also an abundance of familial relationships that are displayed and this is also handled so well.  I will say, however, that the 'villains' (I can't really classify them as that but they're the closest thing to antagonists), Laurel (Jess' girlfriend) and Scott are a bit forgettable and while they're a major part of the plot, their motivations seem flimsy and ill-explained.

2.  The plot.  Like I said above, the villain's motivations were a bit weak.  However, I felt the most interesting thing about this novella is the character development.  Not to say that it's a character driven book, but that the character side is definitely stronger than the action side.  I don't think the action weakness takes too much away, though, because of it's length.  There are basically three plotlines happening that weave together wonderfully: the strange mystery of the ghost-bookshop, Laurel's connection to Scott, and Jess and Ariadne's friendship tension.  There isn't a dull moment!

3.  The romance.  I'm not going to get too into this because the romance is a major part of the ending.  However, I will say that I'm much more supportive of the second relationship.  That's kind of the whole point and I'll roll with it willingly.

4.  The atmosphere.  This is one of the things I liked most about this.  Like I said in the intro, this is the perfect book to read during the wintertime with a mug of some hot liquid with an animal at your feet and a blanket on your lap :)  It has such a great atmosphere that I normally associate with cozy mysteries.

The Final Verdict:
A lovely warm contemporary romance, perfect for the wintertime.
4 stars

Meet the Author:

Holly Tierney-Bedord is the author of over a dozen novels and novellas, including Sweet Hollow Women, Surviving Valencia, Right Under Your Nose, Bellamy's Redemption, and Murder at Mistletoe Manor. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

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