Cora Cabot’s life is falling apart. So when her Australian friend announces she’s secured an internship in the States, Cora has a brilliant idea: house swap! Small-town Australia sounds like the perfect getaway. Only, when she gets there, the house isn’t empty. Turns out her friend’s hot Australian brother is staying there, too–and he doesn’t look happy to see her. The last thing Trent Walters … Trent Walters needs is a roommate for the summer. Especially an American who immediately floods the house and single-handedly destroys the family project his sister created for their parents’ anniversary. Now, not only does Cora insist on helping fix the house, he needs her help re-creating the family scrapbook. And glitter is not his forte.
But between late nights cooking, pints at the local pub, and competitive matches of cricket on the beach, Cora starts to break through Trent’s defenses. Too bad Cora made a promise to return to working with her father at the end of the summer–a promise she can’t break–because this holiday is starting to feel like one she never wants to end.
Each book in the Patterson’s Bluff series is STANDALONE:
* The Aussie Next Door
* Her Aussie Holiday
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Trent and Cora
Cora needs a break from her NYC life after a bad break and her family’s dysfunction. Cora’s online friend Liv needed a place to stay during a month-long unpaid internship. The perfect solution is for Liv and Cora to house swap.
Liv heads to the Big Apple and Cora is headed to small coastal town in Australia.
Trent, Liv older brother, seems to be a bit of a dandelion seed. In the wind and floating around. He doesn’t seem attached to much but his family. He is afraid to start working on his dream home. He moved out from his roommate after his roommate moved in his girlfriend. While everyone calls him the town charmer you can tell he uses it to hide himself.
When these two meet it is instant chemistry. Cora decides that being holiday she can allow herself to be who she is without worry of her family pressures. I loved her comparison to being a caterpillar. She does come across as very weak while bending to her family’s mold and ideals. I found her to be slightly spineless. I wish she had pushed back against her father’s criticisms instead of taking them so easily.
The plot of the story does drag along. While we have small glimpses at some deeper stuff it is just slow. Even though Cora was only there for a month, you could tell this was going to fall into the relationship pattern very easily causing the very predictable it is only a vacation fling you will forget me conversation. The conversation was rushed, and I felt that they easily just accepted it as it was. With the strong attraction at the beginning I expected more emotional push and pull and that never really developed for me.
It is hard to have a slow burn relationship romance with instant chemistry in the confines of a vacation fling. If you are looking for a low key read then this is an ok story.
The chemistry at the beginning was wonderful, it is a well written story with very likeable characters. The quiet Aussie town is a great setting. It just needed a little more. This was a 3/5 read for me. I just needed more. I was expecting a bit more laughs, a bit more emotion, and to be a bit more invested in the story.
This is a book that is a bit of a slow burn so please persevere with it in the beginning Cora works for her father a literary agent who has broken her heart rejecting her first attempt at a novel he says he is doing it for her own good She decides she needs a break from her high powered life in New York and decides to house swap with her best friend from Australia. Things don’t work out so well When she arrives she just about destroys her friends bathroom her friends brother Trent thinks that she is a home invader Luckily they work it out and Trent tells her he is going to rejuvenate Liz’s home while she is away. Cora is all in to help this isn’t because Trent is hot not at all Soon these two are heating up the sheets but they know it is only a holiday fling or will it become so much more You will have to read to see
3.5
I enjoyed revisiting the Walters family.
What I liked:
The writing style
The characters
Part of a series: Patterson’s Bluff
Standalone
HEA
Epilogue
I look forward to reading the next book in this series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC from NetGalley.