A missing rockstar, a suspected murderer on the run, and a chase through some of the world’s most romantic destinationsSarah Burrowes is left with a shattered heart and a huge mortgage after the love of her life abruptly runs out on her.An aspiring journalist, Sarah spends her days slaving away at a gossip magazine—far from her dream job. Heartbroken and fed up, Sarah decides to take her career … decides to take her career by the reins and lands herself the assignment of a lifetime in Europe. But there’s a catch—her boss pairs her with gorgeous but egocentric photographer, Nick, who just happens to be her ex’s best friend.
But when Sarah’s assignment takes a darker turn, she discovers there’s more to this story than meets the eye. Is she ready to risk everything to get the scoop?
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Sarah Burrowes is heart-broken, left behind by her boyfriend, with a mortgage she can’t afford. Her dreams of being a journalist seem like a thing in the past and she spends her days working a column in a gossip magazine, that is going nowhere. Her life is in ruins and she is lonely. Till one night a chance meeting with a sexy stranger turns out to be the chance of a lifetime.
After a little white lie and begging Sarah gets that chance of a lifetime. To bad her ex boyfriends bff Nick is assigned to be her photographer. They had a one night stand that went bad and barely get along, now she has to spend her time working on this story together. How will they not kill each other?
When the assignment turns a sinister corner Nick and Sarah find that getting along may just save their lives.
This book was full of twists and turns that will have you second guessing yourself over and over. A well thought out plot full of comedy and suspense. At times the plot was not written well, a bit choppy at times. Even though I found some parts to be lagging, I still found it to be a very enjoyable read. Nick and Sarah are wonderful characters that have amazing chemistry. The ending leaves you hanging just a bit, but not like a cliff dive. It leaves room to continue Sarah’s story further. I would hope that Nick and Sarah continue together.
If you are looking for a steady paced read that will keep you guessing right up to the end, then this book is for you. It has a thick and engaging plot, with fun and energetic characters. Even though there were some slow spots in the story, it was still a fun and suspenseful read.
*ARC provided by Netgalley & Rebecca Freeborn
When you look up this book on Amazon or NetGalley, there is a little subhead that says, “If you love Sophie Kinsella, Zoe Foster and Christina Lauren, you’ll love Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn!”
Now, I’m quite sure it wasn’t the author who made that statement. I’m sure it was her publisher. But just as a note to all the authors and publishers out there who use this marketing tactic: Don’t. The simple fact is that if you compare yourself to a great, industry giant like Sophie Kinsella or Christina Lauren, your book will most likely suffer in comparison. It’s like a horror author saying they’re the next Stephen King, or a singer saying they’re the next Whitney Houston. It’s just…douchey. (Note: the only exception to this rule is when someone ELSE says something nice about a book. Then, quote away, authors and publishers. But then AND ONLY THEN is it not a dick move to pull a humble brag like that.) So, as I feared, this book suffered in comparison to Sophie Kinsella, Zoe Foster and Christina Lauren. A bummer, but not surprising.
Here’s what went wrong:
The heroine, Sarah:
Sarah is a wishy-washy turd of a heroine. She’s hung up on her twatwaffle of an ex (even though he ditched her and stuck her with a mortgage she couldn’t afford) right up until the very end of the book. She’s also the worst reporter in the history of reporters and only succeeds at her job by stumbling head-first into information. It’s blind stupid luck that she gets her story, which I hate. I much prefer smart heroines who are good at their jobs. (Competence porn is my jam) She’s also dumb enough to accept a drink from known criminals. (Who does that? OF COURSE it was drugged) In short, Sarah is TSTL (too stupid to live) and I have no interest in TSTL heroines.
The hero, Nick:
Nick’s not quite as annoying as Sarah. I mean, at least he’s good at his job. But he’s also a bit of a jerk who flirts with everything in a skirt and pretty much treats Sarah like crap. (He also pulled a “hey, I’m not good with feelings and you made me feel stuff, so now I have to ignore you” thing on Sarah in their past together, which is one of my all-time least favorite tropes EVER.) I didn’t see anything in his actions or words that led me to believe he had any real romantic interest in Sarah. I mean, I don’t blame him; she’s a turd. I wouldn’t want her either. But that lack of romantic interest was a bit of a problem for me as a reader, seeing as this is a ROMANCE novel.
Other randomness:
This book also features Sarah’s turd of an ex, who, frankly, I think is perfect for Sarah. They’re turds of a feather as far as I’m concerned. (Off topic: Do romance heroines ever break up with decent guys? I’d like to see that happen once or twice.)
And on another note, this book was the first I’ve ever read to feature a Scottish rock star (not the hero, a side character) who was a complete and total dud. He was weak, cowardly, not a great kisser, and generally a total bore. How the hell can a Scottish rock star in a romance novel be so repellant? That should be, like, illegal or something.
The mystery and action in the story was also fairly lame. And a random sex scene was thrown in at the end of the book for the sole purpose, I think, of the publisher being able to call this book a romance and capitalize on the millions of romance readers out there. It read like it was pieced together from every 1980s romance novel that had Fabio on the cover. Very, very cliche.
So, needless to say this wasn’t a read I’d recommend to, well, anyone. Would I have been as hard on the book if it hadn’t been touted as the second coming of Sophie Kinsella and Christina Lauren? Maybe, maybe not. I guess we’ll never know…
And don’t forget to follow the Romance Rehab blog for more rants, raves, and other fun romance-y stuff: http://www.romancerehab.com/
I enjoyed this fun romantic suspense book. Sarah is a journalist in training and her live in boyfriend has dumped her. She has a low level job at a Celebrity Magazine but wants to be a investigative reporter. When a chance meeting with a musician turns into an an international mystery she is determined to write the story. The magazine reluctantly agrees and sends a staff reporter, Nick and her to Europe to chase the story. Romance and mystery soon follow. I liked the characters and the travels through Europe was fun. The romance was good but predictable. The mystery was good and did have a few surprises. Enjoy this fun Beach read.
This is my first book by Rebecca Freeborn.
What I liked:
The writing style
I had a hard time staying interested in this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC from NetGalley.
I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a book of extremes: extremely unrealistic plot, extremely inept journalist, extremely convenient lucky breaks/plot twists, extremely weird (and borderline offensive) male lead, extremely slow for such a bare-bones story, I could go on and on.
I get that not every story will be my cup of tea but the problem I have is that this sounded so promising and failed so spectacularly on execution! I don’t know that Sarah could ever be called a proper journalist; she gets the story on luck alone. The human elements of fear and distrust are mostly ignored. All of her wallowing over James and her waffling over all the other love interests (and really, how many do there need to be in one story?!) are completely at odds with the “tenacity” she shows in going after the story.
And let’s talk about these love interests for a moment. Chris makes sense. Some of the wallowing over James I can understand. But Nick is detestable. He’s so awful, misogynistic, and downright mean that I hate Sarah for sticking around, even on a work assignment. He doesn’t earn the moments of kindness he has because he’s so hot and cold and TERRIBLE.
Please, save yourself the time and skip this one.
Hot Pursuit is more a long, slow walk, especially for the first half of the book. It does pick up in the second half, and I might have enjoyed it at that point if it weren’t for the characters. Sarah is not at all heroine-like. Not even a little bit and on top of that, she’s completely incompetent, and her naiveté is over the top ridiculous. I assume her lack of knowledge on anything current is supposed to be funny with her working for a celebrity magazine, but the bumbling reporter act just grew tiresome. Nick is just as bad with his barbs and put-downs. If they’re supposed to be witty, they fail, and he comes off as a jerk most of the time. I won’t go into all the characters, but I didn’t find a single one worth rooting for. They’re all unlikable in one way or another. Our blundering duo does get around, traveling from one place to another, which could’ve been interesting. However, it’s more like they reach point A, check in to a motel, see a couple of places everybody has heard of, then meander around and ask the wrong questions. Yet, somehow, they manage to learn where to go next, so it starts all over again – Rinse, lather, repeat. There is a small bit of romance at the end, but there’s really no build up to it. There is a physical attraction, but not once did I get the impression of anything more than that. Needless to say, this one left me disappointed at best.
I enjoyed this story. Sarah hates her job and her boyfriend has run out on her. She sees a chance to advance at work and gets an assignment to travel to Europe in search of a missing rockstar. The photographer assigned to travel with her is her ex’s best friend. They find more than they expected during the trip. This book was entertaining and I would read other stories by this author.
Sarah was a different kind of character. Sometimes I liked her and at others, she made me shake my head. If you looked up the word, “Stupid” in the dictionary I think her name and picture would be under it. But to give her a fair shake, she was also tenacious, brave, loyal and unrelenting.
At, first I wasn’t sure about what to make about Nick. So many times he was so critical and rude to Sarah. But as time went on I began to think that just might have been a defense mechanism against Sarah. He WAS there for her when she needed help. Things are not totally settled between the two of them. The attraction is still there.
Now James is another story. Her on and off boyfriend was something else. He just needed to grow up and stop running away every time some hiccup happened in his life. He was pretty steady until a problem cropped up and then not only couldn’t she find him, he wouldn’t even talk to her. He wouldn’t even talk to Nick, someone who had been his friend for years. I didn’t like how he treated Sarah and hoped against hope that she would ditch him for a change. Permanently.
There is plenty of action, mysteries and flat out dangers in this story.
With more action and unexpected turns towards the end. That was really well done. When things start to unravel for the bad guys, it ends up revealing even more that was on the end of that thread.
Just on a side note, I liked the eBook cover that came with my copy better than the one I see they used for the paperback on Amazon. This one really popped!
I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book via Netgalley and this is my honest opinion of it.
This is a good light hearted read and shows great promise for a debut novel. Sarah has been dumped by her live in boyfriend, leaving her with a house she can’t afford and maxed out credit cards. After a night out with her friends, she leaves a bar with a good looking Scottish guy called Chris. Unfortunately, as things start to heat up, Sarah thinks about her ex and calls a halt to anything further. Next day, she finds out who she was really with and that there is a huge breaking news story that would be the answer to her money woes. The catch, she has to go with Nick, her exes best friend and the office lothario who lets everyone know he had a one night stand with Sarah. It really couldn’t get much worse. But of course, it can and it does. Dragged a bit in places but overall a great story.
*I won this book off of Netgalley for my honest opinion*
This was cute read. I enjoyed the banter between Nick and Sarah. The story line was intriguing. The only thing I found myself being annoyed with is Sarah. Some of her “naive” mistakes annoyed me. She didn’t seem like a very strong character but she became stronger throughout the book. All of the spur of moments decisions made me want to scream at her. LOL. However, it made for a cute fast read.
In the mood for a enemies to lover story with a mystery thrown in? Pick this up!
Hot Pursuit by Rebecca Freeborn a five-star read that you will pursue. If you are in the mood for something fun but with a twist and a half for your summer read then this is the read you need. Sarah Burrowers goes on a trip that is a trip in more ways that she can dream of, life gave her lemons and she is making lemon soup, it’s not as sweet and successful as lemonade but is a lovely thing in the end. There are a few bits you will see coming, but overall it kept me hooked from start to finish and I will be keeping an eye on this author to see what she will bring us next.