Review: Just The Way You Are by Beverly Barton

Mary Beth Caine has always been the good girl in her small Mississippi town. But when a big, protective, shamelessly sexy stranger offers to console her on the night of her disastrous engagement party, Mary Beth lets him—only to discover that Parr Weston also happens to be the older brother of her fiancé, Bobby Joe.

Parr left Mississippi after years spent holding his family together. Now that he's back, he can't steal Bobby Joe's woman, and he sure can't offer Mary Beth the tidy happily-ever-after she deserves. But everything about the petite beauty—from her flame-gold hair to her artless sensuality—makes him crave her more. Love or lust, right or wrong, all he knows is that nothing has ever felt like this before, and walking away will be the hardest thing he's ever had to do.

Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages

Expected publication: February 3rd 2015 by Zebra

 

Terri's Thoughts

 

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher Zebra via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  The expected publication date is February 3rd 2015.

 

This story was just ok for me.  It failed to seem realistic to me and there was no real substance until the halfway point of the story.

 

It was a story of instant attraction and love at first site.  Simple enough in concept.  Then you add the piece that Mary Beth is engaged to the brother of the person she falls for.  To me this story was a little too close to the line of cheating to be comfortable.  It seemed Parr had no disregard for his brother Bobby Joe and kept getting himself in situations where he and Mary Beth could (almost) succumb tot heir attraction.  Don't get me wrong, Bobby Joe did not deserve any allegiance however he was family.

 

The chemistry really wasn't there for me and I had a hard time cheering for Mary Beth and Parr.  For those that like their stories hot and steamy this story will also fall short.  It starts to go there but doesn't follow through.  If I had felt the chemistry a little more than this strategy may have worked.

 

At the end of the day this story was a distraction from my everyday routine however will not go down in my lasting memory of a standout.  Odds are I will forget it by the time I am done my next read.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Beverly Marie Inman was born on 23 December 1946 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA. Daughter of Doris Marie and Walter D. Inman Jr. A born romantic, she fell in love with The Beauty and the Beast epic at an early age, when her grandfather bought her an illustrated copy of the famous fairy tale. Even before she learned to read and write, her vivid imagination created magical words and fabulous characters inside her mind. Movies fascinated her, and by the time she was seven she was rewriting the movies she saw on television and at the local theater to give them all happy endings. By the age of nine she'd penned her first novel. She wrote short stories, TV scripts, poetry, and novels throughout high school and into college.

After her marriage to Billy Ray Beaver, the "love of her life", and the births of her two children, Beverly continued to be a voracious reader and a devoted moviegoer, but she put her writing aspirations on hold until her children were teenagers. At every age of their lives, from infancy to adulthood, the children had been a true joy to her. She devoted herself to her husband and children and considered herself one of the many selfless "supermoms" who put their family's needs first. She believed she had had it all, just not all at the same time.

In her mid-30s, Beverly returned to her former passion — writing — as a hobby, but before 40, she decided that she wanted to make writing a full-time career. And when she rediscovered an old dream — of becoming a published writer — no one was more supportive of her aspirations than her family. Her children were her greatest cheerleaders and her husband was her biggest supporter. After writing over 40 books and receiving numerous awards and nominations, as well as having books on the USA Today list and consistently on the Waldenbooks bestseller list, her career was indeed a dream come true. Having a fantastic family and fabulous friends, as well as making a living doing the one thing she had loved doing since childhood, she considered herself truly blessed. Beverly died suddenly of heart failure on 21 April 2011.

Website:  http://www.beverlybarton.com