📱💞🥰 “A Very Terrible Text” (Cider Cove Sweet Southern RomComs #1) (2023) 🥰💞📱 – Book Review

MY REVIEW 

Series: Cider Cove Sweet Southern RomComs (Book #1)
Paperback: 358 Pages
Publisher: AEJ Creative Works (September 27, 2023)
Language: English
ISBN 10: 1638762589
ISBN-13: 978- 1638762584
⬅️ Click Photo for Order Information

 

“Sometimes the thumbs slip…

 She’s finally joined the dating app everyone in Cider Cove is raving about…when she accidentally sends a message about wanting to meet up for a first date to her enemy.

Hillary:
 I’ve been engaged twice now without becoming a bride, and let’s just say those failures have made me more career-focused than ever.

 But I just hit the big 3-0 last year, and I’m feeling…lonely, despite the five best friends I share an enormous house with. I’ve drawn the short stick this time, and I’m dealing with the general contractor about fixing our perpetually leaking roof.

 Joy.
 Not.

 Liam Graff is a complete beast—and our next-door neighbor—which only makes the way we sometimes gather at the upper floor windows to watch him mow his lawn shirtless a little embarrassing.

 For him. Not us.

 In order to cheer myself up, I join the dating app everyone in town can’t stop talking about, and I’ve been chatting back and forth with Mr. Hottie from one town over.

 Great. No, really, it’s great. I’m great. He’s great.

 Except I’ve also been texting with Liam about this blasted roof, and my invite for dinner in a slinky black dress goes to him instead of Mr. Hottie…

 Before I can correct and explain myself, he responds with, What time should I pick you up?”

 

Thank you in advance to the author, Elana Johnson, for providing a complimentary review copy through Kate Rock Book Tours. A positive review was not required, and all words are my own. 

This is the first book I’ve read by the author, and likely won’t be the last. Despite not being fond of cartoon/illustrated covers, I was drawn by the title A Very Terrible Text and the premise of app dating and sending the wrong text. 

 

I’m not a fan of online dating or app dating. I think it is better to meet someone through friends, co-workers, or relatives. And, even one of the characters admits online dating apps isn’t really the best place to meet the one true love. 

 

The first book in the series has a real hard job – establish the recurring characters, the plot of the series, and its own story. This one does it right off. 

Johnson introduces readers to (some might only be for this story):

 

📽️ Hillary – describes herself as potato shaped (I can relate), comes from wealth, wants to produce                     documentaries, currently a researcher

🏢 Michelle – Hillary’s Boss

🧰 Liam – contractor, lives next door

🏠 Tahlia – owns The Big House, wants to someday turn it into a Bed & Breakfast 

⚠️ Claudia – Public Works Director

🗄️ Ryanne – co-manager at an office supply store

👗 Emma 

🔬 Lizzie – works at chemical research company

🎥 Tanner – big Los Angeles producer

⚠️ Beckett – works with Claudia, wants to compete for a job opening

 

Hillary and the girls used to be college roommates, and their friendship allows them to live as roommates. Thalia needs the income to pay for the house. 

 

Despite the eclectic characters, the story is 95% told from Hillary and Liam’s POVs in first-person, with Claudia’s first-person POV for about 5% in two chapters. 

 

This begins with Hillary snagging an interview with a wealthy female billionaire, in the hopes that she can break into the big-time investigative reporting. She has a bad night, and ends up getting woken up by her neighbor – Liam who is mowing the lawn. [I can relate, especially with our town home community’s landscapers and their blasted bacon-cheese baked potato leaf-blower! Sometimes it’s 2-3 days per week! 😒🤪]

 

It’s instant “dislike” on her part – after all, she wanted to sleep in. Liam thinks she’s cute in her pink pajamas, almost a princess. 

 

It isn’t until Tahlia tasks her with part of the “honey-do” list – namely finding a contractor for the leaking roof. Another reason it becomes Hillary’s job – it’s over her bedroom. 

 

Hillary decides to ask Liam, but he wants an apology from her for her “attitude” about the mowing incident. It turns into a dinner date, then just an invite to check on the roof since she doesn’t like wings and brings some to his workplace just for him. It’s more serious than they both thought – but he can have a patch in place. He’s not sure he wants to get back into the dating pool, then again, he is “sweet” on Hillary. 

 

Hillary, like her roommate Claudia, has joined Matchmakers. Hillary quickly matches with someone and moves from the app to texting. 

 

Despite the interview being postponed – Michelle gets a call from Tanner Bridgestone – he’s interested in the Prime National Bank scandal from the 1980’s. Excited, Hillary tells everyone – even Liam. 

 

She also does something rather embarrassing. Thinking she’s texting the hottie form the app, Karl, she ends a rather risqué text to Liam asking him out. He responds with “what time should I pick you up”. Horrified, she wants to get out of it, but replies with a time. Liam is shocked when he gets it, but figures there was something between them.

 

As it turns out – Hillary not only has a LOAD of fun with Liam, he has set the standard high for future dates. It turns out that two grumps equal a beautiful sunshine and loads of potatoey fun.

 

They hit a slight rough patch when he wonders why she asked him out – it was a mistake. But, he then forgives her because she didn’t have to go out with him. She wanted to. They soon realize that they love each other’s company and he doesn’t disappoint with the dates either. 

 

But, due to her two failed engagements, Hillary is hesitant to use the “d-word” with them – dating that is. But, she admits it during one of the nights with the girls.

 

Hillary is then forced to admit it when her mother reminds her of her father’s birthday party – especially when Carolle has invited Charlie, Hillary’s ex-fiancé. Her mother wants them to get back together, Hillary doesn’t. 

 

Everything is perfect in her life – Liam, their dates, peaches, sweet tea, and even the potato puns – though, her career might stand in the way of their happily ever after when she gets the news she’s been waiting for. 

 

Johnson creates a clean, sweet, potato-spired cuss word rom-com that had me laughing and starving from the first page to the last. This was a relatable, modern, and fun romance that starts as an accidental hook-up, but leads to a “friends-to-more” romance.

 

I had to laugh about Liam calling mushrooms “fungi”. I do that as well. A fun note –> before my mother got pregnant for me, she HATED mushrooms, even microscopic ones. She’d easily spot them and pick them out. While pregnant for me, she had a serious craving for mushrooms. It was so bad that after I was born – she NEVER shook the craving. While a bit “disgusting”, also while carrying me, she had a tremendous amount of gas that went away after I was born. So, while Hillary describes herself as a potato due to her shape, I joke about being a gaseous fungus 🍄🤣

 

This is the first book of Johnson’s new series, and a teaser for book two (#2) is at the end. I am definitely interested in that one, and she gets part of that story established with two chapters from Claudia’s POV in this book. The first being about 58% into this book. Claudia’s POV is only a total of 5% of this book. Given the alternating POVs, this might confuse some readers. However, I was enjoying Hillary and Liam’s story too much to care. 

 

I’ll admit it, I was skeptical about this book. So many books outside of my main group have promised to be good reads – and, they are, to a point. Some have had bad language and others have been a bit steamier than I’d preferred. Johnson really keeps her promise as a “clean” Southern RomCom author. I was laughing hysterically at Hillary’s potato-based cuss words. Even Liam got in on the fun with “smashed spuds” in reference to something she says about a distraction, namely setting her parents’ house on fire. She had several creative ways of getting off the phone with her mom. One was while she was on the phone during a date with Liam. She hung up on her mother by saying the house was on fire and she had to get out 🫣

 

This didn’t lack in the humor department or the romance despite the affection being limited to hugs and kisses. The sweet dates were enough for me. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised for this not only to grab me right in, but drag me in – screaming and laughing. I didn’t stop reading this until I’d finished it. And, I finished this 327 page read (story pages) inside of an 8-hour period. The short chapters and fast-paced writing also helped. It didn’t lag at all, unless I counted Claudia’s POV and story “set-up”. It also didn’t feel like the writer rushed through it either. 

 

The romance pretty much started right off – with Liam anyway. For him it was attraction, her it was annoyance with attraction. 

 

And, one thing I loved – the writer had some of the girls as “plus-size” with a reference being to a clothing box one of the girls got. This is rare in a romance or any kind of book to have positive plus-size role models. Usually anyone plus-sized is a bully or villain. So, I REALLY have to praise and thank Johnson for included us “potatoes” 🥔😉🤣

 

Though, after reading the book, I ended up terribly hungry. Next, PLEASE send a gift card for snacks!! I absolutely loved the “piggy pork fries” – pulled pork, sauce, potatoes, slaw. I felt like I was STARVING by the time I finished this. 

 

I have NO doubt I’m going to be reading the next book in the series. Anyone who loves a sweet, SUPER-CLEAN, romance read with TONS of food references – grab this one now!! 

 

 

Note ➡️the only HUGE problem I had was it being called “Cider Cove” which is CLOSE to one my favorite Debbie Macomber series – “Cedar Cove”. It could be a bit confusing to some readers. 

 

 

 

RATING:  

 

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Goodreads  

  

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Bookbub  

 

5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Personal Rating (see rating explanation in this blog: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2020/01/rating-system-2020-changes.html; update: https://readingexcursions.blogspot.com/2022/07/what-goes-into-my-reviews-2022-edition.html) 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

 

USA Today Bestselling Author and Top 50 Kindle Unlimited All-Star Author Elana Johnson writes clean and wholesome contemporary romance, usually set on the beach or within the vicinity of the beach. Unfortunately, she lives in a landlocked state and must travel to the beach to get her fix, which her husband gladly accompanies her to do a few times each year. 

 

She can be found on the following social media accounts: 

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FeelGoodFictionPage/

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elanaromcomvibes/ 

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/elanaj 

 

Website: https://feelgoodfictionbooks.com/ 

 

 

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