NVDT – Another (Sorta) Book Review and Random Thoughts on

Well…That Was Awkward by Megan Montgomery

I don’t read romance novels. I need to do a better job of reading covers. However, if I had read the entire cover (in my defense it was a thumbnail on Amazon) I would have missed a well-written book loaded with multi-faceted emotions, attitude, clever dialogue and situations and likeable, not vanilla characters who showed up knowing their lines without author assistance.

Why did I send it to my Kindle? I’m a cover guy. As you can see, it’s one of those recently ubiquitous cover and font styles—But—girl with tattoos, pier, big dog, and the title. There I was reading it and liking the anti-establishment weightlifting grumpy tattooed female protagonist with a mom and dad wanted a son name (Emerson), her dog and her environment. Ms. Montgomery does a good job of moving you in, That, and a real treat for me, people and personalities emerge instead of being back story narrated into existence.

The whole sex part of a romance novel waited until well into the book and (for me) the brushed nipples and detectible erections were easily skipped. Because they weren’t the focus of the book. This is a real book. You know, drop the sex gimmick and you still have a story. Full of the emotional roller-coastering a self-described social outcast goes through with the handsome, buff, can’t be a fighter pilot anymore Deuteragonist, her quirky small town ‘family’, plus a little mystery, a brother with a past, who’s that woman? Why are you still here? And others. As for the ’family’ Ms. Montgmery populates this book with believable characters that don’t take up too much space. Like a great plate of Mexican food. Here’s the two things that make up the middle of the plate surrounded, but not overwhelmed, by a cast of (sometimes weird) garnishes.

Further, the author makes a point of calling out the trope in dialogue between the characters! No author pointing it out. Listen to this, the characters do it. Without going book review, I’ll simply say Emerson’s truck breaks down, with John in it with her, ostensibly to help move some large furniture, and while stranded, they discuss the 1934 Clark Gable/Claudette Colbert classic It Happened One Night. Obviously not the original ‘I like you but I don’t’ vehicle, but there it is.

Could I have done without the occasional (blessedly short) glistening hard bodies workouts and some lightweight, not overindulgent sex? Yes. But why this book hasn’t been lightly sanitized for Hallmark or taken as-is on Netflix/Freevee et al. is a real waste.

Truth told? There are parts of this book, the protag’s emotions, frustrations, behaviors, I wish I’d written (or published) first. I could readily identify my potty mouth female coming of age saga protagonist. Only Ms. Montgomery did it in way less space. How? Because she gets the hell out of the way and puts this book squarely where it belongs. On the characters’ shoulders. This was a fun read I might have missed, and one instance anyway, where a modern Indie romance is way more than adverbs and erogenous zones.

All you need to know from the blurb – Emerson and John meet on the boardwalk as the moonlight dances off the Chesapeake Bay. She thinks he’s gorgeous and comes down with a case of instalove. He thinks she’s a panhandler and gives her five dollars.

**I discovered after reading Well…That Was Awkward and writing this review that the book won several well deserved Indie awards. So it wasn’t just me.