Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren – 368 pages
ARC courtesy of Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review
Book Blurb:
Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak. During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good. Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Twice in a Blue Moon was fun romance that took me from the sites of London to a movie set in the states. Any book about finding your first young love brings on the warm fuzzies. This one hit the spot on the feels and read like a young adult (YA) story. The second half of the book, fourteen years later, had the same characters as grown adults. The characters were fun to cast as there are so many real daddy and daughter mega-stars to imagine in their place.
Interestingly, it was a subplot that I most enjoyed about the book. I was completely absorbed by Sam’s background. His grandparent’s love story and the torment they faced for their biracial union made me want to know more about them. Maybe others will feel this way and Christina Lauren will be prompted to do a one-off about Luther and Roberta.
Christina Lauren was introduced to me with Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, in which I compare all of their other works too. Yes, I meant ‘their’, because Christina Lauren is a writing duo. I know that comparison from book to book is completely unfair, but still, Josh and Hazel blew me away with exciting chemistry and tension. Overall, I really did enjoy reading this book, but there were parts that felt unrealistic, even for fiction. For example, without any spoilers, how Sam and Tate met was a highly unlikely scenario. Of course, as any avid reader does, I let the story reel me in and didn’t let the small stuff bother me.