Twice in a Blue Moon [Christina Lauren]

Author duo Christina Lauren are the type of writers who really just grab your attention from the beginning. Their characters always seem so real that you can’t help becoming emotionally invested. They have a certain charm that has never failed to engage me entirely in the stories they weave. As someone who typically doesn’t care for romance novels, I have to admit that this author duo has, at times, made me question my long-held opinion of the genre.

Twice in a Blue Moon tells the story of a young woman, Tate, daughter of a rather famous actor and her first love, Sam, a farm boy (for lack of a better phrase). When Tate confides a rather big secret during her short romance with the young man, his betrayal changes her life completely. Flash forward fourteen years and she arrives on the set of her big break as an actress–the first film she’ll be shooting with her father–and suddenly the boy who loved and betrayed her is front and center to her life again.

As always seems to be the case with Christina Lauren’s novels, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book. For me, I don’t think it was as good as the first novel I read of hers–Roomies–but it was deeply engaging nonetheless. The characters, despite being an actress and a screenwriter–not something the average person really relates to–are quite real and relatable at times. You understand who they are and why they make the decisions they do. This was, ultimately, a very good story. I loved Tate and Sam and, I imagine as expected, can’t stand Tate’s father.

I don’t know if it’s some sort of unspoken rule that whenever there is a book, movie, or a play that characters are working with or enjoy in a novel, but it always seems to me that it’s usually quite underdeveloped. While I can see this making sense, it was a little annoying to me that I hated Sam’s screenplay entirely. I was so bored with it which, at times, made me feel bad since it was based on his grandparents. But, I did absolutely adore Luther for the time we got to spend with him.

Now, the big thing about Christina Lauren’s books for me is that, while I do often find myself really enjoying the stories as I read them, I’m never really interested in rereading them later. This isn’t the kind of book that I look at and say I fell in love with it. It was good, sure. The whole book was well written and kept me invested. But am I in love? Am I emotionally attached? Not so much.

Twice in a Blue Moon was a good book that I enjoyed reading, but it was nothing mind blowing.

I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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