Kimani, $6.50, ISBN 978-0-373-86446-1
Contemporary Romance, 2016
Falling for Autumn is, in a way, a spin-off the author’s Bare Sophistication series: now that she has completed the romance of the “main” cast, she’s moving on to the secondary cast too. While this one is in some ways a stand alone story that follows Enticing Winter, the early parts of the story are set against the plans of the couple of the previous book to celebrate their happy get-together. There are many sequel baits here, but the sneaky author has the perfect excuse: the whole thing is, after all, a party.
Autumn Dupree and Ajay Reed know each other through mutual acquaintances, and they are thrown together when the couple of the previous book get together and bring together everyone to celebrate. They are attracted to one another, but both are… well, she is an asshole-magnet and he is a skank-magnet, and their love life resembles a Swiss cheese with all the holes filled with pain and bitterness. Eventually, they fall in love… and that’s basically the whole story.
Sherelle Green has a rocky track record where I am concerned, but here, she does everything fine. While the two main characters are not exactly groundbreaking – pick any book in this line, and chances are you’d find a hero and a heroine that are very similar to these two – they have good chemistry. The chemistry is delivered through natural-seeming banter and repartee, and both characters are pretty fun to follow. No one behaves outright stupidly, there are no screaming matches caused by communication breakdowns, no jealous h0 exes dry humping the hero’s leg while trying to claw out the heroine’s eyes at the same time… nothing but a pretty solid love story that is nothing but the lurve thing all over.
The sheer number of sequel baits can be daunting or even annoying, but I am giving that a pass this time because of the whole getting-together with the couple of the previous book thing and also because these sequel baits don’t overwhelm the main characters. There are some wince-inducing phraseology in the sex scenes – the hero and the heroine matching stroke for stroke” with their tongues is anything but sexy – but nothing too dramatic to jolt me out of the story.
Is Falling for Autumn groundbreaking? No, in many ways, it is yet another Kimani romance, predictable to anyone who has read enough books in this line. But it is solidly paced, has ample romantic moments, the narrative flows well for the most part, and I find myself chuckling now and then. Therefore, this one isn’t that good, but it’s good enough for me after having read too many not-so-good books in a row. I’m exercising executive decision as the boss of all I survey in this domain and granting this one four oogies.
