Off the Grid by Kay Richards

Available October 5, 2021

Hollywood icon Andrew Clarke has had enough. His work, his fame, and the pressures of success have sent him deep into the wilds of Michigan for a much needed private escape. Little did he know that when he got there he would find everything his heart desired.

What worked well: The premise was great. I love the idea of this famous Hollywood hunk going into middle-America and finding not only a passionate love affair but inner peace. The main characters were well-developed and had the typical Midwestern simplicity and charm. The setting was also really nice. I love the idea of a working farm, a farm girl and her sweet Gran, struggling along to save the family farm and put delicious food on the table. The little Michigan town was a perfect backdrop.

What didn't work so well: Everything was very rushed. Andrew and Ellie's romance could have been the entire focus of a book at least twice as long. I didn't like that the romances between Ryan and Amber and Colt and Sage were included, they could easily have been eluded to and turned into entire books of their own. Not spending enough time to build the bond between Andrew and Ellie naturally made the whole story seem more sketchy than romantic, especially when Andrew's doing weird stuff like watching Ellie out the window while she's swimming. I also didn't care for the fact that Ellie's size was such a thing. She's a full-figured girl, fine. But every time Andrew looks at her or touches her, there's some comment about her assets that reminds us that she's a big girl. Can't he just find her attractive? It became unnecessarily fetishy, especially since Andrew was constantly pushing her to move things forward to the point where he seemed kind of stalkerish. I also thought the sex scenes were very out of context. One minute they're the Brady Bunch and the next they're XXX, breaking the furniture. Sweet romance is one thing, erotica is another, this book was an unnatural and often uncomfortable blend of the two.

The author has a lot of potential. The book reminded me somewhat of the old Nora Roberts Harlequin books, extremely old-fashioned, anti-feminist characters ending up married for reasons the reader can't quite figure out, but with tiny glimpses here and there of the talents that the author will develop over time and later use to turn out really good books. Though I didn't particularly care for this book I would be willing to read future books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.