Loving Romeo (Magnolia Falls #1) by Laura Pavlov [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Demi Crawford was Magnolia Falls royalty.
I was the boxer from the wrong side of the tracks.
She was the epitome of everything good, while I was broody and rebellious.
We couldn’t be more different.
Her family was enemy number one which made her guilty by association.
I despised her before I even knew her.
It was easier that way.
But now she’d moved in next door to me, and she was everywhere I turned.
I couldn’t avoid her no matter how hard I tried.
She was beautiful and honest and sweet.
Everything I knew I shouldn’t want.
Shouldn’t need.
They say there’s a fine line between love and hate—and I don’t know when I crossed over.
I was so wrapped up in this girl I couldn’t see straight.
She was the right hook I never saw coming.
Hating her was supposed to be my end game.
Loving her… well, that was just the beginning.
But the secrets that lived between us threatened to tear us apart.
Lucky for her—I was a born fighter.
And she was definitely worth the fight.

My Thoughts:

“Loving Romeo” was a cute love story. A bad boy meets the rich girl in a small town, and catches feelings for her, despite hating her family. I have to be honest, I did not like Demi at all and couldn’t relate to her or connect with her. She obviously comes from a rich family, and she’s quite fast to say to everyone that everything she has, she worked hard for. And yet, she has this to say about her owning a coffee shop and an apartment on top of it:

“I’ve been away at school for four years. I came home and opened a business, one that I’m working at every day. I’m living in a small apartment above the coffeehouse and trying to do things on my own. But I’m hated anyway because my family has money?”

Umm, sorry, Demi, darling, but you sound entitled. How exactly did you manage to open a business right after finishing school? With what and whose money? Not all mortals can just spawn a business right after finishing school, unless they have some kind of support.

With Romeo, I could understand where he was coming from. I could understand his hatred towards Demi’s family. In the book, we later find out more about why he holds such hatred, and it ends up being the reason that actually brings the two together. But it still felt exaggerated at times when he would judge and be rude to Demi, saying he hates her by association, only to 20 pages later ignore his opinion and want to rip her clothes off.

Once we get past this and they start catching feelings for each other, I enjoyed the story more. Although I have to say, it lacked action and adventure. The most exciting part was the actual boxing match – I really enjoyed that part. I am still curious though – did Johnny Cane got his autographs for letting the girls in?

Overall, it’s a cute romance. Nothing too special and I probably won’t remember the book in too much detail in a few years. But it’s a great book to take on a holiday with you, or pick it up when in need of a bit of small town romance. That being said, I will still be reading the rest of the series, as I am now intrigued about the rest of the characters.

Favourite Quotes:

“It ain’t about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” Rocky Balboa

“Don’t ask me how, but standing in this cold space, where most of the people who worked out here smelled like dirty socks and were covered in sweat, still somehow managed to be the most romantic moment I’d ever experienced.
Because I felt a connection to him that was foreign to me.
Something I’d never felt before.”

“It doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. When you love someone, you love all of them.”

“I don’t hold love over people’s heads. I’m careful about who I love, and when I love someone, it’s forever. I can’t just turn it on and off, and I don’t think you can either.”

“I’d never felt this connected to another person, yet at the same time, it felt like the world I’d known was crumbling around me.”

“If nothing good ever happens to me again, I’d still be the luckiest guy in the fucking world.”

“There was something about the way that he looked at me. Like I was the only girl in the whole world. Like he’d move heaven and earth for me if I asked him to.”

About the Author:

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