Nicole by Sarah Monzon (Sewing in SoCal #3)

Nicole by Sarah Monzon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Received digital ARC from Netgalley

Publication date: 07 Jan 2021

Book 3 in the Sewing in SoCal series

Genre: Contemporary Christian romance

Synopsis (my own): Nicole is a plus-size single mom who is also an ultra-serious, save-the-planet, vegan do-gooder. Her circle of friends keeps trying to get her to date, and she attracts the attention of fun-loving Drew, who is the best friend of her friend's fiance. Of course, sparks fly 😊.

I started my Netgalley account ages ago, back when I still read a lot of inspirational romance. My tastes have changed since then, but whenever I revisit Netgalley I find that inspirationals are still the easiest ARCs to get. So that is how I ended up reading another one. Anyway . . .

On an objective level, this is a well-written book. I didn't run into any of the problems that I find with indie books, such as misspellings and grammatical errors. The pacing was nice and the characters were fleshed out well enough for the word count. The steam level matches what you would expect from a contemporary Christian romance: the hero and heroine didn't act like they weren't physically attracted to each other, but they didn't go any further than kissing. I would have no problem handing this to any of my aunties, my daughters, or my Christian friends.

My personal enjoyment is another matter. I found the heroine Nicole to be self-righteous and abrasive. There is more than one person in my life who has the "save the planet" mindset, but they are not in my face with it. After being confronted with Nicole's attitude right off the bat, every other political issue (and there were a few) introduced in the book got my back up a little, even if I agreed with the stance. It almost felt like the author included issues just to say that she was aware of what is going on in the world because they didn't move the story along. The one thing the book didn't get too preachy with, strangely enough, was the subject of Christianity. There were a few Bible verses but no "come to Jesus" moment like I've seen in most of the inspirational romances I've read in the past.

This is the third book in a series but it is meant to be a standalone. However, if you are anything like me, reading this out of order will bother you like an itch in an awkward spot. I can always tell that I have jumped into the middle of a series even if the author does her best to make each book stand on its own. In this case, I had the niggling feeling that I should know all the side characters and their personalities because they were in other books. This installment might be more enjoyable if readers hold off on picking it up after reading the first two.

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