Book Review of "Along Came Trouble" by Erin Kern

"Elisa Cardoso longs for passion in her life. Though she'd much rather spend her days photographing the stunning Wyoming landscape, food photography is a lucrative, if uninspiring, way to pay her bills. But when her next assignment brings her face to face with sexy restaurant owner Brody McDermott, Elisa can't deny the delicious effect he has on her.

From the minute Brody sees Elisa, he's dying to unleash her inner bad girl. He knows there's more to the sophisticated photographer than meets the eye. Now getting the sexy shutterbug into his bed is on his menu, but when she starts making her way into his heart-big problem. Love has been tricky for Brody, and he's not too eager to try his luck again. But when a golden opportunity means Elisa may be leaving Trouble for good, can Brody find the courage to grab on to love . . . before it slips away?"

When I read something under the category "contemporary romance," I prefer more romance, less contemporary, as in less reality. Things like divorce, having to decide on child custody, whether to follow an ex because your child may be leaving with the ex, and other things like that typically suck my interest in a book right out of me. Erin Kern does a great job of not going overboard with it.

What she does do is create just enough conflict to make you root for both main characters and she uses the minor characters rooting for the main characters to make it easier for the reader to do.

The only thing I didn't like in this book is the same thing I don't like in every romance book: characters not communicating, characters hiding information thinking they're doing what's best for someone else, etc. But I've also resigned myself that this is part of the conflict that ignites the fire in the romance and keeps the flame going until it's completely on fire. So while I don't like it, I've come to accept it and don't blame authors for it because it's part of the formula and I would dare an author to write a good romance novel without that element.

One thing I would have preferred in this particular book is more physical shows of romance. In other words, more sex. And that's where my dislike for too much reality comes in. There are too many missed or stunted opportunities for Elisa and Brody mostly because of Brody's eleven year old son. However, I will admit that my lack of appeal of children as part of reality in romance novels actually heightens and enhances my dislike when the presence of kids in general are a blockade. I don't hold this against authors anymore either because kids are a part of reality, especially kids of divorced parents. On a good note, Erin Kern has written Brody's son as a mature, well-behaved eleven year old. So I kind of liked him. He's also one of the characters that was used just a little bit to help the reader root for Elisa and Brody.

I'm giving Erin Kern five stars for this one. It's a good read and well worth the time. If I could have stayed up all night to read, I'd have read this entire book in one sitting over one night.

I received this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.