Book Review: Love on St. Barts by Emme Cross

My Rating: DNF

Book: Love on St. Barts (St. Barts #1 )

Author: Emme Cross

Page Numbers: 213 pages

Published: June 5th 2015 by Joffe Books Beach Reads

Synopsis:
Everyone says he's wrong for her, but she doesn't care
Sunny O’Hara young, pretty, and terribly innocent returns to her childhood home of St. Barts, an idyllic island in the West Indies. She meets Sven Larson, a movie star with a bad reputation for breaking women’s hearts. She falls in love with him and begins a journey of emotional and physical discovery. But has Sven really changed? Can a good woman redeem a very bad boy?

This is the first book in the St. Barts Romance series by Emme Cross. Set on the island of St. Barts, eight square miles of gourmet restaurants, designer shops, yachts . . . and secrets.

My Review:

I received a copy from the author to read and review in return. 

With full enthusiasm, I opened "Love on St. Barts" by Emme Cross on my Kindle,  and started reading with exaggerated anticipation. This was going to be the book for me, set on a beautiful island bound with secrets, a beautiful Scandinavian hunk, flared with some romance and mystery. I lived once upon a time on the beautiful island of Aruba myself, so I though I would totally be able to connect with this book on so many levels!

As I was reading through the pages, I was becoming more and more aware that this book was no-match-made-in-heaven for me. Regretfully, I had to close the cover to this book earlier than expected, and marked this book as an evil DNF (Did Not Finish), finishing 44% of the book. In no moment was I truly eveloped in the story, and I found myself finding excuses to not pick up the book again... but to be truthfully honest, I believe I have myself to blame for this more than the actual story itself! 

The book starts off with getting to know our main character, Sunny O'Hara, who decides to move back to the beautiful and tropical island of St. Barts, and find her roots again. After the death of her father, she receives her parent's old beautiful home and landscape on the island. Sunny has full promise and devotion to renovate her new home and construct a small, personal and thematic little hotel on her newfound landscape. Quickly into the book, she comes acquainted with a handsome mischievous young Scandinavian actor, Sven. He is famous, and she is simply a local, and in the first 44% of the book, they are struggling to find reasons to stay away from each others magnetic connection. 

As far as I read, I believe I have gotten to know our protagonist as much as I ever will (and perhaps ever want to). She is, simply put, an outrageous perfectionist. She is literally perfect in everything. She speaks about 10 languages, traveled through all parts of the world, seeking and obtaining actual mentors to teach her aspects in life such as cooking, nursery, languages, and soon her new ambition...sex. 

I just could not fathom this type of characterisation, it just was not realistic to me. She was overwhelmingly portrayed to perfection and was so admired by everyone she meets, yet we primarily get acquainted with her in a crumpled up Sex Pistols t-shirt... the characterisation just contradicted itself in many ways and honestly confused me a little.  

The connection between Sunny and Sven really didn't do it for me. It was a constant twist and turns of emotions and reasoning on why they shouldn't be together, and why Sunny shouldn't accept him as her mentor for understand the grounds of 'love making' (uhh.. WHAT?). I know, from reading plenty of reviews from other book reviewers, that this did it for many readers... but it just did not float my boat. 

Although the reading pace was slow, I do believe that Emme Cross has a lot of talent in her storytelling ways, as her writing style was a pleasurable and easy read. Just too bad that the characters and the story itself did not touch me at all. None the less, I believe this book has a lot of promise to readers who love a contemporary, romantic novel.

I think I am going to stop my review here. I purposely decided not to give a rating, as I felt this would be unfair to the author and her book. This simply was not the genre for me. 

I still want to thank Emme Cross for sending me her book, and I wish her all the luck and success in the world!