Review: "Same Time Next Week" by Emily Smith
Note: This ARC was provided by Bold Stroke Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Three years ago, Alex Harris felt hopeful and was very much in love when she married Beth. Now, it almost feels as if they're mere occupants of the same apartment, going through the motions of what's expected from married couples. Her work as an attorney keeps her busy but she can't help but wonder if she's meant to spend the rest of her life with a woman she is no longer happy or in love with. Then, she visits a café to do a bit of work and ends up sharing her table with a woman who sparks something within.
Michelle Masters is an emergency room (ER) nurse who made the mistake of falling in love with someone who was in love with a very much married someone else. When she meets Alex in a café twice in one week, they begin a friendship and meet up on at two in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Saturdays each week. As the weeks become months, both Michelle and Alex try to keep each other in the friend zone because becoming more than that will mean hurting others, and quite possibly, getting their own hearts broken.
Same Time Next Week is an F/F contemporary romance by Emily Smith and is about Alex Harris, a married attorney, who meets Michelle Masters, a single ER nurse, at a café and both forge a friendship that they try to maintain by meeting twice a week for coffee. They're both attracted to one another but are constantly very much aware that Alex is married, albeit unhappily. Michelle knows what it's like to be in a relationship with someone who can't fully commit so even though she flirts with and invites Alex to outings, things remain platonic. Alex is torn between acting on her growing feelings for Michelle while staying faithful to her wife Beth, even though their marriage has become rather static and unfulfilling.
I've said it past reviews that I have no issues when it comes to cheating being part of a story that I'm reading because different situations call for different actions and reactions and the thing I'm always after when it comes to stories that do have cheating is the "why" of it all. In the case of Alex and Michelle, the former was already feeling stuck even before she met the latter, but the attraction and evolving feelings towards Michelle did have Alex questioning her marriage even more. Alex and Beth didn't have any children, so I didn't really understand why Alex would continue to stay with Beth if she was so unhappy. It's not as if she was being forced to do so and some would consider her falling for Michelle as cheating.
The story itself was good because you do wonder what you would do in the same situation. Would you stay on with your partner or would you follow your heart? There were times, though, that I felt the story was dragging and I would have wanted a bit more chemistry between Alex and Michelle. There was a lot of back and forth that I was tempted to shake my tablet and shout, "Make up your minds already!" Alex and Michelle were okay as lead characters but what may be construed as some as having integrity and loyalty came off as them being wishy-washy because of the whole hot and cold thing. Overall, I feel Same Time Next Week was pretty good but could have been paced much faster. I'm going to give this three stars. ♥
Release Date: 18 May 2015
Date Read: 14 May 2015
Learn more about Emily Smith here.
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