Mad About the Boy by Suzan Battah

I have just finished my first book for this year’s Chick-lit plus blog tour and the first book is Mad About the Boy by Suzan Battah.

Plot
Julia Mendoza is driven by the success of her business. Since her husband Carlos passed away at such a young age, her business By Design is her number one priority. In her late twenties she works too hard and doesn’t take time out for fun. Annoyance with a pesky ex-friend has her begging one of the local surfer’s with a cheeky smile in the grocery store to pretend he’s her boyfriend. Suddenly, life takes a sudden detour from her business plan; much to the delight of her boisterous Latin American family. Christophe Augustine is groomed to take over his father’s successful chain of luxurious hotels. With a wealthy French-American background, Chris has been given privileges that not many have. He works hard, plays harder but seeks approval and recognition above all else. Family is a top priority for him as he fights for custody of his young brother. His parent’s divorce has not diminished his faith in romance. When a gorgeous Latino woman changes one boring morning into an interesting game of role play, though reluctant to help at first, he soon realises she’s not like the string of other women he’s known. A romantic first date ending dramatically doesn’t stop Chris from wanting to know Julia more. And for Julia, she’s all for a bit of fun but when things get too serious she’s running the other way. Too alike, in some ways and complete opposites, in other ways, Julia and Chris fumble through fun moments, annoying confrontations, passionate times and heartbreaking revelations. Love has no boundaries when soul-mates meet but when one is ready to love and the other one isn’t….

My Opinion.
I was a little worried when I first started reading this book as I felt the storyline started off weak and was very farfetched with Julia and Chris randomly meeting for the first time in a supermarket and falling for each other so quickly it would have been nice to see a gradual build up to the relationship but it felt like it was rushed and jumping in head first.

When the characters start to develop a little more we become aware of a secret that each of the characters are hiding and particularly on Julia’s part this is causing problems with the progression of their relationship and it is when we learn this fact that the story starts to come into its own. We now have an element of suspense, a will they won’t they scenario. It was at this point I started to enjoy the book and it became a real page turner.
The storyline has a rollercoaster of up and down emotional situations which our characters find their selves in each which feel very realistic situations which gives us more of a connection with the characters as we can feel their emotions as they are living through these situations.

This book is full of pure emotion and red hot romance. The second half of this book was beautifully written with a serious undertone which was broken up by the light hearted humour from Julia’s gay friends.

I would recommend this book if you can get past the weak start, once you get half way through and the story picks up you will soon forget the beginning of the book. I look forward to more work from this author to see how her next novel compares.