What it Takes Review

(Goodreads summary)

After graduating college, Kelsey Morgan left her small-town Virginia roots to make it in LA. After years slogging in commercials and music videos, her movie career is finally taking off. But she's still miles behind her current costar, and Hollywood playboy, Patrick Lyons. Kelsey does everything she can to avoid Patrick off-set, hoping to not become fodder for the supermarket tabloids that scour the streets for Patrick, trying to get an exclusive look at him and his alleged woman of the week. Kelsey has successfully kept Patrick at a distance, and her reputation intact, until her drunkard brother-in-law Richard threatens to ruin everything by selling her darkest secret to the highest bidder. Now the victim of blackmail, Kelsey has nowhere else to turn but to Patrick's arms. But, can he be trusted? Or will the past destroy them all before she can find out if he's the hero she needs?(less)

My Rating 3 stars

My review

I received this ARC novel from net galley for my honest opinion. What it takes is a romantic novel about a girl afraid to let any man in.Kelsey has guarded her heart after having it ripped apart by her college sweetheart. Down the road, Kelsey is about to become the next big thing in Hollywood.. The novel started out strong with a headstrong heroine who doesn't seem to need a man. After the first few chapters, I became bored. There was scene after scene of what felt like uselessness. Parts that felt thrown in, parts I skipped past, parts that didn't really relate to the story at all. I never felt the spark between Kelsey and Patrick, and kept waiting for another leading man to step in and sweep her off her feet. Literally, I felt more passion for the side characters than the leading couple. (caution: the next part may contain spoilers) I found Kelsey annoying as a lead character. First off, she spent the entire novel whining about how her mom does 'whatever it takes' to keep a man happy, and how she would never want to be like that, but she does it the entire novel! She coddles her brother in law and makes excuses for him time and time again. It was rather annoying when she would give him what he wanted. She claims she doesn't want to be part of the tabloids, but she is an actress. Her secrets will come out sooner or later. The writing was a bit different as well. I believe a romance novel like this reads better as a first person POV, but this one was written in third person. The novel seems to go from third person, but switches back and forth as if the narrator can only tell what Kelsey is thinking in one scene, then suddenly the narrator knows what Patrick is thinking, but not Kelsey. Then the next scene the narrator knows what everyone is thinking. It was rather confusing. A novel like this isn't good when you know what all the characters are thinking and doing at the same time. Then Kelsey has a secret throughout the entire book, but refuses to tell us to the very end, even though the secret is predictable. It would have been better to let the secret out and feel Kelsey's struggles with her secret from the beginning.  Did I like the book? Yeah, it took me a while to finish, but I got there. Was I disappointed? Yes. Would I recommend it? No. This story line could have been great, if it were written differently. 3 stars for a nice try.