Book Review: Grinding in Greenville by V. Andrews, H. Harbour, & M. Roberts

~ Synopsis ~

Victoria Andrews

Naïve

Very Conservative

Life hasn’t turned out quite the way she wanted

Haylie Harbour

Broken

Soft with an indestructible core

Believes in Happily Ever After

Marley Roberts

Untamable

Fearless

Sexually driven free-spirit.

Three girls in college, who seem to have nothing in common, find friendship based on circumstance and their love of books. After college life takes them all in a new direction. Some directions are planned, others are not. Keeping their sister-like bond tight, they create the Boyfriend Bookstand Blog and continue to support each other through the good and difficult times of life – both real and fiction. Things get a little saucy when the girls decide to take a much needed weekend away to attend an author event in Greenville, North Carolina, especially with all the hot cover models there. Three long time friends, books and hot models - Saddle up girls and get ready to do some Grinding in Greenville.

~ Buy Links ~

Amazon | B & N

~ Review ~

Overall, I thought Grinding in Greenville was a fun read. It wasn't my favorite book that I've read in a while but it was enjoyable and would give the novel a timid 4 stakes (probably a 3.75)

Grinding in Greenville centers around the love and sex lives of three unlikely friends. Although in different ways, they are all living unhappy lives as they are not satisfied romantically or sexually. They all have their problems however, it is the existence of "book boyfriends" that get them through.

I'm going to be honest, I was so happy to see a book that involved blogging, bloggers, author signing, and book boyfriends. I loved the point about how a Facebook page or blog could be anonymous from the blogger's personal life as I feel like many bloggers want to keep their hoard of book boyfriends away from the eyes of their mothers, significant others, or judge-y friends (I know I do.) 

As much as I liked the concept of the book, there were some details that left me confused. For one, I didn't understand how Marley, Tori, and Haylie were friends. It seemed like the only thing that bonded them together were the books that they read and the book boyfriends that they secretly lusted for. I guess that could be the message of the novel, that books can join seemingly polar opposite people.

I found it really interesting that the synopsis of the book mentions a weekend away that creates drama in the book but the weekend only happens towards the end of the book and it didn't really add that much to the storyline. I think the characters themselves had a lot of baggage and there didn't seem to be much cohesion between them and the resolutions to their problems, if they were resolved at all.

Marley is the first character introduced and is really screwed up because of how she grew up. She has two fathers who take care of her depressed mother in a sort of hippie commune type thing where sex was everywhere and didn't really mean anything. As a result, I found Marley to be really hard and abrasive. Also, much of her story seemed to be just sex for sex's sake. She had little substance and her problems weren't really resolved, maybe they will be in the sequel.

Haylie's story has been told before but it is still interesting. She's a girl from the wrong side of town who marries a wealthy lawyer who (no surprise) turns out to be a controlling, cheating jerk. I was surprised that Haylie actually grew a spine and had the courage to do something about her situation though.

Tori was my favorite of the three up to a point. The only problem I had with her was that she was very cold towards her husband and needed to learn to not take herself so seriously and let things go. Which she should have learned from Idina Menzel because Tori's daughters are obsessed with watching Frozen. 

I understand the the book club and blog that the women start is supposed to join them but at times I felt like the novel lacked a cohesion which might have been the result of being written by three authors. I think all of the characters are just dysfunctional and need help. The reason I lean more towards a 3.75 than a 4 is because all of the issues were not resolved and if the were there really wasn't a connection. I hope in the sequel things will be concluded better but overall I did enjoy the novel.

A copy of this book was provided for an honest review.