Book Review: Not Quite Enough by Catherine Bybee

Not Quite Enough by Catherine Bybee
Not Quite #3
October 8, 2013
Montlake Romance
314 pages
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance 18+
(Contains: strong language, sexual references)
Source: Personal purchase

Book Blurb:

Monica Mann has made it her life’s work to save lives. After an earthquake and tsunami hit the shores of Jamaica, she volunteers her trauma skills with Borderless Nurses. Calculating and methodical, Monica creates order out of whatever chaos she finds.

Until she finds the perpetually barefoot, impossibly masculine Trent Fairchild. No one can pin him down. No, really. He's a pilot and manages a small fleet of choppers on his adopted island home. Hopelessly drawn to one another, they manage to slip away from the wreckage to get a little closer. And they get a lot closer than expected when aftershocks from the earthquake trap them in a life-or-death scenario. Paradise has brought them together. Now will it tear them apart?

My Review:

I had the pleasure of meeting Catherine Bybee at an author event this year. Though I had seen her books around, I hadn't read any yet. She was terrific and we found what I'd hoped would be just the right book for me - Not Quite Enough - as I love the medical field and romance. So I bought my copy, got it signed, and went on my merry way. Well, let me tell you, when I finally got to reading it, my first thought was "Why didn't I read this sooner?" Then my second thought was, "I wish I had bought more books."

I loved Not Quite Enough. I'm not going to hash out the details of the story - the synopsis covers it enough. But I will say that there wasn't a dull moment from cover to cover. I never got bored or lost attention. Bybee took routes and detours I did not expect, and made what I expected to be a simple romance into so very much more. I liked the complexity of the story, yet how true to life it felt. It was thoroughly engaging. I also loved the medical aspects of the story, and the unique situations the characters were placed in, which I could completely imagine through Bybee's writing. Though I work in the medical community, I don't think the medical situations were too much for someone less familiar with it, unless you hate that sort of thing.

Monica and Trent were wonderful characters. Individually they had great strengths and weaknesses, giving them the range to help others and at the same time grow themselves. And together they felt complete. The romance was really well-written. For such a unique situation, I completely fell for this couple and how their feelings came to be. Somehow Bybee was able to combine quick feelings and physical attraction with deeper emotions and an urgent situation with heartache and longing and love to give this couple all the depths they needed to feel genuine and real. They were tested and made mistakes. But then things happened toward the end that I totally loved and enjoyed the way Bybee put it all together.  

This was my first read of Bybee's but it won't be my last. Not Quite Enough can easily be read as a standalone. Other characters were integrated and weaved into the story seamlessly, and even though I didn't know the stories behind the other couples from the previous books, I didn't feel left out of the loop. If anything, the amount I got to know about them simply makes me want to go back to the previous books and read their stories, which I plan to do. All in all, a wonderful contemporary romance!

 

5 STARS

 

BOOK LINKS:

AMAZON  *  B&N  *  GOODREADS