Review: The Next Worst Thing

I used to read romances of all shapes and sizes all the time. I’ve been balancing my romance reads with more mysteries as well as my beloved historical fiction and, these days, I tend to read more rom coms than romances. And I think there’s a reason. I’m finding it harder to connect with the love interests in such sweet stories. The Next Worst Thing was one of those chaste romances and I just couldn’t get invested in Sara Jane Woodley’s latest novel. I wanted to enjoy it, obviously I really did. But it ultimately let me down and I’ll probably forget all about it as soon as I hit publish on this post. Was it the worst thing? No, not really. (Unlike that pun!) It just wasn’t a book for me.

Here’s the book’s description:

I’m just trying to get through this week alive.
I didn’t ask to organize this wedding. And I certainly didn’t ask for the world’s worst best man as an assistant.
But my brother is marrying the love of his life, and I’ll stop at nothing to give him a perfect wedding day–and get our family’s Inn some much-needed publicity in the process.
Which means playing nice with James Weston.
My brother’s best friend and I have been feuding for as long as I can remember. We don’t like each other, plain and simple.
Or is it?
Is it possible that James isn’t the monster I’ve always thought him to be? And why does he keep showing up to save me right when I need him? (Not that I’d EVER admit it).
Falling for James is not on my carefully color-coordinated agenda.
Too bad nothing seems to go according to plan when James Weston is around…

Audiobooks always take me a little bit longer to read, especially these days when I don’t have time for long walks or working on puzzles or crafts (even though I need to go for walks and have an abundance of puzzles and crafts to do!) and my commute is only about 20 minutes. Long enough to listen, for sure, but not quite long enough to get totally stuck into a story. But. I can make time to listen and when I don’t? I know that’s probably the book’s fault. It took me so long to get through The Next Worst Thing because I just wasn’t excited about getting back to it.

There was a lot about this book I should have liked. Brother’s best friend with a hint of teenage crush (even if they didn’t realize at the time that they were totally into each other)? Small town? Event planner heroine? Swoony, English-accented hero? All things I love. And yet…I struggled hard with this story. I don’t think I particularly loved Ivy – she seemed so self-deprecating for no reason and no one likes when a strong, independent lady doesn’t realize that she’s a bad ass. She had a loving family in her brother and grandparents and none of them thought she was less-than for being a woman (though it would have been great if her grandparents had listened to her or she had tried harder to tell them how she felt about the inn). She had a fabulous BFF in Daisy. So, what, she was clumsy? I’m clumsy. You know how many doors and walls I walk into? I don’t let that embarrass me. I laugh, confirm to colleagues that, yes, I DID just shoulder check a doorframe, and move on.

The other issue was all the “miscommunication” that ran rampant in the story. Yes. I used quotes. There wasn't any real miscommunication. If people had just freaking TALKED to each other there would have been zero drama. So, I couldn’t get behind any of the issues that popped up. It made the characters all seem so young and immature.

Speaking of young and immature. I have absolutely no idea how old the characters were supposed to be. There were mentions of ages and how long ago they had been in high school but none of it really added up. Should that have mattered? No. Was I already annoyed so any little thing bothered me? Um. Yes.

As I mentioned, I listened to this one on audiobook and I really liked that there were two narrators. It helped me get a bit more invested in the story than I think I would have otherwise. Justis Bolding and Oliver Hunt did a great job bringing Ivy and James to life (even if I found them two-dimensional). Hunt had a delightful accent which also helped! His female dialogue voice was…a tad irritating at times but I’ve for sure heard worse. And Bolding was able to pull off an English accent when she was voicing James. I’d be happy to listen to more audiobooks by either narrator.

Obviously, The Next Worst Thing was not a winner for me. The basic romance and the miscommunication between pretty much every single character was just too much for me to be able to fall in love with Sara Jane Woodley’s novel. It is the first in a series and I will say that I’m ever so slightly intrigued to find out what happens next with the characters in Mirror Valley so it wasn’t a total write off. Maybe I’d like the next romance more?

*An ALC was provided by the publisher, Dreamscape Media, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*