Review: The Only One for Me By Bridget Anderson
The Only One for Me by Bridget Anderson Published by Harlequin on April 1st 2017
Genres: African American, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
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There's no mistaking the real thing Everything in Corra Coleman's world is looking up since she agreed to run the gift shop at her family's antebellum B and B. The job offers a fresh start after her unhappy marriage—and a tantalizing temptation in the form of tech millionaire Christopher Williams. Her brother's high-school buddy has come home to their small Kentucky town and is now pursuing her with a passion she's never known, but definitely reciprocates. Though he grew up poor, Chris has realized his childhood ambition of becoming one of Danville's wealthiest sons. As he restores the town's oldest mansion, he already knows who he wants to share it with. Corra is all grown up—gorgeous, warmhearted and no longer off-limits. But with her newly returned ex trying to win her back, can Chris show her the way love's truly supposed to be?
Corra Coleman and Chris Williams have had a crush on each other since high school, thought they neither admitted it to the other. They went their separate ways and never admitted anything. Chris is now a very successful businessman who is looking to return to his roots in the small town of Danville, Kentucky. Corra is content with her new job working at her family’s bed and breakfast and is fresh off of a divorce.
Now that Corra is back on the market, Chris is determined to finally be with Corra after all these years; to show her that a relationship with him might be exactly what she needs.
What I liked: Corra was a single mom and I loved seeing the dynamic between her and Chris and her children. I would love to see more writers explore the single parent romance.
What I didn’t like: The romance was very tame, to say the least. They were supposedly attracted and in love with each other since high school but I didn’t get that; there weren’t any sparks that I could relate to. There was more telling than showing.
The conflict was kept at a bare minimum in this book. There was potential in the subplot of Corra’s ex-husband, Eric. He hadn’t seen his children in two years, showed up and clearly had a drinking problem, and may have been involved in the vandalism to Chris’s property. The last dust-up was right towards the end of the book when it was insinuated he may have been stalking Corra. They put him in a cab after he was on her porch drunk. He left without too much hassle and we never heard from him again. Excuse me? How does that it even make sense? Eric clearly had a vendetta against Chris, are we supposed to believe that he just shrank away from their lives quietly? It was an underdeveloped storyline.
The synopsis tricked me in a way too. It led me to believe that Chris would have to fight to show Corra that he was worth a chance over her ex-husband. Spoiler alert: that didn’t really happen.
Unfortunately, this book had more cons that pros. This book is a part of a series and for readers like me who perhaps hadn’t read the first book, a bit more backstory would have been helpful. I don’t need to know everything that happened in the previous book but bits and pieces so I wouldn’t feel left out would’ve helped a lot.
However, this was my first time reading Bridget Anderson’s work and I’m willing to give another book a chance. I assume the Coleman House series will continue with Tracee, so I’ll keep an eye out for that.
Anyone else read this book? If so, what did you think?
Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.
You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.
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