What I'm Reading Wednesday

This week's review is A Song For Sophie by Mackenzie Crowne.

Blurb:  Jobless, practically homeless, and tired of being manless, Sophie Taylor jumps at the chance to be Beaumont Walker's personal assistant. Six weeks on the road with country music's bad boy--and, more importantly, his all-male crew--is the perfect opportunity to change her life.

Beau Walker doesn't need any more distractions. Sophie, with her butt-ugly suits and balls-to-the-wall attitude, shouldn't be one, but she proves to be distracting and more--even, surprisingly, a friend. So when he discovers her plan to snag a man from his worldly wise crew, he's determined to protect her from herself.

When Sophie realizes Beau is behind her failure to attract even one member of his crew, the last place she expects to find herself is in his bed. But will one night of passion convince her she's woman enough for him? Or will it destroy their friendship and his budding belief in true love?

Review:  First I'd like to point out this is a novella. It's approximately 119 pages long. I want to bring that to everyone's attention because there's nothing more heartbreaking to an author than to receive a terrible review on Amazon or elsewhere where the only reason the reader didn't like the book is because it was only X number of pages and they didn't realize/know it before they purchased it.

I enjoyed going on Sophie's journey with her. Not just her physical journey from one city to another as the tour moved across the US, but her emotional journey as she realized she was more than just an afterthought. Throughout the book, she gained confidence, bravery, and more patience when dealing with Beau during his mania periods than I ever would have had. I liked how she outmaneuvered him by using his own words and/or foibles against him.

At first, I thought Beau was your stereotypical music star. I'm happy to say I was wrong about him. He genuinely cares about the road crew and is appreciative of everyone involved in making the things he needs done happen including Sophie, no matter how much she makes him grit his teeth in frustration at times. The song he wrote and sings at the end just made me like him even more.

I do have to point out one thing that bothered me. Beau often refers to Sophie as a little sergeant because he thinks she's so bossy. It was cute and gave them a sense of camaraderie. What bothered me is when he would call her "Serge." The first time, I thought it was a typo, but it's like that throughout the story.  The informal address of Sergeant is "Sarge." Coming from a family where for generations nearly all of the male members have served in the military, it just was very jarring for me and pulled me out of the story each time. Also, I work with two men from the Ukraine who are named Sergey and Sergei, same name, different spelling. Guess what we call them -- Serge (pronounced surge).  Given both of these reasons, the use of "Serge" in the book may have stood out to me more than it would someone else.

Rating:  4 Stars