Once Upon A Summertime by Melody Carlson #Bookreview

Title: Once Upon A Summertime
Author: Melody Carlson
Publisher: Revell
Published Date: June 2nd, 2015
Genre: Christian Fiction, New Adult
Page Count:320
Format: Paperback

My Rating: ★.5

Goodreads Summary: 
Managing the Value Lodge in her hometown was not what Anna Gordon had in mind when she set out in the hospitality industry. But it's a safe choice for a woman whose childhood was anything but stable. Out of the blue, she gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reinvent herself by moving to New York City, where she hopes for a management position at a stylish new boutique hotel. The big city is full of surprises--not the least of which is Sean O'Neil. Her childhood crush has applied for the very same position! 

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 My Review:

"Oh, she knew the odds were stacked against her, but it didn't cost anything to entertain a dream." 

Anne is managing a small motel in her hometown and living on her grandma's sofa. Not exactly how she thought her career would be going. She's afraid to leave though, not just because of little comments her grandma makes, but also because she feels like she has accomplished nothing for the past few years.
When she see's an old friend though everything starts changing for the better and she just might start living out one of her dreams.

"It was just a stopping place until you were ready for the next stage in your life. Of course, I love having you here. I will miss you. But I never want to stand in the way of your dreams."

With a little encouragement from Grandma and her friend, she takes the risk and hopes it pays off.

I had such high hopes for this book, and by the last few chapters, they were all crushed. This is supposed to be a clean new adult romance book. One of the things we all know I was looking for, and while it is clean and in the new adult age range. The problems that this book has are so many that I just can't give it a good rating. Melody Carlson used to be one of my favorites authors when it comes to her YA books, sadly when it comes to her adult books they always leave me disappointed.
The problems I have with this one is the romance part I was okay with it and thought it was going at a nice and normal pace until the last few pages of the book. *see Spoilers at the end.

This also brought to my attention some of the things the love interest that he should have done. Not only does he take Anne's idea (yes he says it was hers, but still they either should have told them together, or he could have just let her tell it). Not to mention, he just walks into her apartment multiple times without her knowing he was even there!
I also didn't like how Anna seemed to shame the way the flight attendants acted on their time off.

I have the third book in the series through NetGalley so I'm going to try and read that and if I don't like it either then I think I'm just going to stop reading Carlson's Adult novels.

*Spoiler
Really you've had a month to get to know each other and now you want to get married just so you can keep working together? Really.. come on.