"Just The Way You Are" by Pepper Basham

Eisley Barrett gets a break from her three children and her difficult real life when she takes a dream trip to England in order to research the novel that her dying uncle is writing. The effervescent Eisley has been invited to stay with an older couple with whom Uncle Joe has been corresponding, and they are perfectly charming. Unbeknownst to her, they also happen to be the parents of one Christopher Wesley Harrison, a famous British actor with quite the playboy past. A bit starstruck, Eisley rather embarrasses herself at their first meeting and feels like she made a very poor first impression.

Highly suspect of his parents' house guest, Wes is sure Eisley is visiting for more reasons than novel research. Now that he has gotten right with God and reformed his ways, Wes hasn't dated anyone in two years, and he is certain the American visitor is not going to break his resolve. Until he suddenly decides that Eisley is guileless and genuine, and then he full-out pursues her, much to her consternation.

She doesn't want to be involved with someone with his kind of past. Not when it so resembles the past that made an ex of her husband. Yet the new Wes has a genuine joy and peace about him which can't help but draw her to him, and the two decide to become friends.

I did take issue with a few things in this novel. I knew from the first chapter that this book was way more straight-up romance than I prefer to read. I strongly considered not continuing because it was not my style. But the characters had so much potential, with Eisley healing from betrayal and Wes proving he is not bound by previous mistakes, that I decided to stick with it. There's a lot of silliness with how many people try to convince these two they are perfect for each other, which is far from anything I've encountered in real life. Additionally, due to content I would not recommend this to readers under age 16.

From an editing perspective, I was distracted by missing words or quotation marks, character names inconsistently spelled (using McKelroy and MacLeroy on the same page was particularly noticeable), and other goofs like the scene where Eisley's stated hairstyle changes from being in a ponytail to being loose to being in a ponytail again. I realize these things happen and that some readers truly do not mind, but they are big detracting factors to me and it would be unfair not to address it when I've taken other books to task for similar issues.

All that being said, I did think the author did a good job making use of her characters' potential. The complexities of the relationship star in the final third of the book, with each working through obstacles both expected and surprising. Overall I liked it enough that I would try this author again, and I realize it's not the book's fault that it isn't in my preferred genre. Sometimes it takes more than one try to click with an author, and maybe that will be the case here.