Booksneeze: Smitten

Smitten By Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, & Diann Hunt 

The unthinkable happens to the sleepy, little town of Smitten, Vermont.  Smitten Lumber, the town's paper mill and main employer, announces that it is closing.  Unable to bear the thought of their town dying, four single friends get together and devise a way to capitalize on the town's name and keep Smitten in business.  


Bold Natalie, trendy Julia, prim and proper Shelby and athletic Reese persuade the town leaders to turn Smitten into the romantic, honeymoon getaway of the Northeast.  While transforming the town, each woman must deal with her own insecurities and, hopefully, find love along the way.


My Thoughts:

The set-up of this book was so unique and interesting to me.  It's divided into four sections, each one being it's own little novella.  Each section is about one of the four friends and is written by a different author (several of them being my favorite authors, I might add).  Each author put a little bit of her personality into their character (as told in the interview with the authors at the end of the book).  Also each section is written about a different season within the year it takes to transform the town.


I've never read a book that is distinctly written by four authors.  As I was reading, I could tell the different styles of each author, but the book flowed together really well.  It was really one main story line - the transformation of this little town and the people in it - but with separate little story lines within it.  The authors and editor did a really good job of making it work together.


As for each individual story line, I thought they were pretty predicable.  What you wanted to happen, happened.  But that was OK.  Sometimes it's good to read great romantic stories that turn out just like you want them to and that don't require a lot of thought on the part of the reader.  

Having the plot develop in a shorter story or novella, could mean that characters aren't fully developed.  However, that was not the case in this book.  I thought each of the four friends had very distinct personalities that show up in each of the four stories.


This was a quick read and would be great for cold winter nights when all you want to do is cozy up next to the fire.


I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.


The Kindle version of Smitten was provided to me by Booksneeze in exchange for a review.  All opinions are my own.