Three Little Words by Jenny Holiday spins a tale of Gia and Bennett, an unlikely duo driving from New York to Florida, discovering sparks and spats in equal measure on a riotous road trip.

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I was anticipating this book because this series always delivers a fun read.  I’ve enjoyed some more than others but I still look forward to reading them.  This one seemed to have a premise that would be perfect for me.  The hero is a chef and owns a restaurant in NYC.  The heroine is a model.  They are both attending the wedding of their friends in Florida and due to a storm their flight is cancelled and they are forced to rent a car and drive from NY to Florida.  I mean, this sounded like a perfect plot for what I like!  Sadly, I think it fell short somewhere along the execution.

At first, I was all over it.  But then quickly I started to see things I didn’t like mixed in with some I liked.  Like how the hero would come across quite judgy at times and it would throw me off completely my reading mojo.  And then as I was expecting to care for the heroine because she is dealing with some personal issues as well, I just never did connect with her and didn’t care for her predicament.  And that made me feel bad because she deals with the start of an eating disorder and I wanted to empathetic but I just didn’t care for her in general one way or another.

Then there’s the romance.  I will be the first to admit that I struggle with insta love in general.  And granted, you may say this isn’t insta love because they start off as enemies.  But in the span of seven days (driving to Florida and the wedding) these two make some HUGE life changing decisions that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.  These may be things that ring true for others, but for me, I just couldn’t see it.  Add to that the fact that I found the big reconciliation moment to be extremely selfish on their part on how it takes over someone else’s big event.  I just didn’t care for any of that!

There are still some things about this story that were nice and kept me from DNF’ing the book.  But in the end, it wasn’t enough to make me love the book.

Excerpt from Three Little Words by Jenny Holiday

Posted in coordination with Forever Romance originally January 24, 2019

“Ladies and gentlemen, those of you in the gate area awaiting news of flight 2672 to Tampa, I’m sorry to inform you that it has been canceled.”

Gia thought for a moment she might cry.

The answer to that impulse was to move. To distract herself.

She tried to get up as the gate agent droned on about the storm but found herself stymied by Bennett’s large, heavy arm settling over her shoulders.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s only Monday. We’ll get there.”

She geared up to specify that it was Monday night, that the storm was rolling in, apparently bent on stalking them, and that there was no cause for such calm optimism. But as she opened her mouth, it was like instead of expelling words from that orifice, her body got confused and sent a tear out of her left eyeball.

It was a fast-moving one that took her by surprise. She swiped at it angrily, but it did no good; he’d seen it.

“Oh, come on now, sweetheart, don’t cry.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart.” The clapback was automatic, and it had the effect of bringing her back to herself, her teary fragility hardening into something more familiar. She twisted away from his arm and stood.

His optimism was replaced by something, too, something stonier and less kind. “So help me, Gia, if you’re on your way over there to rip that gate agent a new one, you’re on your own from here.”

The sudden switch was jarring. She had indeed been getting up to speak to the agent, but she must have still been weak enough, unshielded enough, that his threat reached some part of her that was still vulnerable.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” she snapped instead and turned on her heel.

Why was she acting like this? None of this was Bennett’s fault. And he’d been right—it wasn’t the gate agent’s fault, either.

A few minutes later, she lifted her chin, assessed her appearance in the bathroom mirror, and found it up to snuff. With a fluff of her badass blue hair, she headed back out to deal with their problem.

“Hey.”

Gia shrieked and jumped. Bennett was standing right outside the ladies’ room. Her face got hot.

“Let’s drive,” he said.

“What?”

“Forget flying. Let’s just hit the road.”

“What?” she said again. She’d been prepared to do battle—nicely; maybe a little more nicely than she would have without an audience—again with the airline. It had never occurred to her that they could just take matters into their own hands. She spent so much of her time in cities like New York and Paris that she sometimes forgot that driving was a viable option in the regular world.

“Hear me out,” Bennett said. “I spoke to an agent. They can book us on a flight out tomorrow evening, but the storm is just starting here; there’s no guarantee that flight will actually depart. Florida seems far, but actually, St. Pete’s is only a seventeen-hour drive from here—maybe a bit longer with bad weather. If we hit the road now with a goal of getting a couple hours under our belt, we can clear D.C.—hopefully ahead of the storm that’s coming—find a place to stay, and then make a big push tomorrow. Even if we have to stay one more night on the road, we can still make it by Wednesday morning, easy.”

Gia blinked, astonished by this plan. “That is—”

He must have thought she was going to protest, because he cut her off. “Look. The way I see it, we can either cool our heels for twenty-four hours and have no idea if the flight we’re waiting for will work out, or we can rent a car and head south. Take matters into our own hands.”

“—the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.”

It was Bennett’s turn to blink. He hadn’t been prepared for her to acquiesce so easily.

“We’ve been talking and talking about this damn problem,” she said. “I hate talking. Give me a man of action any day.”

A smile blossomed, and he held out an arm like he was the star of a Reese Witherspoon rom-com.

“Then we’re off to the rental counters.”

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