Review: Back to Belfast by Emma L McGeown

Back to Belfast
by Emma L McGeown

My Rating: 2 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: f/f

Blurb:
When the opportunity of a lifetime comes knocking, Claire Brennan is ready for a break from responsibility and the stuck feeling that won’t go away. Move across the world to Vancouver for six months? Absolutely.

Stacie Farran is a career-obsessed eternal optimist, so when the opportunity to trade jobs with a colleague in Belfast comes up, she jumps at the chance. That it gives her a bit of space from her girlfriend doesn’t hurt either.

Living in each other’s shoes, Claire and Stacie discover so much about each other and get a fresh perspective on their own lives as well. When a family emergency has Claire returning home early and they finally meet, the attraction they felt from afar is real.

But Stacie’s stay is temporary. Are they on a collision course to a long-distance dating disaster or will love find a way?

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Back to Belfast caught my eye when I read the blurb and it sounded like such a fun premise with two characters who switch job and houses and fall in love with each other. Unfortunately I felt like this book was completely different than what I had expected and I didn’t enjoy it.

I had expected a story of them living in each other’s houses and communicating with each other and throughout that fall in love. Instead they hardly communicate until they end up in the same place and most of the romance develops only then. I also found it odd how neither of the main characters communicated much with their friends back home, as if the physical distance just made them stop talking with them.

I considered DNF’ing this book when I realized this was not at all the book I had expected. The focus and message of the book seemed to focus way more on how important real life connection was and not the long distance online communicating type romance I had expected. And while I had assumed they would meet in real life eventually, I had expected the romance to develop a lot before that point, but that wasn’t the case. I just didn’t want to do a DNF and didn’t know what I wanted to read instead, so I stuck with it.

The story got a bit better when they spend time together and the romance developed, although the romance pacing felt a bit off. The first part was very slow with them hardly talking and the focus being on their work and then the second half had way less work stuff and more romance development. The romance felt slow first and then a bit rushed when they finally meet in real life.

I wanted to like the romance, but something was just missing. I also didn’t like how Stacie had a girlfriend at first and how that went. I often struggle with this in books as the relationship is written in such a way I can’t understand why they ever got together in the first place and it just feels simply like a way to create drama and in this case to have a reason why Stacie couldn’t fall in love with Claire yet.

Claire on the other hand has to care a lot for her mother who is mentally ill. And I didn’t really like that plot line either. The way her mother’s mental health was described made me feel uncomfortable and there also is never any clear diagnosis or term for it, which I thought was odd as that’s usually how these things work. Again it mostly felt like a plot point to get Claire to be in a certain place or not be somewhere or have some struggles for which she wasn’t fully available for a romance.

And then there was the conflict. I really hated the way the conflict was handled. Stacie just kinda expected Claire to ask her something and then gets disappointed when she doesn’t, despite knowing how Claire is and how she has trouble communicating at times. And despite Claire communicating he feelings and being clear about that, that wasn’t enough for Stacie. I didn’t like how Stacie just expected Claire to do this thing without her communicating that. And the whole last bit of the book was just so frustrating to read with them both not communicating. It dragged on for quite a bit as well. And then the way it got resolved didn’t work for me either, it just bothered me how there had to be a big gesture and how at the same time all these issues suddenly got resolved super easily. And there was no epilogue either.

To summarize: I had expected a totally different book and was disappointed this book wasn’t what I had hoped for. I had expected the focus being on their romance developing while they live in each others house while communicating online, instead the romance hardly starts until they meet in real life. The first part has very little romance and a lot of focus on the work they do, while the second part flips that with way less work stuff and more romance. The romance pacing felt off due to this. I didn’t like the plot points with Stacie already having a girlfriend and Claire having to take care for her mother, neither worked for me and they just felt like ways to add hurdles to the romance. The conflict at the end really bothered me with how Stacie just expected Claire to do something and then get disappointed when she didn’t while not communicating any of this. I really disliked the way some simple communicating could’ve resolved it and it dragged on for way too long. Then the ending felt very rushed, things got resolved very easily suddenly and there was no epilogue. This book just didn’t work for me.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.