Review: Gone For You by Sophia Quinn

Gone For You (King’s Inn #2)
by Sophia Quinn

My Rating: 3 stars

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

Blurb:
One night and he’s a goner…

It might’ve been ten years since Brandon last saw his high school friend Giselle, but when they reunite at a holiday party, there’s an instant connection. Caught up in a wave of overwhelming emotions, their whirlwind romance goes further than either of them intended. But Brandon’s sure this is the start of something beautiful…

Until he wakes up and finds Giselle has left in the middle of the night. No note, no phone number, no hint that she wants anything more to do with him. It doesn’t sit well, but he’s determined to respect her decision.

Until he finds out the truth.

Giselle might not want to dwell on their night together, but she’s carrying their child. Now he’ll do anything to be in her life and at her side…

But Giselle has always been a loner. Not out of desire, but necessity. A happy-go-lucky charmer like Brandon could never understand the family obligations that rule her life. For the sake of their future child, she must let him in, but can she keep her heart safe when everything he does stirs a yearning within her? A fateful visit to Paradise Springs only makes things worse when she gets to experience a life she so desperately wants and knows she can never have. So much for protecting her heart. Now she’s a goner too…

My Review

I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily reviewed it.

Gone For You is the second book in the King’s Inn sweet romance series. I really enjoyed the first book and was excited to start this second book. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this one as much, a combination of some tropes that aren’t my favorite, not liking the female main character and some other issues. My favorite part of this one was seeing Willow and Eric’s story progress, which progressed throughout the series as a sort of side romance. I liked the mystery surrounding the box they found and what happened to their ancestors who placed their things in the box.

Gone For You is Brandon and Giselle’s story. Brandon we already met in book 1 and I really like him, he’s just so sweet and caring. He’s always showing Giselle how much he cares and is doing everything he can to help her and be there for her. Then there is Giselle who thinks she has to handle everything alone, shoulders her burdens in private, doesn’t open up and pushes Brandon away. I partly understood why she acted the way she did, but I did not like reading about her. It was just frustrating and I picked up another book instead of this one multiple times. I also wished her change of mind had come earlier so I could at least appreciate seeing her change, but it happened so late now it didn’t give me enough space to appreciate seeing who she became. I just don’t like the whole push and pull dynamic, Brandon is such a sweet guy and I felt bad seeing him get pushed away every time. He kept going and coming back, never once giving up on her.

Besides not liking Giselle, there was also the whole set up with her mother’s mental illness that felt uncomfortable to me. Giselle’s mother is mentally ill and Giselle takes care of her. Except the way it was written felt very uncomfortable to me, Giselle’s mother was only ever a problem and issue, something that kept Giselle working hard and struggling. She was nothing except for her mental illness and her mental illness which never gets explained or diagnosed. Making it even more feel like this creepy crazy thing that makes her mother behave erratic. As someone who is neurodivergent and has mental health struggles, this just made me feel uncomfortable and I didn’t like the portrayal.

Then there was the baby plot line. I don’t really like reading about babies and a lot of the trope and set-up of this book is around Giselle being pregnant after her one night stand with Brandon. I had the same issue with the baby trope book in the other series by that author. Still I like the rest of the series and didn’t want to skip this book, especially with Willow and Eric’s storyline progressing throughout the series. On that topic I really enjoyed Willow and Eric’s slow burn romance, I felt like they were growing closer in this book. And I really like the mystery regarding their ancestors as well. I look forward to reading more about them!

My favorite parts of Giselle and Brandon’s romance was when they meet again and connect at the start of the book. I really let like they connected there. I liked seeing that. I also liked the time she spend at the inn and get to spend some time with Brandon without worrying about anything.

I also really liked seeing more of Bailey and Willow as well as Dallas and the rest of the King family. The whole family is great to read about. I like seeing how close they are and there are some fun interactions between the siblings and there is the set-up for Dallas’ romance toward the end of the book.

To summarize: I struggled a bit with his book. While I liked the side plot line featuring Willow and Eric, those chapters were my favorite parts of this book. Brandon was such a sweet and nice guy and I really liked him, but I didn’t like reading about Giselle. I enjoyed their first meeting as well as the time she spent at the inn. Besides those parts there was a lot of push and pull with Giselle pushing Brandon away and not accepting his help and I just didn’t enjoy reading about it. It was frustrating and I got annoyed with how this kept repeating. The way Giselle’s mothers mental illness was portrayed made me feel uncomfortable as her mother was only shown as a problem most of the time and there was no explanation or diagnosis. I don’t like reading about babies and the major theme and trope of this book is about Giselle getting pregnant after her one night stand with Brandon. The King family is great to read about and I liked reading more about the family and seeing the siblings interact. I am looking forward to the next book and hope I can enjoy that one more again.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.