Release Blitz + Review: "Rachel, Out of Office" by Christina Hovland

I'm excited to participate in today's release blitz celebrating "Rachel, Out of Office" by Christina Hovland, book #1 of the Mommy Wars series.

 

"Rachel, Out of Office" was a tremendously funny, sweet, and heartwarming story featuring endearing characters and an unconventional, yet completely satisfying romance between single mom Rachel Gibson and her former brother-in-law, Travis Frank. I loved how well Travis and Rachel complemented each other. Rachel often seemed to have the weight of the world on her shoulders as she struggled to balance her responsibilities to her small business and her twin 8-year-old sons, Kellan and Brady. While Travis was her opposite in many ways, he had matured quite a bit in recent years and wanted nothing more than for his family to acknowledge how far he'd come. The main challenge they faced was that Travis wanted to help Rachel carry her burdens, but it was difficult for her to let go. Rachel was also concerned about how her sons, ex-husband, and former mother-in-law would react to the prospect of her relationship with Travis. However, Travis knew exactly what he wanted, and he was willing to wait as long as it took for Rachel to figure everything out and feel comfortable with them being together openly.

 

The book's secondary characters were a tremendous amount of fun and added a lot of depth and humor to the story. I loved Rachel's squad of fellow mom pals, especially her best friend Molly. I hope several of them will get their own books in the future. Rachel's ex-husband, Gavin, was also an interesting character. At first, I thought he was just a selfish schmuck who shirked his parental responsibilities, which really made me feel bad for Kellan and Brady because it was obvious how badly they wanted Gavin's attention. As the story progressed, however, I realized that Gavin might not be such a bad guy after all. He was definitely clueless when it came to Rachel's feelings, and he was overly focused on trying to make his new fiancee Dakota happy, which negatively impacted his relationship with Rachel and their kids. Gavin genuinely seemed to love Kellan and Brady, though, and I think he'll do a better job of being there for them going forward.

Overall, I loved "Rachel, Out of Office" and highly recommend it for all fans of contemporary romance and romantic comedy. It was a great start to a new series, and I can't wait to find out what happens next.

 

*Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

 

 

About "Rachel, Out of Office"

Out of reach, out of touch, out of her mind.

Single mom Rachel Gibson seriously needs a break. Between an absent ex-husband, rowdy twin boys, managing the PTA, and running her own business, her candle isn't burning at both ends, it's a full-blown puddle of wax. She's the go-to girl for other entrepreneurs, handling all the tasks they dread. Social media posts? She's got it. Website updates? She's on it. Light bookkeeping? Oh, yes.

Thank goodness she's about to get a reprieve when her in-laws plan to whisk her boys away for a summer of fun at the family lake house. But when her ex backs out of the family retreat, and her former inlaws insist she attend their yearly vacation summit with her munchkins, she finds herself in a pickle. Even though she's drowning in to-dos, she's horrible at saying no -- especially when it comes to her kids.

Once Rachel arrives at the lake house, she struggles to keep up with work and balance the demands of family all the while fending off pesky new feelings about her ex-brother-in-law. Which makes her start to wonder... Is falling for her ex-husband's brother just one more messy complication added to the dumpster fire? Or is anything possible when she's out of office...