Book Talk Review; Cloudy With A Chance Of Love

This book is adorable

What do you get when an unexpected storm traps three men in a remote mountain cabin that only has one bed?

A recipe for grilled cheese, whatever that is.

All Collin wanted was nice weather for the last rafting tour with the outdoor excursion company his father had built from the ground up. What he got was Max, a recently single grump, and Spencer, an eternally optimistic cat rescuer.

The three men can't be any more different, but somewhere between roasting s'mores over a campfire and realizing the only road back to civilization has been washed out, something happened.

There's no electricity, but there's body heat and warm blankets, and if Collin, Max, and Spencer thought the storm was unpredictable, they didn't have any idea what to expect once their hearts got involved.

But like Collin's company, all good things must come to an end. The question is, are the three of them just a good thing? Or the real thing?
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Cloudy with a Chance of Love is a 57,000 MMM romance with three men, one bed, and a crash course in how to make a cheese toastie. 

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Three of my top favorite authors teaming up together to write a book? Yes. Hell yes. I love all three of these authors separately, together they are better than ever.  Y'all already know my obsession for Kate Hawthorne and EM Denning runs deep, now you get to see that the same obsession lives for EM Lindsey. 

It takes skill for two authors to blend their writing styles together enough so that they can seamlessly write a book. Three of them? I can't even imagine, but if any authors can do it it's these three and they proved it. It doesn't read like more than one author wrote this book and I love that. There are some books I've read where it was painfully obvious that the writing didn't mesh as well as it could have, that didn't happen here. These three authors worked hard to give us a book we can devour and it shows. 

All three of these characters are a little bit lonely, a little bit lost and it shows. Collin is the one who is the most hurt as he's older, bitter from divorce even though his marriage was over long before, and listless as he watches everything his father built crumble around him. 

Max is just out of a relationship that left him reeling, he admits to himself, a bit begrudgingly, that the relationship was over already, but that doesn't make the hurt any less. He's angry and it takes a lot out of him to still make the rafting trip with the gruff Collin and the sweet yet naive Spencer. 

Spencer, he might be my favorite character. He is different from the others as he doesn't have relationship woes, but that is the problem. He's lacking love that doesn't come from a cat and he desperately needs it, even if it comes in the form of an angry Max and a lost Collin. 

There's also a goat named Robert and a duckling named Dudely who will still your heart. 

I don't read a lot of predicament books, it takes a lot for me to believe them, even in fiction I need a reason why the characters end up together, feeling the things they do outside of the adrenaline and the rush of being trapped somewhere. You can feel the beginnings of a good, solid relationship in this book. The characters, while vastly different, give life to each other. They teach each other. Max and Collin learn to love again. Collin learns that his age means nothing. Max learns that his ex was a twat. Spencer learns to live and love and that he's far braver than he knows. He learns that not only can one person love him—weirdness, high maintenance tendencies, and all—but two people can. Though I don't usually read predicament trope books, I love the one-bed trope and this book has that.  

What I loved most about this book is that even though it's low angst they take their time a bit. Yes, they hook up when they're trapped in Collin's cabin, but that isn't until the 50% mark and well, if you've read Kate Hawthorn and EM Denning before you know that doesn't usually happen. It seems that EM Lindsey is teaching these two about slow-burn romances, while also being taught a bit of insta-love from EM Denning. Am I mad about that combination? No. 

And yes, as crazy as it seems, you can have both. Because while they do develop feelings for one another rather quickly, they also know that they need to be ready and open to accept those feelings from the others. I won't spoil things for you, but I will say that I thought what the authors did to show that these three were actually perfect for each other—even in that short amount of time. 

After getting their heads on straight and settling that they can actually want a relationship between the three of them, that they're ready for that, the three decide to settle in Cherry Creek, which had me all kinds of excited. If you don't know why then go read Reckless by Kate. That book and this one are the beginning of a new small town that I have a feeling will bring some imperfect, but awesome love stories, I can't wait to see. I hope that in do so that means we'll see Collin, Spencer, and Max around. Because the three of them are adorable and I want more of them. I wish the book was a bit longer because I want to see these three build a life together, but the authors left them in a good place, making the life they deserved so there's hope at least. 

I didn't think I could love this trio of authors more and then they went and wrote a book together. 

*Quote-

"Max and Spencer breathed life and vigor into the dark corners of him he swore had died with his divorce." 

"He never wanted for things, but he couldn't remember a time when he felt like he had a family. Until now. Until he'd almost died on a river with Max and Collin. The storm had tried to finish the job, but Collin has taken them in and sheltered them. He knew the storm couldn't go on forever, but a big part of him wished it could." 

"Max rubbed the spot on his chest where Collin had kissed him and found he did feel better. The single kiss had wiped his doubts...In the living room of this cabin with one man on either side of him, he knew for the first time what it meant to be sure about someone." 

"The three of them being more whole together than they'd ever be on their own."