Review: Love Overdue

Love Overdue

By Pamela Morsi

Published: August 27, 2013

Meet Dorothy Jarrod: devotedly unsexy librarian 

Buttoned-up book lover DJ is all sensible shoes, drab skirts and studious glasses. After an ill-advised spring-break-fueled fling left her mortified, she's committed to her prim and proper look. When she's hired by a rural library in middle-of-nowhere Kansas, she finally has the lifestyle to match-and she can't wait to get her admin on. 

But it's clear from day one that the small-town library is more interested in circulating rumors than books. DJ has to organize her unloved library, win over oddball employees and avoid her flamboyant landlady's attempts to set her up with the town pharmacist. Especially that last part-because it turns out handsome Scott Sanderson is her old vacation fling! She is not sure whether to be relieved or offended when he doesn't seem to recognize her. But with every meeting, DJ finds herself secretly wondering what it would be like to take off her glasses, unpin her bun and reveal the inner vixen she's been hiding from everyone-including herself.

My review:

I like contemporary romance and because this one features a librarian, I decided to give it a try. While the description plays up some of the stereotypes about librarians, I think the depictions of working in a small town library are believable. 

DJ is still trying to live down the mistake of a drunken one night stand-the only time she's strayed from her straight laced existence. As an antidote for what she considers a serious lapse in judgment, she has become the stereotypical dowdily dressed librarian. Unluckily for her, her new job happens to be in the same small town where her partner in indiscretion happens to live. He is now a divorced and respectable pharmacist, considered to be quite a catch in his small town. To make matters worse, his mother Vivian who is DJ's landlord, is trying her best to push them together.

 It takes DJ and Scott some time to warm up to each other. DJ is frosty towards Scott but he doesn't even recognize her as the hot temptress from years ago he's never been able to forget. Both DJ and Scott have some issues to work through. Scott is dealing with a painful divorce and the loss of his dad while DJ is trying to fit into her new job and handle strife and heal from her own losses. It is nice to see Scott come to care about DJ as herself and DJ really starts to bloom and let down the walls she has put up around her heart.

I thought Love Overdue was a fun romance set in a small town with quirky characters. The only disappointment to me was the ending. Everything in the story builds up to this dramatic point that just fails to materialize and the story jumps ahead to a happy epilogue scene instead. Still I really liked the setting and the characters and the details about library work in a small town environment. It has humor and some touching moments as well. If you like lighthearted contemporary romance set in small towns with quirky characters then consider giving this book a try.

Note: I received an ARC for review purposes courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher