Review of How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back by Sophie Barnes

Title/Author: How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back by Sophie Barnes
Publisher/Date published: Avon Impulse, January 31st 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads summary: "Emily Rutherford is having a very bad day.
Of course, having the man you've loved forever announce his engagement to your (now very former) best friend will do that.
Emily is sure nothing good could possibly come out of this horrid situation. But she lets her sistersconvince her that a season in London will be just the thing.
Now Emily has a choice: sulk in a corner while her sisters enjoy the glitter of the ton... or become the belle of the ball, dazzling everyone on an earls arm. But as Francis helps Emily get back on her feet, she quickly realizes that a childhood crush is nothing compared to the power of true love."

I'm a bit on the fence about this story and that's what's going to be very coherent about it, but I'm going give it my best shot!

In this story we meet Emily, Francis and Adrian, who were best friends way back when until Francis changed and pulled back from everyone. Adrian and Emily then went on to be best friends and in Emily's case, to develop tender feeling for the other. Enter Kate, Emily's 'best friend', who she confides in about all this. Apparantly Kate and Adrian have some more contact and instead of asking Emily to marry him like everyone expected, Adrian asks Kate. LET THE DRAMA BEGIN!

What annoyed me a bit is that Emily, her sisters, Adrian's mother, his deaf great uncle and basically everyone in the neighbourhood thought Adrian would be proposing to Emily. And EVERYONE knew how Emily felt about him. Except apparantly for Adrian himself (the big oaf). I could seriously not believe how BLIND everyone was and that NO ONE AT ALL had even the slightest inkling his affections lay elsewhere. I mean, really?

I did like the fact that Francis wanted to step in and rekindle his friendship and maybe more with Emily and all in all Francis was a very acceptable hero. I liked Francis and I liked that he knew what he wanted and was just figuring out how exactly to go about acquiring it.

And Emily, while she was a nice enough person and interesting, she did some really dumb things. I mean, who has ever thought it was a good idea to go to some sleazeball cousin on your own when he's been trying to offer marriage to you knowing that's probably not all he wants right away? SERIOUSLY? I mean, you don't go with the creepy guy with the dirty matress in the back of his van either because he offers you cookies right?
Emily was supposed to be a smart girl and I just thought this rash decision to think the worst of Francis and go off like that to said sleazeball cousin didn't fit with her character.

I liked that they had history and I thought Francis and Emily fit very well together. I enjoyed their romance, but I think I could have done without the whole Charlotte-blackmailing-thing being half the story. It dragged a bit and didn't really work for me.

I did like How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back, I really liked the bond between the sisters and the connection between Francis and Emily, but I'd just been hoping for a little something more.

My rating: 3 stars