ARC Review: Tricked in October by Starla DeKruyf

*I was given a copy of Tricked in October in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to City Owl Press and Starla DeKruyf*

Synopsis:

After losing her husband last winter, the thought of hosting a Halloween couples costume party is the furthest thing from Kelsey O’Henry’s mind. Besides raising three young children, managing O’Henry’s Bar and Grill, and caring for her alcoholic mother, she has more important things to worry about. Like the stack of unpaid business loans that threaten the bar’s existence. As well as her newfound feelings she’s developed for her best guy friend.

Davis Vance is tired of being followed around by cameras. He misses the days before he and his twin brother became “Renovation Dudes”—hosts of an HGTV show. When Davis learns Kelsey could lose the bar at the end of the fall season, he sees it as an opportunity to not only help his friend, but as a way out of renewing his HGTV contract.

There’s just one problem—lately Davis’s feelings for Kelsey have been less friendly and more romantic. And on the night of the bar’s Halloween party, both Kelsey and Davis can no longer ignore their desires. Will their passionate evening be a one-night stand—only a flicker of heat during the crisp autumn, or will she risk her pride and accept his help?

Review:

Tricked in October was fairly average. Not the worst book I’ve ever read but definitely not the best. I’ve never read a romance book set around Halloween before so I had high hopes for this, basically, I shouldn’t have bothered.

For the most part, Tricked in October was really depressing and I’m not even talking about the dead husband. I get that the risk of Kelsey losing the family bar was one of the main plot points but oh my did I get bored of it very quickly. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she was willing to accept help from others, but she was so stubborn.

This brings me to my next point; I really didn’t like Kelsey. She was too stubborn for her own good and a huge hypocrite. For example – she said she wouldn’t ask her mom for help because she didn’t want to risk her losing her bakery. But then later in the book she demands to know why her mom hasn’t offered to take a loan against the bakery to help her. It literally makes no sense. Also up until this point she has never mentioned having to work in the bakery but suddenly at the end, she’s complaining about doing it saying she has too much to juggle.

I can understand her being stubborn for the point of the plot, but other than not accepting help from people and liking beer she had no personality. This is super harsh of me to say, I did like her at first but her whole ‘I’m too good to ask for help’ shtick got old very fast.

Don’t get me started on Davis. He was supposed to be the sweet and caring twin compared to his womaniser brother Garrett. However, every time he’d see Kelsey he’d had the most obscene thoughts out of nowhere. They made me really uncomfortable. Not even Garrett spoke about women in such a way.

The Halloween party scene was a letdown and I still don’t understand why this book is called Tricked in October. I thought it was going to have something to do with one twin pretending to be the other to get closer to Kelsey, but nope. Nothing like that happened.

Honestly, writing this review has made me realise that I actually didn’t really enjoy this. I liked that it was a quick read, but I’m starting to think I wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t. For that reason I’m taking this review from three stars to 2.5. Tricked in October just wasn’t for me.