Book Review: Irresistible by Melanie Harlow

I went through a phase where I read six of Melanie Harlow’s books back to back. I really liked her earlier books better than the more recent ones. Irresistible is much better than Only You, but the story still is lacking.

Frannie has lived a super sheltered life. She was born with a heart condition, so her parent’s always treated her like someone who wasn’t strong enough to live life on her own. She was homeschooled, went to a local college and lives on the property of the inn that is owned by her parents. There is a lot of potential for Frannie to spread her wings and grow as a person, which is what I initially found to be interesting about the story.

Mack is older than Frannie (she’s in her twenties, he’s in his thirties), divorced and has three daughters. He struggles with juggling his full time job along with trying to raise his girls without the help of his flaky ex-wife. He has no time for romance and thinks he has nothing to give to any woman he would date.

Mack had more character development than Frannie did, even though this was supposed to be her story. Frannie stayed stuck in a pattern: depending on other people. She even partnered with someone to start her bakery business and used her father’s money to do so. Even if she were to end up with Mack, she needed space to grow instead of shoving her into Mack’s instant family. I actually felt disappointed in a fictional character.

Also, the love scenes in this book and Ms. Harlow’s other books are unnecessarily graphic to me. I just skip over them.

The book is okay, if you just need a distraction. I read this while I was in the hospital, instead of watching the terrible shows on the limited selection of TV channels. Just don’t expect too much from the book, especially from the underdeveloped (undercooked?) Frannie.