Review: 'Borrowing Trouble' by Mae Wood (2016)

Lust or love? Can Marisa even tell the difference? 
Juggling a new boyfriend who is constantly MIA for work, his mom who likes her just a little too much, a best friend whose husband might be sneaking around, and a busy career saving clients from sexual harassment lawsuits is pulling Marisa Tanner apart at the seams. Being with Trip is good, but is it real? Will he bail on her like her past boyfriends or for once in his life will Trip be able to maintain focus longer than the time it takes to close a business deal?
After being away for a few weeks, I'm glad to let you all know A Spoonful of Happy Endings is back up and running again! I shared a few reviews and posts with you during my summer stop, but I'll be getting back into my usual routine from now on, especially since there are still plenty of review books waiting for me! Today I've got a review to share with all of you, namely one of Mae Wood's 'Borrowing Trouble', the sequel to her novel 'Risking Ruin' which I read and reviewed last year (click here to read my review). I was curious to read more from this author and also to see what had happened to main characters Marisa and Trip!
Marisa Tanner still can't quite believe she is actually making things work with her handsome boyfriend Trip. Her experiences with her ex-boyfriends weren't the best ones, so she can't help but have her doubts about Trip as well; will he eventually run away or is he really in this for the long run? While struggling to run away from possible heartbreak or give things a go, Marisa also has other things to deal with, such as a mother-in-law who seems to be crazy about her, problems in her best friend's marriage, and her busy career. Will Marisa be able to make sense of it all or is it just too much to handle...?
In this contemporary romance read by author Mae Wood the reader is, once again, invited to join Marisa and Trip, both characters that were introduced in the author's novel 'Risking Ruin.' Marisa and Trip are now a couple who are trying to make it work in our modern day and age, but Marisa can't help but have her doubts. Is this really what she wants and could it be that Trip is more dedicated to the relationship than she is at this moment in time? This is really what the story mainly focuses on, which on the one hand interested me, because I was curious to discover whether Marisa and Trip would manage to make it work between them after everything that happened in the first novel of the series, but on the other hand it also made the book feel a bit one-sided without too much going on.
The story of Marisa and Trip's relationship is a realistic one, and one I enjoyed reading about, but next to this there was nothing big to keep the storyline going, which I thought was a bit of a shame. The author's writing is easy to get into and comfortable to read and I didn't ever feel like wanting to stop reading, but I was waiting for something to catch my attention and make me curious, something to make this novel stand out from others, which unfortunately just didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, I definitely did enjoy reading 'Borrowing Trouble' and can recommend it to women's fiction fans (I'd advise to read 'Risking Ruin' first, though), but I couldn't help but find the storyline of the novel a bit flat and personally had expected more of this sequel.

Rating:7,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads
Thanks to the author for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.