Review: Overruled

Review: OverruledSustained (The Legal Briefs, #2) by Emma Chase
Series: The Legal Briefs #1
Published by Gallery Books on August 25th 2015
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 267
Goodreads
four-half-stars

So Many Reasons I Shouldn’t Like This Book, and Yet I Did

“You’re so stubborn — you’re so stuck in what you think is supposed to be, that you’re missin’ what’s right in front of you.”

FINAL DECISION: I book I put off reading because it has two things I really tend to dislike lawyers and a hero who believes he is in love with someone else — yet somehow I found this book compelling. I couldn’t stop reading it. My only complaint is that I wanted more.

THE STORY: Stanton Shaw, a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. is known as “The Jury Charmer” because he is a man it is hard to say no to. He has a plan for his life. Although he lives in D.C. his heart is in MIssissippi with his childhood sweetheart and their daughter. The two had a child as teenagers and although they were in love, they kept postponing their life together. Stanton, however, believes that they have a special and immutable connection until he gets an invitation to her wedding to someone else. Stanton is determined to go home and convince her to call of the wedding. He decides to bring along with him Sofia Santos who is also an attorney at the firm he works with. Stanton and Sofia have been friends with benefits neither wanting a more serious relationship. While Stanton works to recover his past love, he can’t seem to forget the woman of the moment.

OPINION: I’ve had this series on my radar for a while. People keep recommending the books to me, but I’m generally not a fan of lawyer books. Being an attorney myself, I often don’t find the tone and voice of the book to fit in my experience. Finally, this book had been recommended one too many times and I was looking for something new to read and I started this book with low expectations. And then I couldn’t put it down.

I was attracted by the tone of the book. The book begins with the first person narrative of the hero and then switches between the first person of Stanton and Sofia. This book is really Stanton’s story because it is his continued expectation of his relationship with his childhood sweetheart that animates the story. Although I am generally not a fan of stories where one of the characters believes themselves in love with someone else, I thought it worked here because of the first person narrative. Having access to Stanton’s thoughts gives readers an understanding of how he actually feels for Sofia and for the woman he insists he loves. I just had to smile at his blindness of his own true feelings. Stanton also is incredibly honest in recognizing his mistakes by the time he acknowledges he loves Sofia that I forgave him for his stupidity throughout the book.

This book felt deep and emotional and I felt so connected to the characters and felt their connection to one another. The book tackles difficult issues of first love and coming to terms with the loss of young dreams and I ended up loving it.

I give high marks to a book that was much more than what I thought when I read the description.

WORTH MENTIONING: Warning that the hero spends almost the entire book believing he is in love with his childhood sweetheart.

CONNECTED BOOKS: OVERRULED is the first book in the Legal Briefs series.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.

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four-half-stars

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