Book Review and Giveaway: Our Kind Of Love

Author: Victoria Purman
ISBN: 9781743569443
RRP: $29.99

Our Kind Of Love is the the third book in the Boys of Summer trilogy by South Australian Victoria Purman, set along the gorgeous Fleurieu Peninsula.

Purman takes us back to the fictional town of Middle Point where we got to know Ry and Julia in Nobody But Him and Lizzie and Dan in Someone Like You. Middle Point may not be a real town but it isn’t far from the very real Port Eliot and Victor Harbor so slipping into these books is guaranteed to leave you hankering after a trip to the coast of your own, it does it to me every time.

Our Kind Of Love is part of a trilogy and it picks up just after Someone Like You ends, but it will stand alone convincingly as well. The books take place chronologically and each of them focuses on a different couple.

Fans of the series will be pleased to catch up with previous leads and see how their lives, and loves, are progressing while getting to know new leads Anna and Joe, both of whom we met in Someone Like You.

Joe is Lizzie’s older brother on hiatus from his life in Sydney after being made redundant and losing his wife. He came home to lick his wounds and decide what came next, after months of moping he still has no forward plans but he is starting to feel a little old to be bunking with his little sister. Especially considering she is so loved up.

Anna is a friend of Dan and Ry’s from University, she is an Adelaide GP with a thriving practice as well as a large and close-knit Italian family. Her marriage has just broken down and she’s not quite sure how to break the news to her family.

Our Kind Of Love opens with a lust hangover as Anna awakens in a strange bed in the aftermath of her drunken wedding hook-up. At the first opportunity she takes off back to Adelaide, hanging her head in shame but unable to erase the memories of her hot Middle Point night.

Anna is the eldest child in her traditional Italian family. She is, and always has been, a good girl who just wants to make her family proud. She is living in Adelaide which though still a relatively small city is huge compared to the likes of Middle Point. Purman makes it crystal clear that though a city girl Dr Anna Morelli is firmly ensconced in quite a tight community; they are very much like a small town, only situated in a big city.

Alternating chapters bring us closer to our hero and heroine, allowing us to get to know them much better. It is clear from early on that there is great chemistry at play between the two but chemistry isn’t always enough.

Anna’s history with Ry and Dan, and budding friendship with Julia and Lizzie, see her spending a lot more time in Middle Point. It becomes her little escape from reality, somewhere she can head to really relax and be herself without worrying what others are thinking. The only problem is the more time she spends in Middle Point the harder it is to ignore her attraction to Joe.

Purman writes the Fleurieu so well that I always want to jump in the car, no matter what time of year it is. It doesn’t matter the season, or the weather, Purman’s love of the area shines through with evocative descriptive language that leaves me craving the seaside; the beaches, the waves and even the sand and the storms.

Anna is discovering a new side to herself, a side that is not so determined to be the perfect Italian daughter. The more I learned about Dr Anna Morelli the more I felt for her. She placed so much pressure on herself to be the perfect daughter and member of the community that she was forever putting herself second.

I was strung along guessing for ages because I kept waiting for a particular something to happen and it kept not happening. I was hooked from the very beginning and found it very difficult to drag myself away.

Joe was a big shot journalist, he had covered huge stories and won awards but at the end of the day that didn’t save his job. Returning to his home town has opened his eyes to what’s really important, when he quit moping and decided to start looking to the future. He has been gone from Middle Point for two decades and no-one really expects him to stick around, his life and career have been in Sydney for so long. But with no wife and no job is there really anything to go back to?

Our Kind Of Love is a slightly unusual romantic theme, there is no friends to lovers or first love reunited here. Joe and Anna are the drunk and heartbroken hook-up, I love it. The fact that they seem to be so different also gives us an element of opposites attract, until we discover that maybe they aren’t so different after all.

I found this book to be both heartwarming and heartbreaking, full of wit and seaside charm. Curling up with Purman and the Boys of Summer was like catching up with old friends and I absolutely loved it. I can only hope that Middle Point keeps talking to Purman.

Available now where all good books are sold.
Victoria loves to hear from her readers and you can find her at her Website as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

We have copies of Our Kind Of Love to giveaway to 10 of our lucky readers. If you want to be one of them tell us in the comments below what your favourite romance theme is.

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Michelle

I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!