Naturally, Charlie

by S L Scott

[Rowena]

Through a coincidence of events, they come to rely on each other for comfort. This is the tale of two Charlies learning to trust again while fighting their fates to create their own destiny.
When I first read the blurb for this book on Netgalley, I was really curious how a romance between two Charlie’s would turn out and while I enjoyed it, I wanted to beat female Charlie over the head far too many times.

This book follows Charlie Barrow (female) and Charlie Adams (male) as they meet, become good friends and then fall in love. Barrow is a young woman who is having a bit of trouble moving on from her ex-fiance and it’s understandable since he just died, a mere months after they broke up and she’s having a hard time dealing. Adams on the other hand, is an ex-rich party boy who did what he pleased, whenever he pleased. He’s grown up now and can’t seem to get that red headed girl from the subway off his mind. When she shows up at the bar that he’s at, he wants to know more about her but can’t because her friend has called dibs and he misses his chance.

Fate brings them together once again and both Charlies are there for each other in the most bizarre of circumstances and at first, their friendship was cute and it made me sigh but the longer Charlie Adams longed for Charlie Barrow and Charlie Barrow kept him at arms length, the more I wanted to put this book down. It took me a while to get through this book because I kept getting annoyed with Barrows. I thought she took far too long to come around and trust Charlie Adams. Charlie was nothing but kind to her, he was there for her when she needed him and I hated that he kept paying for what Jim did to Charlie Barrow. Yeah, I get it, Barrow couldn’t help the way that she felt but she led Charlie Adams on for too long and it annoyed the snot out of me.

Then Adams takes Barrow home for the reading of his Aunt’s will and she meets the girl that Jim cheated on her with. Does she act like a grown ass adult? Hell no. Does she inadvertently blame Adams for the hurt and the pain caused by ANOTHER MAN? Yep. She certainly does. I just couldn’t like her. Everyone deals with death in different ways but I wasn’t a fan of the way that Barrow dealt with her grief. I thought Charlie Adams deserved far better than Charlie Barrow. He put up with a lot from her and I just didn’t think that he made her grovel as much as she deserved at the time.

I really loved Charlie Adams, even when he made me mad by being the perfect boyfriend to an underserving girl, I loved him. At the end, I wanted him to make Barrow grovel more but he can’t help the way that he feels so I forgave him. Really, I’d forgive him anything and also, he saved this book for me. Even if I couldn’t understand why he loved Charlie Barrow so much, I loved him and like Mark from Love Actually, that was enough. =) So this book gets a C from me.