“Crush in the Cascades” — Book Review

Genre: Action Adventure Contemporary Romance Fiction

Rating: 3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for the E-ARC to read and review.

“Crush in the Cascades” by: Lisa Gayle was a fast-paced and overall enjoyable Action Adventure Contemporary Romance novel. The story follows our main characters Amity Rose and Easton Cooper as they embark on their journey on a new reality television show called The Race for Riches or Romance. Each of the contestants on the show is fighting for the grand [prize of a million dollars. It is immediately clear that “Crush in the Cascades” is an enemy to lovers novel pretty much from page 1. Gayle makes the tension between Easton and Amity crystal clear from the very first page. The main characters as well as all of the supporting characters work very well together and for the most part, have very realistic and entertaining interactions throughout the book.

As stated above this Romance is 100% enemies to lovers; the only thing that sort of blindsided me was how quickly Easton and Amity went from enemies to lovers. It felt as if the tension between the 2 characters had only just begun to brew before it was already quickly switching to lovers. The novel could have benefited if they explored the tension between the main characters and added more depth to their eventual relationship had they not fallen so hard so quickly.

I absolutely ADORED Amity Rose as our female protagonist. She was witty and driven and she knew what she wanted. She went into her journey on the reality television show with a specific goal in mind (to have an adventure) and in the end, she was able to achieve that and I felt she stayed true to her character. So many times throughout the story Amity is torn down by others and she continues to push forward and proves to herself and to those who would doubt her that she is a force to be reckoned with. It was her determined personality and general fight to show who she truly was that made her such a strong female protagonist.

Easton Cooper our male protagonist didn’t feel as well-rounded, he came across as very 1 dimensional with a bit of depth thrown in for good measure. I couldn’t help but relate to Easton’s overall hatred of reality television and I did find his reason for going on the show to be a noble cause but he never felt fully fleshed out throughout the novel. It wasn’t until around Chapter 22 that we really start to get a true look into Easton Cooper.

This was a very quick and enjoyable read. It hit all of the boxes it should have in a contemporary romance and I found the overall reading experience to be very enjoyable.