Reviewer: Leah
I received a review copy
Summary:
Ellie Childs isn’t looking for love. She’s looking for an AC technician for the Forest Wood Senior Center. But, when the repairman happens to be tall, dark, and handsome, he has the goods to make her change her mind. Unfortunately, he’s taken by a blonde Barbie.
David White moved to Cupid, Arkansas, to be closer to the woman he loves, his grandma, and away from his ex-fiancée. Believing his broken heart would never work again, he’s proven wrong. Ellie’s shimmering auburn curls and compassionate nature sends his heart thumping. His mind soars with thoughts of giving love another shot. But as luck would have it, she’s taken, and the guy she’s seeing is a real jerk.
When David’s grandmother sees how perfect Ellie would be for her grandson, she gathers the troops. She and her three friends form Cupid’s Angels. Their mission, to bring David and Ellie together. Despite their best efforts, the Angels’ plans backfire, pushing David and Ellie farther apart and into the arms of others. Or, so they think.
Will the Angels’ good intentions win out, or will their plots and schemes undermine what could have been the love of a lifetime for David and Ellie?
Review:
In Cupid’s Angels, by Erin Bevans, we have Ellie Childs, a widow and mother of a young daughter. She has finally started dating again, but unfortunately, her boyfriend doesn’t really bring any sparks. When the air conditioner breaks down at her work, a rest home, fate interferes. The grandson of one of the residents, David White, has recently moved to Cupid, Arkansas after his fiancée broke his heart. He plans on never loving again, but sparks fly when he comes to fix the air conditioning unit and meets Ellie. Unfortunately, she’s already taken and David is too honorable to ask her out. When David’s grandmother sees the way they act together, she knows they are perfect for each other. She teams up with three of her friends in the rest home to get David and Ellie together. The only problem, every time they try something to bring the two together, it seems to backfire! Will the Cupids unite David and Ellie? Or will their plans just drive them farther apart?
While this is a cute premise, the actual story falls flat. The problem with Bevans’ work is the two main characters, Ellie and David. Ellie and David are standard romantic heroes, with one alteration; the two are very nice people. Ellie is so nice that even though she has no interest in her boyfriend and only dreams of David, she decides she is going to try and make the relationship work. David is so nice that he will never ask Ellie out, as she is in a relationship, even though she’s all he can think about. Instead he decides to date a girl he has no interest in at all. It’s extremely annoying to the reader to hear them go on and on about how much they wish they were with someone else, but alas it can’t be as they are already dating someone. The idea of breaking up with the person they are dating never seems to cross their minds. This lack of character and constant repetition made this book an extremely difficult read.
The only entertaining part of this novel was the four older people who are trying to bring Ellie and David together. Not only do you have people joining the “Cupids” so they can make their own love connections, but every single attempt they do to bring the couple together goes wrong. They send flowers to Ellie from “a secret admirer”, and act that further cements her relationship with her boyfriend. They send a cake from “a secret admirer” to David, and he believes it to be the girl who likes him, but he has no interest in. This is part of the story is extremely hilarious, and these characters utterly endearing. Sadly, they are not enough the save the novel.
1 star
