Hands Down, All Grown Up is the BEST ROMANCE OF 2019 💗 Ford Donovan is a Romance Revelation

If you do nothing else to soothe your soul this summer, you must read All Grown Up, a uniquely modern, deeply resonant, hopelessly romantic story, from the brilliant storyteller and wordsmith of love Vi Keeland.

All Grown Up is a love letter to Keeland's fans and anyone who savors true love’s journey, who enjoys wry humor and a dirty mouth, who relishes in the great conversation between men and w...

Hands Down, All Grown Up is the BEST ROMANCE OF 2019 💗 Ford Donovan is a Romance Revelation

If you do nothing else to soothe your soul this summer, you must read All Grown Up, a uniquely modern, deeply resonant, hopelessly romantic story, from the brilliant storyteller and wordsmith of love Vi Keeland.

All Grown Up is a love letter to Keeland's fans and anyone who savors true love’s journey, who enjoys wry humor and a dirty mouth, who relishes in the great conversation between men and women with love in their hearts and lust on their lips.

I fell in love at the first flirt in this delightful modern fairy tale. You will too.

I was not expecting the charmsicle that is Ford Donovan. Entirely unique, Ford is like no other leading man I’ve read before. The lists of the perfect book boyfriends are long and varied, but rarely does one come across a hero who’s far from perfect, yet so immaculately well-suited for the heroine. His mind, it’s filthy and wise, funny and charming, and patient.

Ford may be an invention, but he’s truly the perfect tonic to the steady diet of alphajerks that star in so many of the romances we read. I literally fell for him during the first online exchange from Donovan620. Ford does an amazing job of transforming how Valentina sees herself. It’s a pleasure to read their every interaction, from playful to provocative. Ford’s dirty texts, his lewd mouth and his persistent attention wheedle away at Val’s self-recriminations.

No one writes people falling in love in modern times as well as Keeland. Here, she TELLS a STORY, and at the same time, she serves up texting, online dating, the Hamptons summer scene, divorce, climate change and coming of age angst. And in a delectable filthy flourish, Ford schools us in the real value of post-it notes.

She has her go-tos queued up as well: the signature humanness, humor and unslaked need—that spine tingling, gut-twisting NEED that makes All Grown Up impossible to put down. Vi's in a different league, writing a Romance of the Times. Only she can upend the trendy tropes (like she's teasing us: here's a hot teen... who grew up)—to deliver a genre-bending age gap romance with a cougar and c.nn.l.ng.s in the blurb.

Read this book immediately.

All Grown Up is a unique and very sensual love story too, with an addictive narrative and hot sexy times that leave you breathless. The plot is so taut, and these aren’t just sexy moments, these are soul-stealing scenes that light up all your emotions and give you a great ride. I am stuck in the afterglow of this lovely story. It’s a beautiful bubble to be in.

Frankly, I think there are more highlighted passages on my kindle than unhighlighted (chapter 4 is a tour de force in romance writing). A rarity for me. And that’s the thing. There’s not a wasted word here. Every scene, every passage has a moment. And the entire spell-binding relationship that grows out of those opening online chats consumed me. Ford and Valentina stayed with me. It’s so unique and adult.

First and foremost this is a great story, rooted in reality with memorable characters that leave you breathless and craving more pages. You almost relish the massive book hangover that follows.

Hell, at times the story was sooo good, it was like Keeland was showing off. She could run a master class of backstory, real stakes, and these entirely flawed and relatable women and men falling in love. Not to mention the setting and comedy and angst. swoon!

There are so many monikers to describe Keeland and the whole package that is All Grown Up. She’s the badass queen of everything. She’s the world’s best cover-picker. I mean come on, who puts that human smokeshow, Christian Hogue’s back on the cover? When I saw it, I thought to myself, “Is there licking? There better be licking.”

—Only she can get away with C.nn.l.ng.s King on her book cover. That blurb is filthy, and it’s a small taste of the exciting story inside.

If I had one note, a post-it, it would be to give me a break. It's almost impossible to choose between Ford Donovan and Bennett Fox. All Grown Up and We Shouldn't are the TOP READS of 2019. xoxo

You must know:
Ford Donovan is the hobbit of book boyfriends: He's the "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." sigh... Ford, Ford, Ford.

It's true.

Vi Keeland’s All Grown Up is a fun and flirty take on the forbidden age-gap romance, filled with steam, wit, and just the right amount of drama. While I usually like my novels to cause me a little more pain (I’m a sucker for damage and tragedy), I thoroughly enjoyed the light-hearted and romantic nature of Val and Ford’s story. Their chemistry, paired with the unique conflicts, made this a 4 star read for me.

All Grown Up is the perfect steamy beach romance to touch on all of your emotions...

Vi Keeland’s All Grown Up is a fun and flirty take on the forbidden age-gap romance, filled with steam, wit, and just the right amount of drama. While I usually like my novels to cause me a little more pain (I’m a sucker for damage and tragedy), I thoroughly enjoyed the light-hearted and romantic nature of Val and Ford’s story. Their chemistry, paired with the unique conflicts, made this a 4 star read for me.

All Grown Up is the perfect steamy beach romance to touch on all of your emotions.

Vi Keeland did a great job crafting All Grown Up’s main characters, and they were just as enjoyable individually as they were together. I love when book characters have well-rounded, dynamic personalities, and Val and Ford are just that.

Valentina Davis (nee Di Giovanni) is strong, intelligent, compassionate, and ambitious. She has lived the last twenty years entirely for her son and her husband, and after divorcing her high school sweetheart, Val is finally learning how to be independent and live for herself. Her determination to become a teacher is empowering, and her struggle to open herself back up to love after being hurt is humbling.

Ford is mature, protective, confident, and sexy-as-sin. The man is HOT. His attitude has just the right amount of cockiness, he’s a smart and successful business owner, and after losing both his parents at 19, he’s also the caring and protective guardian to his younger sister. Ford is a seriously swoon-worthy hero.
Oh, and did I mention that he’s equal parts ROMANTIC and ALPHA? Yep. *swoon*

Though Val is 38 and Ford is 25, their personalities mesh really well together, and their chemistry is HOT. Seriously steamy. And after twenty years with her douche-canoe of an ex, Val definitely deserves the sexy, sensual romance that Ford offers.

Val and Eve’s friendship is another thing that I really enjoyed about this novel. The dynamic between these two women was exactly what you would hope for from two people who have been friends since childhood. Eve is hilarious, and she acts as Val’s witty, feisty hype-man who speaks the truth when necessary and always has her friend’s back. And Val’s My Turn List that Eve helps create? It is *perfect*. The goals on the list seemed to authentically fit a woman in Val’s situation. It was just the right combination of serious (become a teacher, plant a flower garden) and silly (wear sexy lingerie, have a threesome) to be believable, and it went a long way in making Val a relatable and realistic character.

I loved all of the above things, but I think what ultimately made this novel a 4 star read over a 3 star read for me was the unique conflict woven into the plot. I really appreciated how the conflict was NOT typical of other age-gap romances. Is Val bothered by the age difference? Yes. Does she try to deny her feelings for Ford because she thinks he’s “too young”? Yes, of course. It’s to be expected in the age-gap romance trope. HOWEVER, the central conflict of the novel is much more complex and unique, and it was expertly crafted.

While I wasn't 100% in love with the ending (for reasons I will remain quiet about so as to avoid spoilers), and the novel didn’t wreck me in the way I usually crave, the unique conflict, steaminess, and likability of the characters earned All Grown Up 4 stars from me.