I received this book for free (hey, thanks!) in exchange for an honest review. I promise that this does NOT affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. For real.
Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Published by Penguin Random House on January 11, 2022
Also by this author: Today Tonight Tomorrow, The Ex Talk, We Can't Keep Meeting Like This, See You Yesterday, Business or Pleasure, Past Present Future
Format: eARC (352 pages) • Source: Publisher
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Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?
A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this charming romantic comedy from the author of The Ex Talk.
I’ve fallen HARD for Rachel Lynn Solomon and her writing. If you’re still somehow sleeping on her near-perfect contemporary books (both YA *and* adult, y’all), you are missing out. She writes such lovely romances with great, complex characters and a good amount of diversity. She has another hit with WEATHER GIRL. I stayed up until 2am reading 90% of the book in one sitting. I just couldn’t stop.
This one hits hard in a few areas but managed to also make me smile and actually laugh out loud to myself a few times. I really love that she’s able to balance the tough stuff with the gooey love stuff. Our MC, Ari, deals with depression (like her mom) – while medication and therapy help, she has a ton of “Dark Days” still and struggles with feeling like she’s going to repeat her mother’s history. Is anyone ever going to love all of her, including the dark parts? Will all of her boyfriends leave when things get tough, like her dad did? Ari and her coworker, Russell, decide its time for their bosses to stop making their work (at a Seattle news station) miserable – they plot to get them back together after divorcing.
Needless to say, cute single dad Russell (who, by the way, provides some excellent fat rap for a male MC!) and Ari hit it off and start falling for each other. They had sooo much chemistry (which was further emphasized with some very steamy scenes) and I loved reading about their relationship… to the point where I was unable to stop after “just one more chapter.”
The news station where they worked was a very fun setting. The characters had big personalities – Russell covered sports and really was passionate about the people behind sports stories and headlines. Ari has always been obsessed with the weather and her boss was one of her idols growing up. There’s a lot to the workplace element of this – it’s not just “our bosses are unhappy so we’re unhappy.” There were other mentoring, development, etc. aspects to the story that would make Russ and Ari a lot happier.
All in all, this was such a lovely and well-rounded story. Yes, I wanted to punch Ari a lot toward the end but there as a lot of “logic” in the black moment, which I always appreciate. Russ’s daughter was adorable and Ari’s family situation made things a lot more interesting as well. See? So many strongly developed elements. I adored this.
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