Along Came Trouble

Along Came Trouble
by Ruthie Knox
Rating: 3 of 5 stars


My Review:
I came in to this book with my fingers crossed that I'd really like it because I really like Ruthie Knox's writing. But I do have a bit of a prejudice towards celebrity-type romances. I just end up not understanding why people don't leave or just deal with the notoriety somehow.


I mean, Ellen has a famous brother and lives next door to her brother's possibly girlfriend. She's been around paparazzi stuff before. I liked that she was proactively dealing with her life, whether it was her ex-husband or nosy photographers. Was she smart about it? Maybe not. But if someone (Caleb) comes in and just starts trying to put up a fence or something, I'd be pretty pissed off too. It's her home and her choice of what she wants to do. If she didn't feel like dealing with it, she really should have left the area for a while or decided on some other course of action.


Caleb was a big, brawny, take-action sort of guy. He was hot and I could appreciate where he was coming from, but I hated how he kept trying to steamroll over Ellen. It's her life, not his. So her choice what should happen. I don't know how it works in the celebrity world, but in my world I wouldn't be ok with someone else being hired without my consent to do whatever they feel like, even if it's under the guise of protecting me.


Ellen and Caleb are pretty much at odds from the beginning of the book. Ellen wants her freedom. Caleb wants to do whatever is necessary to protect her. They can't find much common ground for quite a while, but there's lust.


I was really stuck with the characters' emotions while I was reading, but in this case that meant I was sort-of pissy to my family until I finished this book because I was upset for Ellen losing control of her life. It felt like everyone was against her having her independence and I hated that she wasn't finding a choice to make that kept her autonomy.


I did really like Ellen and I loved how she stood up for Caleb to his family. I liked the interactions between Caleb and his dad. By the end of the book, I liked Caleb too. I wasn't hugely invested in the story because I was annoyed with Caleb (and with Ellen for giving in), but I enjoyed the writing and I'll keep buying this author's books.