Falling for Max (Kowalski Family #9)

I have a soft spot for Shannon Stacey\’s contemporaries because they\’re set in northern New England, where I live, and because they\’re usually refreshingly free of contrivance and WTFery: they\’re just about regular people with regular problems living regular lives and falling in love in regular ways. You might think that would be boring, but no, at least not to me: it gives me faith, as I live my own regular life and work through my regular problems with my regular family that we\’ve got just as good a chance at a happily ever after outcome as anyone else, and that\’s reassuring. That said, Falling for Max is not nearly as strong as most of the other books in the Kowalski\’s series. Maybe it\’s time for Shannon Stacey to move on to a new town and new people, because she\’s scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel in tiny Whitford, Maine, or maybe this book just didn\’t work for me because I\’m not at all a fan of the I\’m-not-right-for-you-but-let-me-help-hook-you-up-with-someone-else trope (think Some Kind of Wonderful, for example). Introverted, endearingly geeky Max doesn\’t get out much: he spends so much of his time in the basement painting model trains that there\’s a rumor about town that he\’s really a serial killer. However, he\’s tired of being alone and decides to go looking for a wife. Tori, a waitress at the local diner, watches him get shot down on his first attempt to talk to a woman, and she takes pity on him. Tori has no interest in marriage herself, but she\’s happy to help polish Max\’s rough edges and prepare him to meet his future wife. From the moment they meet, it\’s clear how this story will go, and it does: they develop feelings for each other, such that when Max goes out with someone else he feels guilty and Tori feels jealous, but Tori can\’t get over her own hangups about commitment. It might have worked if Tori\’s commitment phobia stemmed from something more substantial than her parents\’ acrimonious divorce. Not to minimize her angst, but please: with a national divorce rate somewhere between 25 and 45% (depending upon the source of one\’s statistics), Tori\’s extreme reaction to her parents\’ all-too-common marital implosion makes her seem like a speshul snowflake. Anyway, this whole story felt contrived and predictable to me, and nothing about it challenged my expectations in any way. Oh well.

Ninth book in the series, and it just may be my favorite one, never mind that the Kowalski fam only figures in peripherally in the narrative. FALLING FOR MAX is Shannon Stacey\’s fun reverse nod to PYGMALION and MY FAIR LADY, and I had a blast reading it. The two leads are fantastic, with Max maybe being just a tad more so. Max Crawford is the talk of the town: Whitford, Maine\’s own mystery man. Murmurs circulate about what he does for a living. It\’s pretty funny how there\’s this idle conjecture that he\’s perhaps a serial killer. How else to account for the cryptic doings in his basement that requires its own security system? Is that where he buries his murdered corpses? For sure there\’s something just a bit off about Max. He keeps to himself, although, okay, give him cred for opening up lately, what with his crib having become the most popular gathering place for the town\’s most avid sports fans (his having this gargantuan television plays a part). Max has it all worked out. He is freakin\’ organized. He\’s got a plan and a timeline and a check-off list on life. For the month of October, what\’s next on that list is to get a wife. Except he\’s not exactly a social butterfly. He\’s awkward around people. And then there\’s Tori Burns. Tori works in digital design and is a book cover designer and a part-time waitress at the Trailside diner. But maybe the best way to describe her is that she\’s a free spirit. Tori doesn\’t intend to be tied down. This is perfect. On a whim, Max hires her to be his dating coach. You know what happens. The two lead characters are so much fun to read about, and I enjoyed the interplay between them. They\’re very cute together. Tori is bubbly and an extrovert but has deep-seated issues with committment. It\’s Max who surprised me with how likable he is, how funny he is. Max is a very literal person, and he knows this about himself. He\’s witty enough to turn that trait to his advantage, seeing as he doesn\’t shy from poking fun at himself. Love his sense of humor. He delivers a line that had me laughing so loud: – Tori: \”So, what do you do for a living?\” – Max: \”I don\’t kill people in my basement.\” Anyway, for admirers of the Kowalski clan, there are enough Kowalski sightings peppered in throughout the book, but they clearly only play supporting parts. Mostly, it\’s about Tori\’s doing her darndest to make Max dateable material and how that predictably leads to something else. Great read. The Kowalski Family series: – Book 1: Exclusively Yours (The Kowalskis) (Joe\’s story) – Book 2: Undeniably Yours (Kowalskis) by Stacey, Shannon [24 January 2012 ] (Kevin\’s story) – Book 3: Yours to Keep (The Kowalskis) (Sean\’s story) – Book 4: All He Ever Needed (The Kowalskis) (Mitch\’s story) – Book 5: All He Ever Desired (The Kowalskis) (Ryan\’s story) – Book 6: All He Ever Dreamed (The Kowalskis) (Josh\’s story) – Book 6.5: Alone with You: Book 6.5 of The Kowalskis (Darcy Vaughan/Jake Holland, Kindle novella) – Book 7: Love a Little Sideways (The Kowalskis) (Liz Kowalski\’s story) – Book 8: Taken with You (The Kowalskis) (Hailey Genest\’s story) – Book 9: Falling for Max (Tori Burns/Max Crawford)

I loved reading about Max. I remember being introduced to him in the previous book in the series and found him very intriguing. And he was! It\’s so nice to read about a guy made from his own cookie cutter. I loved watching him come out of his shell with Tori\’s assistance. But I also loved that he was just himself. Tori didn\’t try to change him. She just made him more comfortable and confident in who he really was. And she liked him for who he was. On the flip side, Max also liked Tori for who she was. Hence the friends to lovers situation. This was a nice slow burn. I loved the slow progression in their relationship. It didn\’t start typically, and that was a nice change. They developed a sweet friendship, causing them both to face the relationship expectations they\’d held dear. They had to reconcile personal assumptions, past hurts, and negative family influences. Tori\’s struggle in particular was difficult at times to read simply because everyone could see how blind she was being except her. I felt it drag out a little longer than necessary, but she had to see it for herself before she could truly move on, so it still fit the storyline. I loved the camaraderie between Max and Tori and their sweet romance. They were a really great couple, and I enjoyed their story. Max is a great guy. I only wish there was a bit more to the ending. Not necessarily an epilogue (although I do love them), but simply more to the last chapter.

Max deserved a bit of happiness and tori was his wee bit and then his everything Everyone saw it but them and then they decided to take to leap and have faith in every other. It a friends with benefits story that becomes a love story with the perfect ending. Well done Stacey, Max is one of those men that you can\’t help but love

Brilliant read

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