Title: The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska #1)
Author: Sarah Morgenthaler
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication date: May 5th, 2020
352 pages
4/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis
When Graham Barnett named his diner The Tourist Trap, he meant it as a joke. Now he’s stuck slinging reindeer dogs to an endless string of resort visitors who couldn’t interest him less. Not even the sweet, enthusiastic tourist in the corner who blushes every time he looks her way…
Two weeks in Alaska isn’t just the top item on Zoey Caldwell’s bucket list. It’s the whole bucket. One look at the mountain town of Moose Springs and she’s smitten. But when an act of kindness brings Zoey into Graham’s world, she may just find there’s more to the man than meets the eye…and more to love in Moose Springs than just the Alaskan wilderness.
Review
Ever since I read, and loved, The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker I’ve been obsessed with books set in Alaska – so I knew I wanted to check this one out. As a resident of the Lower 48, Alaska has this almost mythical quality to it because it’s so different than the rest of the US, I end up having serious FOMO after reading books set in Alaska.
I had a hard time reviewing this one, because I loved parts of it and didn’t like others. Overall I settled on 4 stars because I loved Graham and Zoey’s relationship, banter, and overall communication with each other (outside of the obvious issue that always occurs during the end of the book). Graham is super grumpy (love it). There’s something about grumpy characters that just speak to me… nope no idea what it could be… certainly not seeing myself in the character *whistles innocently*. It’s definitely also NOT the reason Nick Miller from New Girl is my favorite TV character… But I digress.
There were so many pieces that got under my skin. There is a scene with the police where Zoey is targeted for being an outsider & put through a very unfair situation. Then I felt her string of bad luck was too much. And I never felt like Graham every stood up for her to his local friends. His mindset was always “I hate tourists… except Zoey… but Zoey still kinda counts so I’m not going to do anything about the bias and stereotyping running rampant in this little town”. It rubbed me the wrong way because it seemed like instead of learning the point that not all tourists are bad, he just continued the negative behavior and thinking and giving himself an out when it came to the woman he loved.
I will definitely be continuing on this series, as there are two more releasing over the next several months. Next week, my review of Mistletoe and Mr. Right will post.
Happy reading, folks!
Baltimore Bibliophile 