This one just wasn't for me--both from a story standpoint and a technical one. I just didn't connect with any of the characters. One of the things I appreciate about contemporaries is that the heroines usually have great friendships with other women, but here, Olivia's kind of terrible to Reagan, who's supposedly her best friend. That's where she lost me. Savannah was pretty two-dimensional, too. I think part of the problem was that their jobs were so glossed over that what could've been an opportunity to show them connecting professionally just felt empty.

Mostly, this felt like a first draft. There was a lot of info-dumping toward the beginning and a lot of telling throughout. The technique of telling can be used to great effect, but here, I just felt like we were going through the story motions. We couldn't get from point A to point B without a lot of summary in between. At one point, Savannah mentions that Olivia "gave her a tour of some of her favorite NYC haunts before the week began," but . . . we never saw it. Scenes like that would've been great opportunities to deepen the connection between Olivia and Savannah. A lot of the dialogue could've been polished, too.

One small detail that irked me a bit:

Savannah's whole reason for being closed-off was that her ex-girlfriend "had struggled with depression after the loss of her mother and started an affair with someone she'd met in a bereavement group." I felt like this kind of made light of depression, especially since Savannah never examines if she could possibly bear any of the blame. I just thought it was a bad reason and would've liked a more nuanced explanation.

I like to read romance because they're generally fun, quick reads. I started reading this before Sparks Like Ours, was kind of slogging through it, and ended up finishing Sparks Like Ours first. Room Service probably didn't benefit from being read adjacent to a Melissa Brayden book. Overall, this wasn't for me, and that's okay.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bold Strokes Books, and Fiona Riley for the e-copy.