Review: Love in Tandem by Becca Kinzer

For the past 3.5 years, I’ve been “reviewing” books via the StoryChats@InspyRomance podcast, where Elizabeth Maddrey, Narelle Atkins, and I read quite a few ARCs (advance reader copies) of assorted romance novels and interviewed the authors.

We interviewed Becca Kinzer as her debut romance, Dear Henry, Love Edith released. All three of us enjoyed this book so much we were eager to chat with Becca again about her second book, Love in Tandem. However, after receiving our ARCs, we decided to close down the podcast (long story in itself), so here I am with an unaccustomed review back here on my blog! It’s been a while, to say the least.

I enjoy romcoms but, the truth is, I rarely actually laugh out loud at them. I figure a romantic comedy has done its job if I have smirked a few times or gave an inward chuckle. This one made me laugh several times.

The synopsis:

She’s perfectly content leading a quiet life in her small hometown. He’s an adventurer with unquenchable wanderlust. The two couldn’t be any more opposite if they tried. But a tandem bicycle and a 500-mile road trip just might change all that.

After a failed engagement and her mother’s battle with cancer, Charlotte Carter’s life is finally turning around now that she’s landed a dream job teaching music. What she didn’t see coming was the imminent closure of the school’s music program. She’s determined to save it, even if it means getting creative. There’s no way she’s chalking this up as just another failure in her book of recent embarrassments.

Zach Bryant is back in town just long enough to see his brother Ben get married and then he’s off traveling the world again. He never imagined he’d run into Charlotte Carter, his brother’s ex-fiancée, or that everyone would believe he and Charlotte are an item. He certainly didn’t dream he’d end up riding a tandem bicycle hundreds of miles with her in an attempt to raise funds for a defunct music program, but how can he say no when the prize money would help him out of his financial predicament too?

Charlotte is sure she can set aside her differences with Zach long enough to cross the finish line and win the giant cash prize… can’t she? A few hundred miles in, she’s questioning her deeply held assumptions about Zach and wondering if maybe tandem biking is only the start of their biggest adventure yet.

My opinion:

Charlotte is an unlikely heroine for me to love because she hates everything outdoorsy and I love it. Through a series of misadventures, she finds herself tandem-cycling with her ex-fiancé’s brother for ten v-e-r-y long days. How did she get from “here” to “there?” It’s an epic tale and one you’d best read for yourself.

But here’s a touch of Charlotte’s thought process as she talks to someone about her ex, Ben. It doesn’t even matter that she jumps to the wrong conclusion, which she does a lot of times in the story. You’ll just enjoy this hint of the story voice!

Ty’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “How did you hear?”

“Ben’s mom told me. We ran into each other at the farmers market a few weeks ago. I got so flustered trying to prove I wasn’t flustered at the news, I bought fifty-three dollars’ worth of fresh spinach, which made me all the more flustered because I hate spinach and she knows I hate spinach, so somehow in all the flusterment I concocted an imaginary friend who loves spinach, whom I may have suggested wasn’t imaginary but rather special and perhaps male.”

Behind his glasses, Ty’s wide eyes blinked like a befuddled owl’s. “What are you talking about?”

Now it was Charlotte’s turn to blink and ponder. “Ben’s wedding this weekend. What are you talking about?”

And now you begin to see why a 20-something woman who hates the outdoors and hates exercise might find herself on a 500-mile tandem-bike challenge with her ex’s brother. Because Charlotte seems to find herself in a whirlwind often… and nearly always of her own making.

Zach, of course, has his own reasons for agreeing to the bike challenge, but for him, it’s not such a stretch since he’s totally outdoorsy (whew, someone needed to be). But the chemistry between them AND the situations they found themselves in AND the dialogue (internal and vocal) combine to make this a romcom you won’t want to miss.

This romance novel has a subtle but solid faith arc for both characters, if that matters to you. It matters to me.

Love in Tandem releases in a few days on Amazon and, no doubt, a lot of other online retailers. Snag a copy!