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Title: Accidentally in Love
Author: Belinda Missen
Sub-genre: Contemporary (borders on women’s fiction)
I blame Bridget Jones and Jane Green, but I’ve always had a weak spot for chick lit set in England. And yes, I realize chick lit is no longer a thing, but really, it is a thing, it’s just repackaged as romance and/or women’s fiction, depending on the author. And this book is a perfect example of why chick lit set in England is so lovely and charming.
When Katharine Patterson is passed over for a promotion at an art gallery for a less-deserving bro dude, she quits her job. When her on again off again boyfriend proves he is definitely not worth anymore “on”, she decides to leave London and move to the suburbs where she was raised. She finds the perfect loft space and manages to snag a short term lease, giving her the chance to open her own gallery and see if she can make it work. She needs to land the perfect artist to show for her opening night, and luckily, her father has connections to just the right artist. Only problem is Christopher isn’t Katharine’s biggest fan, and he has no intention of showing his own work, only the work of his art school students. Katharine does what she can to win Christopher over, and her wooing ends up working out better than she could have planned. But Christopher has some baggage, and Katharine’s ex doesn’t want to take no for an answer, putting not only her new gallery, but Katharine’s heart in jeopardy. Not to worry, this one comes with a lovely HEA and it all works out in the end.
This is one of those books that I honestly don’t have too much to say about. It was lovely and charming and I thoroughly enjoyed it while reading. I liked reading about the process of opening an art gallery since I am always a sucker for a career in the arts, and I really liked some of the photography throwbacks (Katharine puts a darkroom in her gallery, which gave me some flashbacks to middle school, when I freakin’ loved developing my own photos). I don’t know that this is a book I would return to again and again, but I liked the characters and the setting, and found the whole thing a cheerful distraction from the trash fire state of the world.
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars