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Crazy Thing Called Love Crooked Creek Ranch Molly O'Keefe Books

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Crazy Thing Called Love Crooked Creek Ranch Molly O'Keefe Books

Three-Star books fall into two very different categories, with me. Most of the time, my three star ratings mean a book hasn't made me feel much of anything, and my thoughts upon turning the last page boil down to, "Meh, didn't love it; didn't hate it. It's okay." Every once in a while, though, a book comes around where my reading experience wasn't mediocre. These books do make me feel things, but the rating comes back to three stars because the things I really like get cancelled out by the things I really dislike, so the end result is still, "Meh, didn't love it; didn't hate it,"--even though the process of how I reach that rating is very different.

Crazy Thing Called Love is such a book. This was my first full-length Molly O'Keefe romance (I'd read her story in Summer Rain and really liked it), and I'll probably read more even though I didn't love this book.

This is a second chance romance between Billy and Maddy, who were childhood sweethearts, but Billy's graceless adjustment to his newfound fame when he got drafted into the NHL ruined their marriage. Fourteen years later, Billy's hockey career is drawing to a bitter end, as he's been reduced to a benchwarmer on a second-rate team, while Madelyn has reinvented herself, and her star is on the rise. She's shaken off her blue collar roots and enjoying modest fame as the beautiful, polished host of a morning news show in Dallas. Their paths cross again when Billy's agent and Maddy's producers arrange for Billy to be the subject of a makeover series on Maddy's show, much to her dismay.

I really liked the emotional intensity of this story. Billy, especially, worked through a lot of baggage over the course of this story, and it felt real and gritty and honest without being too angsty and melodramatic. Over the course of flashbacks sprinkled throughout the narrative, the reader learns a lot about Billy's childhood, the devotion he's always had for Maddy (though he hasn't always had the ability to express himself), and about his feelings of inadequacy as he faces the end of his career and the sad realization that he isn't the person he wants to be.

I really didn't like Madelyn, though. I never connected with her. She is intentionally cold and unreceptive to Billy for 90% of the story, and though rationally I understand, plot-wise, why she behaved that way, her emotional frigidity felt like an overreaction to Billy's youthful indiscretions. I know that her icy facade was just a front, but it was so effective, that I couldn't bring myself to like her character enough to care about her story. I was also put off by all of her internal monologues about food and exercise. I get that she's worked her tail off to look skinny and gorgeous in front of the camera, and I know that the message of the book was that those efforts were misdirected, and that she was obsessed with appearances and not noticing that her seemingly perfect life was actually pretty empty (much like her starved stomach), but it just added to my sense of dislike and disconnect with Maddy's character.


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Crazy Thing Called Love Crooked Creek Ranch Molly O'Keefe Books Reviews

Ok, first let me say...WOW!! Second, stop reading my review and buy this book....NOW. Why? Molly 0'Keefe wrote an amazing, sweet, tear your heart out story. I really can't do justice to this book, no matter what words I choose, but if you want to lose your heart to two (actually four, including Becky and Charlie) fictional characters and not regret a minute of it....then buy now.
Oh how I love this series and especially book#3. Billy and Maddy' s story, so much love, so much heart break, the emotional parts for me were when Billy' s niece Becky & nephew Charlie showed up out of the blue looking for a place to stay. Talk about emotional! I loved how Molly pulled everything together to end with a great HEA.
I highly recommend this book , wish I could give it 6 stars!
Wow. So full of emotion and heart. Such rich characters. The author took that old cliche of an abusive past and made it REAL, not just a sentence on the character's life resume. The flashbacks were genius. They brought everything you were learning about the characters in the present into focus.

And the hockey! So many great realistic and accurate details. Billy was one of those flawed heroes who had so much to atone for and so much emotional baggage, but he tried and tried and kept on trying and you had to love and admire him for it. He made mistakes and owned them.

I would and will recommend this book to anyone who loves romance.
When I picked up this story, I was expected a conventional romance between a hockey player and a tv celebrity with a shared past. What I got was so much more! This was a story with complex and messy characters. The issues were deep and complex and the feelings were raw and emotional. These were characters that I actually didn't care for at the beginning of the book, but by the end, I was so wrapped in their world that I was rooting for them. Their growth and development was well done and I enjoyed how the stories highlighted the issues and trauma comes from an abusive home life and the importance of support and faith in others. This was an excellent, but serious read. I look forward to going back and reading the first two books of this series.
This was my first Molly O'Keefe novel. I was fully expecting a somewhat light hearted romance where boy and girl were married, boy and girl divorced, boy and girl have accidental encounter, boy and girl reunite. A little angst, a lot of heat, passion, and we are done. WRONG!!!

Ok, boy and girl did get married. Boy and girl did get divorced. There were some interesting flashback scenes. BUT, MAN and WOMAN had the accidental encounter. Man worked at being a better person for the woman at the beginning, but ultimately for himself. The man, Billy, worked through a great deal of baggage. The woman, Maddy, (I have to say that I didn't care for her until almost the very end of the book), did not seem to be able to let go of the past. Introduce two children into the mix and the dynamic changed. Life became about more than people's selfish beliefs and desires. Both Billy and Maddy grew as people. Ultimately, two adults reunited. There was heat, there was passion, and there was the HEA.

I didn't want to give too much detail because I think this is a book worth reading. If you are only looking for a light hearted, easy romance, you may want to save this one for another time. Sometimes what I read depends on my mood. I'm glad I took a chance on this one.
Three-Star books fall into two very different categories, with me. Most of the time, my three star ratings mean a book hasn't made me feel much of anything, and my thoughts upon turning the last page boil down to, "Meh, didn't love it; didn't hate it. It's okay." Every once in a while, though, a book comes around where my reading experience wasn't mediocre. These books do make me feel things, but the rating comes back to three stars because the things I really like get cancelled out by the things I really dislike, so the end result is still, "Meh, didn't love it; didn't hate it,"--even though the process of how I reach that rating is very different.

Crazy Thing Called Love is such a book. This was my first full-length Molly O'Keefe romance (I'd read her story in Summer Rain and really liked it), and I'll probably read more even though I didn't love this book.

This is a second chance romance between Billy and Maddy, who were childhood sweethearts, but Billy's graceless adjustment to his newfound fame when he got drafted into the NHL ruined their marriage. Fourteen years later, Billy's hockey career is drawing to a bitter end, as he's been reduced to a benchwarmer on a second-rate team, while Madelyn has reinvented herself, and her star is on the rise. She's shaken off her blue collar roots and enjoying modest fame as the beautiful, polished host of a morning news show in Dallas. Their paths cross again when Billy's agent and Maddy's producers arrange for Billy to be the subject of a makeover series on Maddy's show, much to her dismay.

I really liked the emotional intensity of this story. Billy, especially, worked through a lot of baggage over the course of this story, and it felt real and gritty and honest without being too angsty and melodramatic. Over the course of flashbacks sprinkled throughout the narrative, the reader learns a lot about Billy's childhood, the devotion he's always had for Maddy (though he hasn't always had the ability to express himself), and about his feelings of inadequacy as he faces the end of his career and the sad realization that he isn't the person he wants to be.

I really didn't like Madelyn, though. I never connected with her. She is intentionally cold and unreceptive to Billy for 90% of the story, and though rationally I understand, plot-wise, why she behaved that way, her emotional frigidity felt like an overreaction to Billy's youthful indiscretions. I know that her icy facade was just a front, but it was so effective, that I couldn't bring myself to like her character enough to care about her story. I was also put off by all of her internal monologues about food and exercise. I get that she's worked her tail off to look skinny and gorgeous in front of the camera, and I know that the message of the book was that those efforts were misdirected, and that she was obsessed with appearances and not noticing that her seemingly perfect life was actually pretty empty (much like her starved stomach), but it just added to my sense of dislike and disconnect with Maddy's character.