Love Sisters, Book #2
Holly’s Take
Heat Factor: She climbs him like a tree
Character Chemistry: He wants to show her that this time around, he’s all in
Plot: Joia discovers she’s pregnant and has some processing to do
Overall: Everything about being an influencer sounds friggin awful, but this was an interesting romance
Erin’s Take
Heat Factor: He’s very enthusiastic with his mouth, and she’s very into it
Character Chemistry: They’ve got great repartee
Plot: Joia figures out how to be true to herself and find her best happiness when caught by a surprise pregnancy revelation
Overall: I had so much fun reading this book!
Ingrid’s Take
Heat Factor: There’s a stripping scene involving “Pony” by Ginuwine
Character Chemistry: They have that best friends banter with that one night stand heat
Plot: Joia discovers she pregnant–like, REALLY pregnant–and has to decide what she really wants her life to look like
Overall: I fell surprisingly hard into the ins and outs of being an influencer and what that must be like (very well written) and yes, it sounded like my worst nightmare but also the book was pretty sweet.
What’s one key piece of information you think a reader should know before getting I Think I Might Need You?
Holly: This is an accidental pregnancy book, but it’s not immediately obvious to the characters who the father of the child is. So if confirmation that the heroine has had sex with more than one man in the past year is a problem for you, go ahead and give this one a pass.
Also, Teddy is 6’10” and no one seems to think that is enormous and my mind was completely boggled.
Erin: This is about interpersonal relationships, including family relationships, and understanding when a choice is being smart or refusing to take chances.
Ingrid: Accidental pregnancy, a hint of online bullying…another “don’t read it hungry” book because of the barbeque scene.
What did you think of this book as an accidental pregnancy story?
Holly: I liked this as an accidental pregnancy story—they get together because of the pregnancy, but the pregnancy doesn’t make them getting together an inevitability.
Let me explain. Joia finds out she’s pregnant when she’s already 20 weeks along; because she’s so far along, it didn’t make me as upset that abortion wasn’t on the table. However, she’s barely showing, so everyone (including her, until she goes to the doctor) assumes it’s much earlier in her pregnancy. When Teddy initially tells her he’s trying to win her back and he’s all in on the kid, he does so assuming that he is not the father. So he’s not cavemanning around saying things like, “That’s my baby, you must move into my house immediately.” That behavior raises so many red flags and is so offputting for me, so I appreciated Teddy and Joia’s dynamic.
Erin: I really like that part of this narrative was Joia not immediately telling the father of the baby. Normally the thing pulling two people together in this trope is the desire to be involved co-parents, but there was more going on here between Joia and Teddy, what with how they had grown in eight years and were still growing as their lives changed. They’re a little bit messy, but not too messy.
Ingrid: I actually found this one to be pretty great. I will admit that I might have to give this trope a more fair shake–the author very skillfully dodges a lot of the bigger issues (like Holly said, they’re so far along it’s happening…both her and her baby daddy are influencers so they don’t need to have a values conversation about her putting the baby and their life out there for public consumption…) and Teddy is, in my opinion, kind of like a goober/cinnamon roll and it’s incredibly sweet.
What did you think of this book as a second chance romance?
Holly: Teddy and Joia dated in college; they broke up because Teddy told his friends he wasn’t serious about her (even though he was). You know, classic toxic masculine nonsense about not owning one’s feelings.
So this is a case where it’s absolutely believable that they would have broken up at the time, and also that their breakup wasn’t so egregious that a good apology ten years later was enough to convince Joia to give Teddy another chance.
Erin: I agree with everything Holly says, but… Joia was so adamant that Teddy (and everyone else) got one (1) shot and if they blew it there were zero (0) more chances (meanwhile, backsliding into bed was not a problem? We have a little bit of an unreliable narrator situation going on) that I felt that she accepted Teddy’s apology almost too quickly. Not that they didn’t spend meaningful time together or that his apology wasn’t sincere, but it really didn’t take them long to process the past at all when they did talk about it. (Maybe that’s because of the into-bed backsliding?) So I really liked it as a second chance, because it totally makes sense that a teenager would be that brainless but would have grown up, but also I didn’t necessarily jive with how fast it went from “hell no” to “we’re moving in together.”
Ingrid: So, I felt that Joia’s experience with Dalton really pushed her into that position–NOT just her experience with Teddy. The impression I got was that her experience with Teddy didn’t cement her reluctance to forgive him, but when she got even more burned by Dalton’s behavior and because it was so similar, she was extra prickly about it. I felt that with how short and sweet the book was, and with how much emotional intimacy was packed in, it worked. If that dynamic dragged on much longer, I think it could have gotten irritating for me, but I enjoyed it as it was.
This book is really short. Was there enough time for them to build a believable long-term romance?
Holly: That’s like asking if any romance novella builds a believable long-term romance. In this case, I say yes: Jones hit just the right beats to show that Teddy and Joia were a) compatible and b) ready to put in the work.
Erin: That’s totally fair, and I do think this works as a novella (it’s really well focused), but as I mentioned in my reply to the last question, I thought the jump from getting back together to moving in together was…fast.
Ingrid: While I think the ending was a little abrupt, I think the rush made sense in this situation. And, they covered that–they did discuss that they weren’t really starting all the way over, because they had history and hadn’t completely stopped talking to each other over the years. The thing about shorter pieces, in my opinion, is that they require more skill to execute effectively because every choice has to be so deliberate. So in this specific case, I really felt like despite the abrupt ending, I absolutely bought that they had jumped head first into it after a long simmering, complicated relationship, and that it was the right thing for them. Just, SO cute.
Final Thoughts:
Erin: This book was great. I had read the prior book in the series, which was LOL hilarious, and I don’t know if I was expecting the same level of humor or not because it’s an accidental pregnancy story (making humor more challenging), but even though it wasn’t as funny, it was still so engaging and fun to read.
Ingrid: So, I was really impressed by the breadth and depth of emotional processing in this book. Like, the scene in the exam room where Teddy helps calm and support Joia really hit me directly in the feels. And there’s just this cellular feeling of connectedness and warmth because of all the auxiliary characters and relationships…I really enjoyed it. And I also really think that the length helped with that, because you didn’t get bogged down by circular, illogical fears and worries that might have happened in a longer version. It was just right.
Holly: Frankly, the fact that this book was so well-done makes me even angrier about the way the accidental pregnancy trope is usually executed.
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