Mimi Grace’s debut romance, *Along for the Ride* (Image via Amazon.co.jp)
A few weeks ago, I saw this “new” marketing technique being used by several authors who promote their books on Twitter. I called it the “list a bunch of tropes then add a link for purchase or pre-order” method, but I was sure it had a slicker and more established name.
I haven’t been able to find a definitive term for it, but after listening to book-friends talk, it sounds like the technique is based on An Archive of Our Own (AO3) tags. I visit a different story-sharing site for erotica, and I’ve got to tell you, I love tags like these. It seems like the author chooses their own tags (much like the tags we have on our blogposts are also chosen by each Lady). Some tags are extremely unhelpful and niche – I think they are mostly some weird combo of words that allow the authors to find their own stories again. But other tags are very effective at helping me find things that I’m going to like in the huge, slushy pile of internet that is Literotica.
At any rate, Mimi Grace: If you are reading, your tags worked! I had some problems setting up a pre-order from Amazon.co.jp for Along for the Ride, but I put a reminder in my Google Calendar to try again after the publication date, and I finally bought the book last week.
Dear Readers, it’s a lot of fun! It lives up to the cute cover, and all the tags Mimi put on it. Sexy #romcom? Yes! The sexy bits are well-written and gave me those lovely, fizzy feelings that I like to see in a romance.
The marketing and the cover were an irresistible combo! I went beyond my normal, lazy, clicky ways to get this book. (Image via Twitter)
While I wouldn’t call them plain-Jane sex scenes, the reader does not need to negotiate kink or sex-guilt – nice foreplay and descriptive PIV.
The road trip takes up the first third of the story – two people, trapped in a moving van with their past selves. Mimi knocks this out of the park – the tension was real and reasonable, and they learned enough to give each other another chance. They run into a creepy gas station, and swindlers in the small town their van breaks down outside of, but they survive these obstacles as a team.
As for our POV characters, Jason is an uptight dentist. If you are into astrology, you might think, “Virgo!” after a chapter or two. Jolene is a free-spirited public relations account manager who has toned down her past self to become someone who is passionate and effective at her job. She loves her work. They got off on the wrong foot at Jolene’s sister’s wedding, and everything rings true – their initial antagonism and fears, and the way they start to trust each other.
The book is smoothly written, and the plot twists delight and entertain. I will say, the last plot twist doesn’t seem as polished as the rest of the book. There’s a complicated Deus Ex Machina involving the bad guy’s father that wasn’t as satisfying as it could be. However, at that point, I was completely invested in these two, and just skimmed over the plot holes to get to the happily ever after, which was happy, indeed. There was a very good Dark Moment of the Soul that made me stop and think: she’s really lost everything, hasn’t she? The plot bones were there; and the reconciliation of our hero and heroine was lovely.
Our blog readers who know me may be expecting ghosts, spaceships or temporal disturbances, but there was no woo-woo in this book. It’s a straight romance, and a fine example of the genre. If you are looking for something light and fun and really well done, here you go.
Along for the Ride is Mimi Grace’s debut book, and came out on July 16, 2019. Here is her blog.
Eight Ladies Writing 
I’m guessing you added this review on amazon.co.jp? Because it’s not showing up on amazon.com. She only has 7 reviews.
I just bought it and will add another once I finish it. (Although my TBR pile is to the sky.)
Let’s give this author some social proof!
I am sorry to say that I haven’t added it anywhere, and I probably should. I’m a little bit reticent because I low-ball. This is a very good book, and well worth reading for a lot of reasons, but not a book I think I’ll wind up reading over and over again through the years. I tend to keep my five-star reviews for books I’m going to have a long-term affair with.
Maybe I should re-think that policy; maybe we should talk about it on the blog. Does a 4.3 or 4.7 star rating actually add a bit of “real” to people’s reviews?
Under “Duskova”, I’m not going to trashtalk books — if I don’t like it, I won’t review it. (And if I’m lazy, I won’t review it either, so it’s hard to tell just clicking on my written reviews if I liked it or not.)
I’m conflicted!
This book sounds like a fun read, Michaeline. I may have a little reading time tomorrow. I’ll check it out and if I like it I’ll leave her a review.
Although, get a sample! It’s in third-person POV told from alternating characters, and it seems to me to be very familiar and cozy and CLOSE third-person. I know you have strong preferences about that sort of thing. It’s very conversational, but the heroine is not a ditz — she may have been one at some point, but she’s very competent and quite confident now.
Good suggestion–I read the sample! I had a couple of niggles (I find it really difficult to turn off my inner editor these days) but I liked the setup and the characters. As you know, I don’t like ditzy heroines, but I’m all for formerly ditzy heroines who’ve got their act together of their own volition. Bonus points that it was (at least in part) a past interaction with the hero that prompted her to grow and change. I’m really hoping that the author gives the h/h a satisfying emotional arc as well as a physical one. I think the story has the potential to be a very fun read and I intend to give it a try.
Thank you for the rec, Michaeline. It’s always fun to try new authors, and a good debut author is a win-win 🙂
Okay, I read it and I enjoyed it a lot. By the time I finished, I still had some niggles, but they weren’t the same ones I started with 😉 . I agree with you about the final plot twist, btw. I enjoyed the second and third acts–after the road trip–more. (As a city girl, I saw the road trip twist coming a mile off, and my reaction was–what were they thinking? They aren’t dumb bunnies, and the hero is established as organised and super-smart. With my dev editor hat on, I didn’t think that bit was in character).
Regarding my comment above, about achieving a satisfying emotional arc as well as a physical one, based on the sample and the blurb I wasn’t convinced the author would really try for it. She did, but I needed to read the whole book to understand how she designed the structure. I thought she did achieve convincing emotional closure, but she used the ‘let’s get physical, let’s get more physical, oh, hell, we have feelings as well’ trope. That’s not new (Jenny did it in Welcome to Temptation nearly 20 years ago), but, thinking about this book and The Kiss Quotient too, it seems to be back in fashion. I wonder whether in this age of Tinder, swiping and hook-ups it resonates with women a generation or two younger than me.
Jilly, I’m glad you liked it!
To tell the truth, I’ve lived in “flyover country” so I wasn’t expecting those particular twists at all. Going in, I expected a flat tire or radiator blowing out . . . because that’s what happens in romances. The escalation was surprising to me, but totally in a good way. What was that creepy movie a few years back that featured dead-eyed rednecks and the “Dueling Banjos” song? Revenant? It didn’t get to that level of creep, but it was a worthy series of obstacles to overcome.
I think you make a good point about younger writers. My main writing buddy is about 15 years younger than I am, and her dating patterns after her divorce really opened my eyes (I’ve been monogamous since I was 19). If you are going to take a chance, take a chance. Sex is not bad, but healthy exercise — especially if you can keep emotions out of it. It’s OK to keep a string of men on the line until you are ready to be exclusive (which actually seems like a 1950s, Veronica and Betty sort of situation, when you think about it). I was shocked more at my prudish reactions, to tell the truth. I’ve always thought women, with modern birth control, should be able to take control of their sexuality in a fun way, but maybe my heart wasn’t in it.
Anyway, after hearing about my friend’s adventures, I put more of that sex-as-good-clean-fun stuff in my own stories. Monogamy is a certain line still drawn in the sand by many (although there’s nothing wrong with polyamory, either, if everyone is informed and consenting).
LOL, as an old, I just read things like “friends with benefits” and think, “oh, yeah, that’s that thing they’ve been talking about on the Twitters.”
At any rate, our heroine gets a HEA, and my friend also got married after kissing a few frogs. Hoorah!
P.S. No string of men in the book. Mimi sticks to standard romance form in that respect — one guy at a time. And it’s been awhile, IIRC, since she’s had a relationship.
And when I say string of men for my friend, it was frustrating to me that she didn’t block some of the frogs she’d kissed. There’s the guy on date two who told her she needed to lose weight and I think he bugged her a couple more times. “Why are you even looking at his messages?” “mumble, mumble, you know.”
I’ve seen that kind of marketing ploy on Twitter before, and I always wondered if it worked. And with this post, I see that it does! Something to remember for our own books. I’ll check this one out, too
LOL, there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t seem to work on me. Book trailers seem like too much trouble to click through on. A good cover and a good blurb (assuming the book is going to be my Cup of Tea) does the best job, I think. The tags are just a blurb in bullet form, I think.