If I Loved You Less by Tamsen Parker is a super sweet, PG rated romance!

As a fan of Tamsen Parker, I'm always down for whatever book she throws our way! She tends to switch up her genres, her writing style, her narratives and her character types. This time around THE BOOK ISN'T FOCUSED ON SEX. That's mind blowing all on it's own, that Tamsen took a big step out of her "comfort zone" (per say) and jumped into a more dramatic and contemporary world. While that jump could have ended up poorly (let's be honest, she could have sunken the ship), I think it worked out wonderfully! So, if you want to peek inside my brain and see what I thought of this Emma retelling, continue on...

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This book is a rarity for Tamsen - why? Because this one lacks sex scenes! (There is a sentence that says the main lady has a wonderful time with herself, but it's only a sentence). That being said, this book was still a fantastic read by this always wonderful author!

I did really like that Tamsen took a step back from the uber sexy novels. While this book felt fluffy and more on the contemporary side, it also showcased a more dramatic side of Tamsen we don't see as often with the overly sexual books. In this book, the focus is all on the retelling of Emma in a Hawaiian environment.

I haven't read Emma (I plan to, but I just haven't been able to yet), but I read many summaries on various sites to try to get a better understanding of what this book was about. To me, this book seemed to be an excellent "reboot" of Jane Austen's extremely famous story. The general plot of this story is Emma retold from our main character's point of view. This time around, Theo (our lead) lives in Hawaii, teachers surfing and is madly in love with the baker.

In my humble opinion, I think Tamsen did this story justice! When I read this book, I felt like the story respected the source material and changed just enough to make this book stand on it's own. At the beginning I felt that the book moved a little slowly, but as the chapters went on the pace picked up and I became more enchanted by the tale woven within Tamsen's words. Some of the characters I felt could have been left out, but I'm under the impression these characters are based on character's from Emma. If anything, that's the worst part for me - I would have loved to see way more of Theo and Kini than some of the side characters (Tamsen just made them oh so lovable and relatable! I felt like I would know these characters outside the book, in the real world!).

The romance in this book is not max-ed out or hyped up. This felt like a slow burn novel, where we finally get our sigh of relief at the end. Having Theo be the match maker for the town gave us little glimpses of hope and excitement for romances to bloom, but as with any Jane Austen novel - things don't always work out the way we want. I think that worked fantastically within this novel - it didn't feel like the romance was forced or that there was too much romance. It's just a pinch and a sprinkle throughout!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! If you're looking to get into Tamsen's books but are a little hesitant on the sexy ones, then pick this book up! I feel like it's the perfect book to be introduced to Tamsen's writing, and then move on to her hotter books (I could recommend a few...).

Five out of five stars!

I received a free copy of this book from the author Tamsen Parker in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I really wanted this retelling of Jane Austen's Emma to offer a fresh take on my favourite novel, but alas, Tamsen Parker has fallen into the trap of sticking far too close to the source material. I love the Hawaiian setting - the food in particular (my ambition is now to try malasadas) - and making the Emma character 'queer' could have been an interesting twist to the tale, but I didn't really connect with the characters.

Theo - Theodosia - Sullivan is a 25 year old surf instructor living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Her mother was killed by a freak wave when Theo was small, so of course her father is now paranoid about losing his remaining family, Theo and another daughter who marries and moves away. Raised by her nanny Charlotte and big sister/mother substitute Kini, Theo leads a privileged life in paradise, working in her father's surf shop and flirting with tourists, until one day she meets Laurel, a pretty young woman who applies for a job with Theo so she can stay on the island. Theo also sets about finding her new friend someone better than Bobby Martin, Kini's assistant in the local bakery, and fixes her sights on Brock Ashley, the manager of a hotel chain. While matchmaking for others, Theo is also eager for the return of Charlotte's new stepson, Austin, who might be the one man she could fall in love with.

So far, so familiar, but none of the characters really worked for me. Theo is 25 but acts and talks like a teenager - if teenagers ever actually say things like 'amazeballs', even when the word was trending on Tumblr about ten years ago. She's obnoxious and lacks Emma Woodhouse's genuine interest in helping others. She has a great friendship with Kini, the Knightley character, but there's no spark between them, so the obvious denouement feels forced. And why would Theo, who identifies with 'the squishier label of queer' but remarks again and again how she only finds women attractive, be holding out hope that she might fall in love with Austin? Either have Theo interested in both men and women, or change the long-lost son into a long-lost daughter, don't make her sound like she's just waiting for the 'right man' to make her straight. The subplot of Austin (Frank Churchill) and Jessica (Jane Fairfax) is equally flimsy - the surprise pianoforte becomes a mass spectrometer, and then the pair of them are forgotten about until the great revelation at the end.

I feel like Tamsen Parker had a great idea to rewrite Emma for a modern LGBTQ age, but got so bogged down in researching life on a Hawaiian island that she had to sacrifice dialogue and character development for cribbing from Austen and just switching names. A disappointing read - but I would like to visit Hawaii and try a malasada now! ( )

Let me begin by saying, Emma is not my favorite Jane Austen novel. It's probably 5th out of 6, so that undoubtedly colored my opinion of this book. This is a modern retelling of Emma, with a f/f romance. I loved the Hawaiian setting, but I can't see the modern lingo aging as timelessly as Austen's classics. It's not bad, but all the things that vex me about Emma are present: insipid characters, the May-December romance between a young woman and a long-time friend of the family who has known said young woman for as long as she's been alive, and the "badly done" scene from Emma is recreated here in a way that is equally as cringeworthy as the original. I found myself squirming as Kini lectured Theo. If you enjoyed Emma and are looking for an updated version of the classic tale, then odds are you'll enjoy this short read. ( )

“I know this isn’t fun to hear, and it sure as hell isn’t fun for me to say, but I’ll say it because no one else will. Even if your father or Charlotte aren’t willing to tell you the truth when you fuck up, I will. And I hope it’s clear that I’m doing this because I’m your friend, and I want for you to be more worthy of that than you are right now.”

review to come. ( )