Close to You by Kara Isaac

A disgraced scholar running from her past and an entrepreneur chasing his future find themselves thrown together—and fall in love—on a Tolkien tour of New Zealand.

Allison Shire (yes, like where the Hobbits live) is a disgraced academic who is done with love. Her belief in “happily ever after” ended the day she discovered her husband was still married to a wife she knew nothing about. She finally finds a use for her English degree by guiding tours through the famous sites featured in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. By living life on the road and traveling New Zealand as a luxury tour guide, Allison manages to outrun the pain of her past she can’t face.

Jackson Gregory was on the cusp of making it big. Then suddenly his girlfriend left him—for his biggest business competitor—and took his most guarded commercial secrets with her. To make matters worse, the Iowa farm that has been in his family for generations is facing foreclosure. Determined to save his parents from financial ruin, he’ll do whatever it takes to convince his wealthy great-uncle to invest in his next scheme, which means accompanying him to the bottom of the world to spend three weeks pretending to be a die-hard Lord of the Rings fan, even though he knows nothing about the stories. The one thing that stands between him and his goal is a know-it-all tour guide who can’t stand him and pegged him as a fake the moment he walked off the plane.

When Allison leads the group through the famous sites of the Tolkien movies, she and Jackson start to see each other differently, and as they keep getting thrown together on the tour, they find themselves drawn to each other. Neither expected to fall in love again, but can they find a way beyond their regrets to take a chance on the one thing they’re not looking for?

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So, the summary above is very long and pretty much tells you the whole book!  If you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books and movies, you will probably really love this book because it has a lot of references and trivia.  Almost every scene is set somewhere related to Lord of the Rings in New Zealand.  I will admit to not being such a big fan and I still enjoyed this book.  :)  I'd sure love to go to New Zealand!

Jackson is a bit of a jerk in the beginning.  He is rude and not very nice at all.  It's a good thing that first impressions can be changed!  By the end of the book I liked him much better.  The ending really sealed the deal for me.  Ending = Jackson fan.

Allison is a nice girl.  A smart girl.  And kind.  All the best attributes to have.  Just because she is all those things doesn't mean she lets Jackson walk all over her.  Because he does kind of try to do that in the beginning but Allison hands it right back to him on a platter.

This was a slow growing build kind of book.  It took the whole book to get to a connection place for Jackson and Allison (yeah, I mean a kiss).  Even then I had to wait longer.  It was a titch frustrating but there were so many great scenes with chemistry and funny moments that I was appeased.  

This is a new author for me and I'm happy to add her to my author's to watch list!  I'll be looking for her next book!

Content:  Clean

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.