Hooked by Elizabeth Hunter (7th and Main #2)
She’s in high heels; he wears hiking boots. Can these two opposites make romance in Metlin work? Tayla McKinnon is not a small town girl. The fashion blogger moved to Metlin with two goals in mind: help her friend start a book store and have a little fun. A year later, Tayla has made new friends, successfully launched INK, and is ready for a new challenge. Too bad she can’t get a certain rock-climbing, comic book geek off her mind. Jeremy Allen has been playing the long game with Tayla, even though the avid outdoorsman was certain she was the one from the minute he set eyes on her. They may have different tastes, but their chemistry is undeniable. When a job opportunity from a new fashion start-up lands in her inbox, Tayla takes it as a sign. She’s not meant for a small town, even though her best friend and her inconvenient crush are trying to convince her otherwise. Jeremy can’t believe Tayla would be willing to leave her new life behind, but maybe he’s been playing it too cool. Summer in Metlin can sizzle, which gives Jeremy an excuse to turn up the heat. Hooked is a stand-alone, opposites-attract romance in the Love Stories on 7th and Main series by Elizabeth Hunter, USA Today Bestselling author of INK.
I’m a huge fan of the first book in this series and the world the author created. Most of us that live in small cities or small towns know very well how unlikely places like Metlin are. It reminded me of the show Hart of Dixie with the big city girl coming into a small town and being embraced by the community.
We first met Tayla in INK as the fun best friend that followed Emmie all the way from San Francisco just to help her set up her shop. When this book starts Tayla has taken a liking to the town but is also convinced that there are bigger things waiting for her back in the city.
Tayla is an amazing main character because there are so many sides to her: she is an Instagram model, a plus size-size influencer, she comes from a rich family with a lot of problems, she is smart as a whip, a good friend, huge flirt and an all-around great person.
Jeremy is a great guy as well: he owns a comic book shop close to Emmie and is part of the same group of friends that welcomed Tayla and Emmie to the city. He knows that Tayla is not the kind of girl that does relationships so he decides to take it slow and let her figure out for herself that he is a great catch. That plan is interrupted when Tayla is offered a job back in San Fran and he realizes that she is not as rooted in Metlin as he hoped she was.
Even if we are not into fashion or Instagram we are all aware of influencers because they are everywhere as the Booktube rabbit hole I fell into can assure you.
Tayla’s internet outreach allied with her size opens up the door for a huge discussion about internet trolls but also about inclusive fashion and body image. I loved that Tayla loves her body, there isn’t a single comment in that book about her wanting to change a single thing in herself.
She is also absolutely brilliant and it was nice to see how much effort she put into each post and how she started to make money out of something that for most people is a guilty pleasure.
Tayla spends much of her time glued to her phone and she has a need for documenting everything, not only for her personal use but for her channels as well and Jeremy never makes her feel shallow or guilty for it, instead, he just joins in on the fun and asks her questions about why she likes what she does and offers constructive criticism and advises. Tayla, in turn, tries to accompany him in some of his most outdoorsy activities even though they are not at first her favorite activity until she starts to take advantage of the views to diversify her social media.
With Jeremy loving all that is geek and rock climbing the book also touches a bit on race with him noticing how rare and difficult it is to see himself represented in those mediums which is something that Tayla can relate to. Also, Jeremy’s grandfather that appears frequently in the story was a black cowboy and every scene in which he participates is an absolute delight to read.
Tayla’s family was the weakest part of this story for me, not when it came to the problems they had, I really liked that, but to how easy it was to make them aware of it, maybe because the author saved them for the end of the book when she was trying to solve a lot of problems at the same time. Tayla’s problems with commitment and relationships though couldn’t have been explained without them and having Jeremy meeting them was really funny.
In Hooked just like in Ink, Elizabeth Hunter gifted the reader with a really well-researched book. Every scene in which Tayla was discussing accounting or fashion was just as well researched as when Jeremy was talking about rock climbing or comics and that made this book so much better.
I’m really looking forward to Grit to read about Melissa and Cary’s story.
7/10
