On Locations
By: Sarah Smith
Published Year: 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Nothing like a rocky start between enemy coworkers stuck together on location to prove that love isn't just a ploy for ratings—it's a force of nature.
Alia Dunn has finally gotten her big break. After years of working her way up at TV's top outdoor travel channel, she gets the green light from network executives to bring her dream project to life: produce a series about Utah's national parks. It's a touching tribute to her late apong, who sparked Alia's passion for travel and the outdoors as a kid.
Alia is thrilled—until she meets her newest crew member, Drew Irons. The same Drew she had the most amazing first date with two weeks ago—who then ghosted her. The same Drew who has the most deliciously thick forearms and who loves second-guessing her every move on set in front of the entire crew. It's not long before the tension between them turns hotter than the Utah desert in the dead of summer, and their steamy encounters lead to major feelings.
But when the series host goes rogue one too many times, jeopardizing the entire shoot, Alia realizes that she'll need to organize one hell of a coup to save her show—and she'll need Drew's help to do it. It's the riskiest move she's ever made. If she pulls it off, she'll end up with a hit series and her dream guy . . . but if it all goes wrong, she could lose both.
First Impressions
A book that takes place in the Utah National Parks??? I’m in! I traveled to Utah this summer, visiting Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef so when this book was presented to me I was all in. I even have a picture of myself similar to the one on this cover!
What I thought
I feel like this is the most realistic romance novel I’ve read and I kind of loved it!
Alia works for a travel network and presents the idea of a series focusing on the Utah National Parks. Initially, she gets rejected and ends up going on a spontaneous date with a random stranger who then never calls her back. Her series the gets picked up, a field locator is recommended to her, and that person turns out to be the date who ditched her.
Let’s address what first drew me to this book: the location! I fell in love with Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef this summer so to read a book that transported me back there was perfection. The way they talked about Bryce and Capitol Reef warmed my heart. It was also fun to read about Moab and Arches because I could so easily picture everything that was going on. I know I’m partial, but I really felt like Smith made this part of the world pop.
Alia is such a great character. She’s confident and knows who she is and what she wants. Being a woman and part Filipino, she knows how to stand up to the old white male executives but she also knows when she needs to take a different approach. Yes, she has her issues but, we all do. I found that she dealt with everything the way a real woman would as opposed to a romance novel character which I appreciated so much. There were moments when she and Drew had misunderstandings and I loved that her friend/coworker Haley would call her out on them and tell her to go talk to him and make sure that was what he meant.
I also loved Drew. He was a strong male character who admitted when he was wrong and fixed it. He wasn’t overly stubborn and didn’t take things personally. Not to say he was perfect, but it was nice to have a character react normally and not over-react just for drama.
The story addressed a lot of issues with drug use, sexual harassment, sexism, and anxiety head on. None of these issues felt like plot devices to move the story forward which I loved. There were multiple things that happened that I kept waiting for someone to not react in a smart way and then in the classic romance novel style it would be used against them. For example, once Drew and Alia start dating I was continually waiting for it to come back and bite them and be used against them in some way but it wasn’t. Instead, real life problems with real life solutions caused the conflict.
This book had a little bit of a slow start but then it picked up and I finished it in a day. I loved the entire cast of characters and how even I couldn’t figure out exactly where this book was going to go next. If you’re a bit burnt out on the same old romance novels, I highly recommend checking this one out.