My Favorite Souvenir by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward-Review

My planned trip for two unexpectedly turned into a trip for one. Rather than let my breakup get me down, I packed my bags and decided a week at a luxury resort was just what I needed.
But one calamity after the next, and suddenly I was stuck without a hotel room, along with a few hundred other people.
It looked like my fancy vacation was about to turn into me sleeping on the hotel lobby floor.
Until I overheard a gorgeous man pretending to be someone he wasn’t in order to steal a reservation from a guest who hadn’t shown up yet.
When I realized there were two rooms, instead of calling him out, I pretended to be his sister. That’s how the story of “Milo and Maddie Hooker” began.
We were the Hookers.
My depressing trip quickly made a U-turn into an adventure.
My fake brother spent the next few days showing me around his hometown. When it was time to leave, neither of us really wanted to go yet.
So, instead of flying back to our respective homes, we ventured on a road trip.
At every stop, we’d pick up souvenirs.
But as hot as our chemistry was, we never crossed the line.
Milo knew I’d just come out of a tough relationship and didn’t want to mess with a vulnerable woman.
So instead, at the end of our trip, we made a pact to meet again in three months.
It was always my intention to meet him.
But when I got back home, reality hit in a big way.
And I worried I may have lost my handsome stranger forever.
Was there a place for him in my future?
Or had the memory of him just become my favorite souvenir?

I actually stayed up all night to finish this one, which I haven't done in a while. I am, as you may have noticed, incredibly reluctant to rate a book a full 5 stars...but I figure if I managed to literally read this one until I finished, after the sun came up this am, it's definitely a 5 star read.

I usually enjoy the co-written titles by these authors, and this one was no exception.

There was chemistry, and I loved not only way Hazel and Matteo met, but the way that it worked for the overall story once you started to see what was going on. As usual, there was depth to the characters and there was a "surprise" moment in this one, also as usual. And, maybe I wasn't paying attention, but I didn't see it coming, even after all of the little clues and breadcrumbs that were left, I never put it together. For me, at least, it made it really easy to believe that they couldn't have either.

I liked the way the personalities of the supporting characters were revealed in part through the reactions of them to the story about "the Hookers" and their adventure. I liked that, as life often does, the decisions that needed to be made were in a way made easier by life showing them what was really happening and not what they wanted to believe.

The chemistry was real, I believed the characters would end up where they did in the story.

Amazon