Until the Next Time is the first book that I have read from Josie Kerr. It is the second book in her Give Me Shelter series, but Until the Next Time is a standalone story. This one sounded so good that I knew I had to take a chance on it. While there were things I liked here, unfortunately I did struggle with it as well.
Meghan and Jason have been friends with benefits for awhile, but when her father got sick things changed. Now Meghan finds herself needing help to save her pub and get into a huge local event, and the only one that can save her is Jason. Though they vow to keep things professional while they work together, they find it easier said than done.
I liked Jason and Meghan. I felt the attraction and chemistry between them. Their connection was a bit harder for me to see, as it felt like we were sort of dropped into a story already in progress here. I could easily see the physical between them, but the connection was harder for me and if i’m honest I wasn’t 100% sold on it. I wanted more. I wanted to see the emotional development, turning them from friends with benefits to more but the parts I did see were more told than shown. It felt forced as though the author was trying to make us see something that wasn’t fully developed.
Like I said, I felt like this book sort of started in the middle of a story already happening. I looked up the first book and that doesn’t seem to be the case of it being necessary for this, but not having read it I wouldn’t know if by reading it that might have had me feeling different here. It just felt like there were too many gaps and missing pieces here for me to really get into the story and I found myself slightly confused at times and trying to figure things out the best I could with what I was given. Because of that, I kept wanting to put this one down and only finished to see how things would end up. While this wasn’t a bad book, it felt like it needed work and was more of a first draft than a finished story. I did read an ARC of this book though, so it is possible that some of that could have been cleared up for the final published edition. Based on this experience, I would say give this one a shot if it sounds like one you might like just be advised that it might still feel like it is missing something. I don’t know that I would read more in this series or from this author after this one, though like I said there were things about Meghan and Jason that I did like . Overall though, this one wasn’t for me.
**ARC Provided by Inkslinger PR**
