Sparks The Matchmaker
Russell Elkins
Ollie just wants one thing. The girl.
Things haven’t been going so well with Anne lately, though; their relationship has become a perpetual study date, and Ollie’s roommates are starting to worry about him. How to fix things? Why, with a marriage proposal, of course. Unfortunately for Ollie, his relationship with Anne has run out of gas.
Life feels like it’s counting down to one. And that one is the only person in Ollie’s life he really cares about: Ollie. Perhaps, then, he should get over himself.
But first he has to deal with Sparks, the irritating little Yankees fan who invades his life in order to “help” him. And while Keith, his best friend, is doing all he can to help, Ollie’s other friend Richie never fails to show up and threaten to ruin everything just by being himself. Never mind all the drama Sparks brings to the party by forcing Ollie to take a job actually helping people in need.
Will Ollie meet the girl? Will it be in history class? On a road trip to Colorado? Can he get over Anne, or should he try to mend the relationship? Should he pursue the new girl Sparks is trying to set him up with? As the strings of the puppeteer tangle with the strings of the heart, only one person can sort out the mess Ollie has made. It seems that the harder he tries, the more Ollie messes things up. Is Sparks a cruel manipulator, or is he really going to help Ollie find his match?
*ARC provided by the author as a part of tour in exchange for an honest review*
Actual rating is 2.5 stars (per Goodreads: in between of "it was okay" and "I liked it"
There is definitely not a lot of romance novels put from male perspective and written by male author. I really thought that this was going to be different. But then as I was reading the book, I remembered how guys can be around each other so that’s exactly how I felt throughout the book: pff silly silly boys…
Don’t get me wrong, the story line was great. After getting dumped by his girlfriend, Ollie tries to get over her and get his life on track. That’s when he meets Sparks, funny character with Yankee hat who says he wants to help him. After an accident, Sparks is able to predict events that will happen in the future and he is on the mission to find Ollie a girl and get his life together.
I really did love Sparks. He was funny, witty, helpful, and sympathetic. But Ollie and the rest of the Tall House were just regular boys… Talking about nonsense, having pointless conversations about “kissing girls”, and well other men stuff. I wanted to love the book, really did. But maybe it was just the whole view of the relationship from male perspective that made me not really connect with the book.
Author Russell Elkins
Russell
Elkins has become a leading expert on open adoption through first-hand
experience that he now shares in Open Adoption, Open Heart. Russell regularly
contributes to Adoption.com.
He also writes his own blog at russellelkins.com to
educate others in the struggles and beauties of open adoption.
Russell
has always been a family man at heart, looking forward to the day when he could
be a husband and a father. It took him a little while, but eventually his eyes
locked onto a beautiful blonde, and he has never looked away. Russell and
Jammie were married in 2004. They had the same goals for their home and didn’t
want to wait too long before starting their family. However, filling their home
quickly with children wasn’t in the cards, and they found themselves weighing
their options to overcome problems with infertility. Their lives changed
dramatically the day they decided to adopt.
Russell
was born on Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1977.
Along with his five siblings, he and his military family moved around a lot,
living in eight different houses by the time he left for college at age 17.
Although his family moved away from Fallon, Nevada, just a few months after he
moved out, he still considers that little oasis in the desert to be his
childhood hometown.
Russell ElkinsOllie just wants one thing. The girl.
Things haven’t been going so well with Anne lately, though; their relationship has become a perpetual study date, and Ollie’s roommates are starting to worry about him. How to fix things? Why, with a marriage proposal, of course. Unfortunately for Ollie, his relationship with Anne has run out of gas.
Life feels like it’s counting down to one. And that one is the only person in Ollie’s life he really cares about: Ollie. Perhaps, then, he should get over himself.
But first he has to deal with Sparks, the irritating little Yankees fan who invades his life in order to “help” him. And while Keith, his best friend, is doing all he can to help, Ollie’s other friend Richie never fails to show up and threaten to ruin everything just by being himself. Never mind all the drama Sparks brings to the party by forcing Ollie to take a job actually helping people in need.
Will Ollie meet the girl? Will it be in history class? On a road trip to Colorado? Can he get over Anne, or should he try to mend the relationship? Should he pursue the new girl Sparks is trying to set him up with? As the strings of the puppeteer tangle with the strings of the heart, only one person can sort out the mess Ollie has made. It seems that the harder he tries, the more Ollie messes things up. Is Sparks a cruel manipulator, or is he really going to help Ollie find his match?
*ARC provided by the author as a part of tour in exchange for an honest review*
Actual rating is 2.5 stars (per Goodreads: in between of "it was okay" and "I liked it"
There is definitely not a lot of romance novels put from male perspective and written by male author. I really thought that this was going to be different. But then as I was reading the book, I remembered how guys can be around each other so that’s exactly how I felt throughout the book: pff silly silly boys…
Don’t get me wrong, the story line was great. After getting dumped by his girlfriend, Ollie tries to get over her and get his life on track. That’s when he meets Sparks, funny character with Yankee hat who says he wants to help him. After an accident, Sparks is able to predict events that will happen in the future and he is on the mission to find Ollie a girl and get his life together.
I really did love Sparks. He was funny, witty, helpful, and sympathetic. But Ollie and the rest of the Tall House were just regular boys… Talking about nonsense, having pointless conversations about “kissing girls”, and well other men stuff. I wanted to love the book, really did. But maybe it was just the whole view of the relationship from male perspective that made me not really connect with the book.
Author Russell Elkins
Russell
Elkins has become a leading expert on open adoption through first-hand
experience that he now shares in Open Adoption, Open Heart. Russell regularly
contributes to Adoption.com.
He also writes his own blog at russellelkins.com to
educate others in the struggles and beauties of open adoption.
Russell
has always been a family man at heart, looking forward to the day when he could
be a husband and a father. It took him a little while, but eventually his eyes
locked onto a beautiful blonde, and he has never looked away. Russell and
Jammie were married in 2004. They had the same goals for their home and didn’t
want to wait too long before starting their family. However, filling their home
quickly with children wasn’t in the cards, and they found themselves weighing
their options to overcome problems with infertility. Their lives changed
dramatically the day they decided to adopt.
Russell
and Jammie have adopted two beautiful children, Ira and Hazel, and have
embraced their role as parents through open adoption. Both are actively engaged
in the adoption community by communicating through social media, taking part in
discussion panels, and writing songs about adoption.
Russell
was born on Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1977.
Along with his five siblings, he and his military family moved around a lot,
living in eight different houses by the time he left for college at age 17.
Although his family moved away from Fallon, Nevada, just a few months after he
moved out, he still considers that little oasis in the desert to be his
childhood hometown.
Even
after leaving home, Russell always stayed close to his family. He shared an
apartment with each of his three brothers at different times during his college
career. They formed a band together back in the 1990s and still perform on a
regular basis under the name of the Invisible Swordsmen.
After
nearly a decade of college and changing his major a few times, Russell received
his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Brigham Young University in Provo,
Utah. He later graduated from Ameritech College where he learned the trade of
being a dental lab technician. Russell now owns and operates Elkins Dental Lab
located in Meridian, Idaho.
