Review: More than Once by Elizabeth Briggs

MTOMore Than Once
(Chasing the Dream, #4)
By: Elizabeth Briggs
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: Dec. 1, 2015
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:
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Goodreads

She’s trying to be good. He loves it when she’s bad.

Andrew West is done being the nice guy. After a marriage proposal gone wrong, he’s started over in a new city and he’s never risking his heart again.

Becca Collins is done being the bad girl. After quitting the band she played bass for, she’s going to prove to her family that she’s really changed.

When Becca’s dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job on Christmas Eve, all seems lost, until she runs into a former one night stand—Andrew. To impress her parents, Becca convinces him to pretend to be her perfect boyfriend for their holiday dinner.

After Andrew shows Becca he’s all bad boy in the bedroom, neither wants to pretend anymore. But when Becca’s invited to rejoin her band for a show and Andrew’s forced to face his ex, they both wonder if they’re ready to take a leap again—or if they’re doomed to fail in life and love a second time.

 

 

1thoughtsMore Than Once is pretty much a second chance story. Not just in the romance department but in life as well. You see, Becca was the bassist for Villain Complex. However, her life took a downward spiral and she left the band on horrible terms. When she bumps into Andy they have a one-night stand and afterwards part ways. But five months later Andy and Becca bump into each other and the sparks reignite. Before Becca knows it she’s kind of in a relationship with a guy who doesn’t want a relationship due to a broken heart, and her old band is calling her up asking for her to rejoin them for a show.

Becca is talked about a lot in all the previous books. She’s the old bassist that took a turn for the worse after sleeping with the lead singer. Let’s just say that the band doesn’t think highly of her. So, I was thrilled when I saw that she got to have her own story. I was even more excited when we got flashbacks to the time that she met Andy shortly after leaving the band. However–like I’d thought–she’s not as bad as she’s been portrayed. She’s kind of a cliche in the sense that she allowed the bands barely existent fame get to her head. She started drinking and partying, and once her fling with the lead singer didn’t work out, she sort of fell off the deep end. However, now she’s picking herself back up and rebooting her life.

Andy was a character very briefly brushed up on. He is the ex-boyfriend of a Villain Complex member’s current girlfriend. HaHa You following me? Basically, in one of the previous books, he was dating Tara, who when they broke up started dating Hector the drummer from Villain Complex. It’s a bit more harsh than that though. They broke up briefly and Andy flew out to San Diego (where she was for a signing) to win back his woman and propose to her. Only, she’d already moved on. So, on the night that his proposal blows up in his face, he meets Becca and they have a night of hot passionate sex to help them forget their woes. Except, he hasn’t been able to forget about Becca, and when their paths cross again, he’s unwilling to let her go.

The synopsis makes it sound like this book is about Andy playing the fake boyfriend role, but it’s not. That portion is over and done with quickly. A lot of the story basically just catches you up on these two from their past fling to now. You watch as Becca tries to maintain her reformed good-girl state and while Andy struggles with moving on past Tara.

I will say that I found the story to be a bit jerky and choppy in places. You see, the story starts off on Christmas eve. Then we move on to Christmas, then like a couple days after Christmas, New Years Eve, Valentine’s day, and then hop to the following Christmas. So with all the timeline skipping I was just not really invested in their relationship. I get what the author was trying to do but it just didn’t work for me. It almost felt like a short novella in how quickly time elapsed in the book. I was shocked that when I finished the book was actually over 150 pages long.

While More Than Once wasn’t my favorite story from the series, I didn’t hate it. It was interesting to see Becca and Andy get their happily ever after. I think I would have enjoyed it much more if these characters were given more time to develop. I will say this though, this is an easy and quick read for romance lovers that has a small Christmas feel to it in the beginning.

 

1favequote“I’d never done anything like this before, but what better time to have your first one-night stand than right after your first failed marriage proposal, eh?”

 

Previous reviews from Chasing the Dream
More than Comics
More than Fashion

kRISTIN

8 Thoughts on “Review: More than Once by Elizabeth Briggs

  1. It’s like she’s marking their relationships with “seasons”. I don’t read much NA to begin with, sorry this wasn’t as good as the other book.

  2. Well that sucks. I am two books behind in this series and now I’m sad this one wasn’t so great.

  3. Love the second chance love story theme, and the cover is pretty

    • The cover is pretty cool. I think second chance romances or brother’s best friend romances are my favorite because the characters already kind of know each other. So if things progress fast in the book it doesn’t really seem weird.

  4. It’s good to see that you saw a different side to Becca than what was portrayed in the other books. She sounds like a good character. And Andy deserved a shot at happiness too. The choppiness would annoy me too, so I understand your reservations there!

    • Yeah, it was interesting seeing the “bad persons” point of view and realizing that they weren’t malicious but instead just didn’t have their crap together.

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