The Rivals of Casper Road
Roan Parrish continues to produce incredibly beautiful, incredibly lovable romances, and this Harlequin Special Edition does everything that I love about the line – focus in on small-town romance and everyday relationships writ large with a lovely portrait of two men coming together and finding real love with each other.
Chainsaw carver and whittler Bramble – Bram – Larkspur has moved to Casper Road to start afresh. One of five siblings, but accompanied only by his beloved golden retriever, Hemlock, he hopes Autumn will offer him a little bit of emotional healing after a bad break-up sent him reeling.
Architect Zachary Glass adores horror movies, is Jewish and has dealt with prejudice, and is so competitive he’s won Casper Road’s Halloween decorating contest for six years running. He doesn’t expect Bram to be the one to offer him competition this autumn. Yet competition is what Bram provides, even though Bram hates horror movies.
These two rivals immediately set about pranking one another, from glitter bombs in the mailbox to dumping paint on lawn statues. But can they go from rivals to lovers as October passes by? Some feral cats and a neighborhood of busybodies might have the answer to that one.
An easygoing romance with a lot of humor and pep, The Rivals of Casper Road works both because it allows its heroes to have childish moments of pique and because they grow out of those moments to reflect, pause, and find love. It’s easy to love Bram, who’s open and gregarious, but Zachary was my favorite character. He’s complex, layered, a little bitter and reluctant to trust. There are some good supporting players too.
The relationship is classic rivals-to-lovers, with some spicy and hungry longing that culminates in some frantic sex. I had some caveats about the relationship but I rooted for it and enjoyed it.
The way Parrish describes the natural world of this suburban wonderland is beautifully rich. You can smell fall’s nip in the air, and taste the pumpkin pie.
What keeps this from a full-on A is the fact that Bram and Zachary don’t seem to have a ton in common. Yes, this is a classic opposites-attract romance, but Zachary doesn’t like dogs, and Bram hates Halloween, and getting the two of them to the point where they can accept each other’s differences takes a very long time. Also, sometimes the characters’ childish behavior feels a little over the top (Bram hates scary things so much he runs away from a hayride intended for children). But if you’re looking for some lighthearted autumn entertainment, The Rivals of Casper Road is perfect.
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Recent Comments
I think that I’ll give this a miss as I don’t find ‘pranks’ at all funny. They seem to me to be, very often, bullying dressed up as ‘fun’. At the very least, there is often an unhealthy power dynamic.
I listened to (and have reviewed) this for AG – and it does have good moments, and I don’t think there’s an unbalanced dynamic. Also, as we Brits don’t do Halloween in the way that the US-ians do, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about! It’s cute, but it’s definitely easy to pick up on the ways in which the author has “Harlequinised” the story, and how it’s different from her usual stuff.
I didn’t pick up on an unbalanced dynamic here, but if you don’t like pranks or generally juvenile behavior then this one might not be for you!
I liked this, but a bit less than you, Lisa. Bram seemed to be so scared of just about everything that it felt really contrived, and the inciting incident for the prank war is actually pretty nasty. It’s childish, yes, but it’s also really spiteful, and I found it very hard to believe a grown man would do something like that over something so trivial as a decorating competition!
I thought about marking it down an inch more to a B because of the generally childish atmosphere of the first chunk of the book, but I liked everything that came afterward too much to go too much lower. Would you’ve gone with a B, Caz?
I’ve given it (the story) a B- in my AG review. I agree that what comes after the ‘inciting incident’ is cute, but for me, at least, a DIK needs to be more than cute.
I was wondering!
This looks great, thanks for the review! I’m reading another book by them, The Holiday Trap. Also quite enjoyable!
Thank you, I hope you like it!