This has two characters that are different and a bit quirky, refreshingly different from the usually hero and heroine. The hero is a horse trainer but really no scenes involving that, you get some of the hoopla surrounding the Kentucky Derby a little. The heroine is a glass artist, you get more artsy stuff/tone involving her. 

The author did a great job introducing her characters, maybe too good a job because it feels like 60-70% of the book is introducing our characters and slowing bringing them together. We then get a rushed bottom heavy ending of them coming together and having a very quick romance. I really enjoyed these characters separately but did not get near enough time of them together to feel their romance.

There was also a secondary romance that came close to stealing the show. 

Definitely a different beat contemporary if you're looking to break out of the usual contemporary fare but the rushed romance ending killed all the lengthy character ground work the author had done.

With that riot of unruly red hair, those icy blue eyes, and the battered clothes, she’d looked more like Raggedy Ann’s evil twin. Craggedy Ann. And she’d been about as personable, too. Though she smelled kind of nice, he thought further, something spicy and exotic that reminded him of horse liniment—which was actually a compliment, because horses smelled damned nice when they were cleaned up and shiny. Patchouli, he realized, recalling the scent from the brand name of a soap they used at one of the stables where he’d trained horses. Except it smelled way nicer on Craggedy than it had on the horses. And that was really a compliment.

This is a little goofy but fun so far  

If I'd realized I had the whole series, I could have pulled and read them all at once. Oh well.

Series thoughts:

Author writes offbeat, tongue in cheek sort of humor, often with a side of sarcasm. This one came across more as sad and/or pathetic. The three girls grew up into three women who the town more or less dismissed. And for whatever reason, the women stayed. Why? I'm mostly ignoring the whole comet bit here - why under the circumstances, would anyone remain?

Book itself:
15 years ago, h, along with her friends, wished upon a comet. Her wish was to find true love (with the expected picket fence and 2.5 children of course). She's now 30. I'm not sure if she's been on a date. The still-single men in town don't look at her as a woman, which is weird when you think about it. And worse, they've decided she's on the make and are making her the town joke. Lest one feel too sorry for the woman, the reason the H saw her nude is because SOMEbody sunbathes in the nude. 8' privacy fences only go so far. Add to her being blond and being about to doze off sunny side...down I guess. Skin cancer, wrinkles, and sunburns don't exist in this world apparently. The doorbell rings (H) and instead of getting dressed, she dons a kimono and just...opens the door?! Later, she goes outside looking for her newspaper while wearing a teddy.

Then you find out later the various escapades being attributed to her were indeed accidents and some jerks are having a laugh at her expense. But you know...having seen her cavorting in the supposed privacy of her property like that, it's easy to think otherwise.

H - philandering playboy millionaire - spies her through a telescope, pays her a visit, and is astounded when she manages to shut the doors (her door has a peephole door - why didn't she just open that in the first place?) on him. He starts pursuing her in spite of being terrified at the implications she wants commitment. She even tells him he's not what she's after in her efforts to push him away. He manages a makeover (her since of style seems strange, btw), attempts to "ruin" her reputation, only to stand guard dog over her. She finally gives in and puts out, which scares him into deciding he's leaving as soon as he can get his clothes packed.

He finally comes to his senses and well, HEA.

Smokin'

First one of these friends-to-lovers books that I haven't spent half of it muttering invectives at one of the MCs.

H loves the h. He knows it, he's known it for some time. But she's shown reluctance to move past friendship and he doesn't want to lose her completely.

h is having difficulties of late - she keeps remembering a party a few years back where they'd come close to ah...doing it. She doesn't want to mess the friendship up though, because for several weeks after the incident (which she'd come to her senses and stopped before tab A got anywhere near slot B), he'd been cranky and had avoided her. She's a bit slow on the uptake. She's attracted, but in her mind, feels like she came on to him and that anything more will screw things up.

They have a little smoking issue. He loses a bet so they attend a hypnotherapist who gets them mixed up with a newlywed couple who're having...difficulties. The unsafe word is "underwear" - a bad thing since they're working on an advertising project for a company that makes sexy...underwear. This causes some hilarity initially as the poor h is affected by this (the H apparently wasn't open for that particular suggestion) and well, she seems to have little inhibition when the word is uttered. Eventually though, he is clued in - by the hypnotherapist who asks him how everything is going, which is when they figure out the mixup.

Much soul searching and a visit to said hypnotherapist later, she's figured things out for herself and corners in his lair where he's hiding, feeling sorry for himself. A bit of hanky-panky and a ring later, HEA.

Highlights - likable couple. Did I mention smokin'? I meant the steamy version; not the one they originally sought the hypnotherapist for.

Low-lights - was he really willing to play third wheel if it meant being able to be around her? The narrative was like, you know, being in someone's, I dunno, head. (yes; there were places it was written like that). Ok, thinking about that, we are theoretically supposed to be in someone's head but it shouldn't be so choppy there. Speech I can see.

First off, I couldn't read this in one sitting. I don't advise trying.
Second off, this is not the sort of book I expected from this author.

I hurt for the h. She's 2 years older than the H - child prodigy - and got stuck with him as a lab partner in their Jr year in HS. Chemistry was not her strong suit. He was...not nice about it in his constant disparagement of her intelligence. Add to that, a mother who expressed disapproval at her failures... She's a travel agent now, who can't travel because she doesn't travel well. She never pursued her strengths - geography, art - because her self esteem got tangled up in her weaknesses.

He's back in town to study the comet. Her mother - mayor - generously offers her house (that the h rents from her) for him to stay in, forcing them in close proximity. He's still verbally abusive. It's because he's attracted to her and doesn't wanna be <eye roll>.

She tries v. hard to play nice, and when that fails, tries avoiding him. Every now and then, an olive branch of sorts gets extended, they have a few minutes of civility, then he manages to remind her that he thinks she's stupid. The night of the comet, they spend the night together, causing him to miss it. He doesn't react well the next morning.

More avoidance (not that I blame her). He reads her old school stuff and figures out she'd had a crush on him in spite of his being an ass when they were kids. Decides to make lots of amends, HEA, the end...

Do I believe the HEA? Strangely enough, yes. BUT...SOMEbody has his work cut out for him both in his own mindset and in building up that self-esteem he's systematically shredded. That actually might be the only reason I believe it - she has such a low opinion of herself that she'll take whatever crumbs he offers.

I just...wonder I guess...why these three women stayed here. The other one of the trilogy I read, the h's father was a patronizing ass toward her. This one, her mother considered her a colossal disappointment. The third one, I don't know if I have that one but what little I've seen of her, the town seems to have put her on a pedestal with a "do not touch" sign on its base.