Slightly Settled (Slightly #2) – Wendy Markham

Top Two Don'ts for the Office Party.
--Don't dress in a revealing manner.
    (Translation: Don't wear the sexy scarlet, size-eight dress you couldn't fit into three months ago. The one that flaunts your firmed-up cleavage and newly discovered collarbones.)
    --Don't make a spectacle of yourself.
    (Translation: Don't get drunk and make out with a really cute stranger for the whole company to see; he could turn out to be your boss's roommate.)
    I didn't follow these tips and here I am with a hot new man in my life, Jack. But my friends are asking if I really want to bump into my boss in his boxers in the hallway of their apartment. After all, I am aiming for a promotion.
And now, not only does my ex want me back, but the guy I used to think was Mr. Right just kissed me!
Three months ago I couldn't hold on to one guy. Now three want me. When did my life become so complicated?

Whew, after a couple of serious book reviews, this was a nice light-hearted one to breeze through. I always recommend reading the first book in a series first, of course, but even though I was a little blank on the first book, Settled transitioned easily and I felt well-informed on Tracey’s current life. As for the character of Tracey… Well, to put it lightly — Sometimes she’s a little too over the top for me. I was kind of annoyed with her being so eager to immediately make Jack her boyfriend after meeting him or turn Buckley into something more than friends and push the issue; she didn’t really act on it and it was more of an inner monologue running throughout the book. Then again, maybe I was just so annoyed because it kind of reminded how I used to be at times back in high school and even in college… Hell, maybe it’s a girl thing! I’m sure most of us do it at some point in time… I just found it a little distracting at times, but that’s really the driving force behind the novel.

I really did like the conflict that Tracey has between the developing relationships she has with Buckley and with Jack. She creates somewhat of a love triangle for herself and there comes a point in the book where you really don’t know who she’s going to choose. I’m actually really glad it came to that. I wasn’t expecting it and the author smoothly resolves the issue without (that we know of) severely damaging any characters.

Other than that, I thought the plot flowed really nicely throughout the book and you get a real sense of who the characters are and Wendy creates some really likable ones as well. Tracey grows up a little bit in this book so I look forward to seeing her progress in the next couple of novels!

3.5/5 stars
I think I’ll stick with 3.5 stars for this one. I enjoyed the book a lot more towards the end when Tracey started to mellow out and things started to finally go the way she had been planning the whole time. I think I just got too annoyed in the beginning with her pushing the whole boyfriend/lusting after someone issue. She does struggle with the idea of being alone in the book and maybe I just didn’t connect with her on that level.