Love at First Sight: A Cupid, Texas Novel

I'm not going to sum up the plot in this review much because the book blurb does a fantastic job at that. Dade Vega received an emergency Mayday text from his foster brother and comes to Cupid, Texas only to find the man missing. Natalie McCleary runs the B&B, answers Dear Cupid Letters for the love-confused, and has a ton of responsibilities on her shoulders. But when the two meet -- in the span of a few seconds -- their entire lives change.What the book blurb doesn't tell you is that this book reaches deep. For those out there that are lost, afraid, scarred, or shamed... this book will reach straight into your heart and squeeze, probably to a slightly uncomfortable degree because while it spins a tale of love and romance and, yes, even mystery, it whispers to you: there is hope. There is love. You are not alone nor so damaged that *someone* out there -- your soul mate, your destiny, that other half of you -- won't be able to honestly love and cherish you. Don't be afraid.Fear is strongly present in this book. Whether it's Natalie's fear of letting go of control, of never finding love, or of heights, or Dade's fears of opening up about his past, about his service in the war, about being so damaged by his past experiences and family background that he'll never be able to settle, never trust anyone, never have a family (behind his missing foster brother) or a home, or find a way to fill the hole that exists in his soul... Fear is definitely a core theme, and Natalie and Dade falling in love with each other pushes them both to confront all of them.I know people commented that the book is narrative heavy but WOW. That narrative is so well done and so beautifully written and so *necessary* to understanding these characters. Natalie and Dade's wounds, their secrets, and their wishes are unspoken for a reason -- because neither Natalie or Dade want to risk speaking them aloud. Acknowledging them like that would just rip wounds deeper. And why do that to themselves? Wishing for those things just seems like cruel self-punishment, so why bother? But as a reader I was invited in. It was, at times, painful and beautiful and soulful and lonely. You felt for these people. You longed for them to step out of the loneliness that was eclipsing their lives. When they saw each other for the first time, in those first few pages of this book:"For that instant when she'd looked at him & he'd looked at her, one lonely soul connecting with another, Dade had thought, It's her."I hit that line and instantly teared up. Maybe it's because I could already relate to the characters in the span of the first few pages of the story. Maybe because I share some of their same fears. Maybe it's because love has never proven itself very steady or trustworthy or even healthy to those I know. Maybe for those readers who've never had such experiences the depth of longing, fear, and loneliness that just echoes from Natalie and Dade's story are incomprehensible. I don't know. But what I do know is that this book made me cry. Honestly. Big, fat, messy ugly cry in that 'Oh My God this book is so good' way. It's sweet and romantic and hopeful. Maybe it's because I'm messed up. LOL. I don't know. But when you read a romance novel that can do all that? When you read a story that makes you want to believe that soul mates and true love and utter acceptance can blow into your life as easily as it did with Natalie and Dade & change everything just from standing in a parking lot next to your motorcycle as a woman breezes by on a bicycle? That's a book worth reading.That's why I give Love At First Sight 5 gloriously shiny (and slightly tear-logged) stars.

3.5 stars.Love at First Sight is the first of four books in the Cupid, Texas series. Cupid is a small Texan town so named in honor of a formation in the nearby caverns shaped like Cupid and credited with lots of love matches, both far and near. Natalie McCleary’s great-grandmother started the tradition of writing a letter to Cupid and now the females in her family volunteer to answer the hundreds of letters written to Cupid.Natalie believes in love at first sight but has never experienced it and has given up on falling in love until the day she sets eyes on Dade Vega. Dade is a Harley-riding, dark and brooding ex-Navy SEAL who had a horrible childhood and does not trust easily, does not believe in entanglements and is not interested in putting down roots. Dade is in Cupid in response to an SOS his friend, Red sent to him when he sees Natalie and falls for her. Natalie and Dade’s close proximity allows them to figure out their feeling for each other and also the mystery of Red’s disappearance. At the point where they both decide to make a go of their relationship, Dade vanishes.I am a fan of Lori Wilde and have enjoyed many of her previous books. I absolutely LOVED the premise upon which this series is based, so much that I purchased the entire series at a go. I loved reading about how letters to Cupid came about and the history of Natalie’s family. I loved seeing Natalie set eyes in Dade for the first time and tumble into love with him (it is a story about love at first sight, after all) and I settled in for an interesting read. Unfortunately, I could not connect with the characters as I hoped to.The romance between Natalie and Dade felt very superficial and was missing the flash and bang I expected for a story about love at first sight. For someone who had been on the look-out for her great love, Natalie was quite resistant when she found him. In Dade’s case, his switch from being a loner and keeping everything close to his chest to deciding to confide in Natalie was not quite smooth. There was no pivotal point at which Natalie and Dade moved from denying their feelings for each other to taking their relationship to the next level.Too much information was provided on the other characters, taking the focus off the romance between Natalie and Dade and they got lost in the mass of information.Their investigation into Red’s disappearance was quite amateurish (especially for a SEAL) and the discovery of the counterfeit ID ring came about by chance.I am quite disappointed because I really wanted to love this book, but could remember very little about the story days after I finished it. I want to believe that these issues are due to the need to set up the entire series in the first book and I hope that the subsequent books will be better than this one.

The book was ok but I didn't get the feeling like I do when I read other books, I might read the next book not sure

Loved it!