Review for Three Over Par by Cathryn Brunet

This book is built on the premise of living life to the fullest, never live on the sidelines for fear inaction will lead to regrets.  For nurse Lucy Seymour, this is the message she receives from her elderly dying patient and immediately takes steps to change the course of her life.  From that inspiring idea comes a story that is sexy and full of angst with a love triangle that steams up the golf course.

Lucy starts out as a very likable woman who doesn't want to die a bitter old woman who missed out on a satisfying relationship.  To find what she thinks she's missing, she starts an affair with her golf tutor Robbie.  While she likes him, it's an affair that only occurs on the golf course.  Realizing she wants more, the day she spots groundskeeper Daniel, is the day she allows him in on the fun.  From their first kiss, she knows he's special.  But any interactions with him in the real world leave him turning away from her.  So to keep him, she believes she has to keep up her regularly scheduled golf course rendezvous.  But soon, reality gets to be too much and the fantasy becomes the roadblock to happiness.  In the end, Lucy learns the most important lesson of all...the truth will set you free and trusting in your heart is what really leads to happiness.

While I like a story with steamy interludes, I don't like when those interludes interfere with the substance of the storyline.  The more interludes Lucy had, the less respect I had for her and what she thought she was looking for.  She started thinking that by being with both men at once she wasn't being a good girl.  And I tended to agree with her because she was basically using Robbie to be with Daniel.  We don't even learn anything substantial about Robbie until the very last chapters, he barely even talks until the end.  Daniel too is a bit of a mystery because of Lucy's manipulations.  They don't really talk until the end of the story either which leaves them feeling like strangers no matter how many interludes they had together.  Because of not knowing very much about them as individuals, you don't feel very invested in their relationship and therefore their ending isn't totally satisfying.  This one-sided feeling is mostly due to the book being written in the first person, but I think the author should've enlightened the reader to the male characters a bit more because as it stands they end up looking like props to Lucy's enlightenment.

Upon finishing this story I had hoped for a more heartwarming feeling.  Once a person reaches enlightenment you expect to feel a rush of happiness for them.  Instead, I just felt frustrated.  I was frustrated that the two male characters were used and a bit mad that Lucy didn't really feel guilty about the situation.  I had hoped for more well-rounded characters to draw me in to the story more.  At the end of the day all I got was sex, when what I wanted was substance.  This doesn't stop me from wanting to read more by this author though.  Her female character was strong and went after what she wanted while the interludes were satisfyingly steamy which leads me to feeling hopeful for the author's next book.

My rating for this is a C-

*I received this from NetGalley for reviewing purposes.

*Book cover photo courtesy of www.goodreads.com