Review of Enjoy the View

Book: Enjoy the View by Sarah Morgenthaler

Series: Moose Springs, Alaska #3

Source: I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: January 19th, 2021

Pages: 352

---

This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop. If you purchase a book using this link we will make a small commission at no extra cost to you!

---

Goodreads // Bookshop // Barnes & Noble // Amazon // Book Depository

---

I want to start out this review by letting you know that this book disappointed me. In preparation for reading this book, I decided to pick up the companion stories that come before this one. You don’t have to, since the stories aren’t continuations of one another, but that’s what I decided to do. I liked Easton from the moment I met him in book one. He was a quiet, gentle, mountain man, and I looked forward to his story. Unfortunately, I don’t think this story did him justice.

This book follows Easton Lockett as he’s hired by a film crew, led by a feisty actress named River,  to make a documentary about climbing a mountain just outside of the town of Moose Springs. I would recommend not reading the synopsis, because it mentions things that first occur halfway through the book. It also spoils you for the only bit of action that happens in this story.

Since I had read the first two books in this series, I knew that they were more slice of life stories, and generally, I love those kinds of stories! But quite honestly, this book bored me. At first, before they started climbing the mountain, I was okay with the more mundane actions and scenes that were going on, but I expected there to be more action when climbing the mountain. After all, Easton kept talking about how dangerous it was! I was expecting things to go wrong. I was expecting to start feeling something towards this book, other than it was just okay following these characters.

Unfortunately, that never happened. Part of the issue is that the climb didn’t even start until about 45% through the book. That’s waaaay too much exposition for a book that’s supposed to feature a mountain climb. But then there was the issue that climbing the mountain wasn’t exciting in the slightest.

I didn’t feel anything while reading this book! I didn’t ship the characters because I could not feel an ounce of chemistry between them. There was a lot of showing and not telling, but just because you love kissing her, and you tell me how much you like her, if I don’t see anything loveable about this girl, I can’t ship it!

In general, there was not one character that I especially rooted for. Easton was okay. The film crew were tolerable. River was downright frustrating, and I may have actively disliked her by the end of the book. The decisions she made were downright ridiculous. Which brings me to the next thing I disliked, which was the plot.

Like I mentioned, for most of the book, nothing really was happening. There was talking, there was climbing, but beyond that, there was nothing. There are lots of natural disasters that can happen on a mountain. Which was why I was so frustrated at the fact that all of the accidents or plot points that happened were merely caused by the film crew not listening to their guide, Easton, and by actively doing stupid and dangerous things. Which made me annoyed at Easton for not taking them back down the mountain, the moment that they started acting reckless. But instead we get this quote, which is taken from the ARC, and may not be in the finished copy.

“Easton had never met a woman more determined, bullheaded, and maddeningly reckless in his life.”

This statement is followed by Easton talking about how much he adores her regardless. Or because of this. Whatever. To me it doesn’t matter. I don’t appreciate when books glorify doing rash, careless, and irresponsible actions that put both themselves and others at risk. I won’t mention specifics because of spoilers, but there were many moments that had characters risking their lives for the stupidest of reasons. And yet! I never felt like there were any stakes! I knew that everyone would be okay, and I hated that! Actions should have repercussions, and in this book that didn’t happen, which is why this book ended up with such a low rating.

2 Stars

A book that doesn’t have an interesting plot or lovable characters I can give 3 stars. A book that doesn’t take issues like health and safety seriously, and doesn’t ever provide consequences for reckless actions, can’t get any thing higher than a two star rating from me. There was nothing that made me detest this book enough to give it 1 star, but I didn’t enjoy the reading experience, and I don’t think I would recommend this book to anyone. I’m sad that I didn’t like this book, and I’m disappointed that this book wasn’t everything that I think it could have been.

Do you need there to be repercussions or are you fine with reckless characters? Have you ever climbed a mountain? Would you want to visit Alaska? Have you read this book or other books in this series?

Advertisement