We know what to expect now when starting a book by Jana Aston, and that is to fall hopelessly in love with her characters and get a face ache from the perma grin and spontaneous laughter. Once again this is exactly what happened in Good Time. There’s something so incredibly likable about Jana Aston’s heroines. They’re quirky, positively nonsensical at times yet in the same breath we completely understand the grain of purpose or meaning which ultimately lies beneath Payton’s rather obscure observations. Good Time is told in her POV.
Honestly, this book could be a sitcom and without fail we’d tune in every week to be a part of Payton’s shenanigans. For every situation we’d find ourselves in we’d think; ‘what would Payton do.’ Mind you, her thought process is one of a kind. She’s quite possibly our favourite heroine penned by Jana Aston. Utterly ridiculous, utterly adorable, utterly compelling. We felt a kinship with everyone else in the story who came across ‘the musings of Payton’; utterly charmed yet utterly confused at the same time. Bloody brilliant. What a fantastic character.
As fascinated as we were by Payton, Vince was even more so. We met Vince in Good Girl and were already charmed by him then, so imagine our giddy excitement to delve into this story. Vince was still an enigma until about halfway through when we got a better understanding of who he is and how he lives and loves. Whilst we wished we’d had his POV to fully connect we got there in the end. And what a treat that was. What a man, a proper man with real heart and soul. We had to laugh at his utter confusion at what escapes Payton’s mouth. The whole blank face; hysterical. Trying to find rhyme or reason was at times like trying to find hay in a needle stack….
Our only issue for why we couldn’t fully enjoy the first half of this book as much as we wanted to, is that it lacked dialogue and we were ‘told’ rather than left to ‘experience’. It was such a shame as we were desperate to feel as if we were part of this story and whilst we loved the characters from the get-go, it did cause a slight detachment. The latter part was less so and we got to experience things outside of Payton’s head which really made our connection that much stronger which meant we enjoyed every single second thereafter.
“You’d be surprised by how much you might have in common with someone completely opposite from you,” I offer.
We have to mention that ALL the characters in Good Time were fabulous, seriously we loved them all and want more, more of everyone and everything! Mark, Cannon and Lawson ALL need their own books! Is Good Time over the top, silly and full of hot nookie? Yes…yes…yes….but we bloody loved it. It made us smile, it made us proper belly laugh and it made us come over all unnecessary.
Vince, who was nothing like I thought he was and everything I never knew I needed. Suddenly I was falling head-over-heels in love with my accidental husband and the idea of ending this union was the last thing I wanted.
So what if we barely knew each other? Statistically speaking, our odds were as good as anyone’s.