Title: Love on the Line (Women at Work #1)
Author: Kirsten Fullmer
Published: June 2017
Genres: Coming of Age, New Adult, Romance
Goodreads

Rating: 3 stars
Cover: It’s okay

Synopsis:

Andrea is an ordinary girl in an extraordinary situation.

She left her comfortable home and family to take a job building a pipeline with her estranged grandpa, Buck. She’s curious about his job, and why her mother dislikes the man. She didn’t expect to uncover buried family secrets, or for the job to be so difficult.

Rooster isn’t a bad guy. He respects women; he was raised by one of the best. But that new girl on the job is too small and feminine. She’s a distraction, plain and simple, and she doesn’t belong on a pipeline. This job is his chance to impress Buck Brennan, a pipeline legend, and no girly greenhorn is going to ruin it for him.

Will Andrea prove herself to her grandfather and forge a relationship with the old man, or will continuous disagreements and unexpected sexual tension between Andrea and Rooster derail their hard work?

Thank you Kirsten Fullmer, Augustine Press, and Xpresso Tours for a free eARC in return for an honest review.

I’ve seen movies where the MC is thrown into a work situation very out of the norm for her and she has to learn and adapt, but this is my first book I’ve read with this scenario. Fullmer clearly did a lot of research in writing this to be able to write the ins and outs of a pipeline career. I enjoyed reading about how Andrea is stretched and pushed in order succeed and do well in a male-dominated career. She does not make it look easy, that’s for sure. I know some people might not love this book because of how much it does actually talk about the work being done, but I found that part fascinating, albeit a little dry. Getting a deeper look at what days on the job look like gave me more of a desire to root for Andrea as she navigates it all.

Rooster and Andrea are FUN. You can genuinely watch them start softening toward each other and realizing that they care about each other, even when the other person makes them want to scream. I wanted more, though. I felt like it was built up so much for such a  short and less passionate relationship.

I also really wanted to see more of the relationship between Andrea and her grandfather being built. We only really see glimpses and it’s hard to walk away feeling like they got to know each other as much as we were told they did. I mean, he’s really a big reason why she took this job, why do I feel like their relationship dynamic was an afterthought.

Some of the writing felt really awkward, mostly when the author refers to Andrea’s family members as “the woman” or “the girl” or “the old man.” Otherwise, as I said, the book felt very well researched and the writing definitely displayed that.

It’s refreshing reading about characters actually working, and working hard, and not just focusing on the romance or family dynamics as many books do. This story wraps all of those elements into one, and I enjoyed the ride.

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Kirsten is a dreamer with an eye for art and design. She worked in the engineering field, taught college, and consulted free lance. Due to health problems, she retired in 2012 to travel with her husband. They live and work full time in a 40′ travel trailer with their little dog Bingo. Besides writing romance novels, she enjoys selling art on Etsy and spoiling their three grandchildren.

As a writer, Kirsten’s goal is to create strong female characters who face challenging, painful, and sometimes comical situations. She believes that the best way to deal with struggle, is through friendship and women helping women. She knows good stories are based on interesting and relatable characters.

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