Everywhere and Every Way: There’s nothing quite like heaps of family drama and some romance to make a good book (My thoughts on Book #1 in the Billionaire Builders series by Jennifer Probst)

I’d like to start off this review by saying that despite the fact that Jennifer Probst is an author who has been on my radar for years, Everywhere and Every Way is actually the first book by Probst that I’ve ever read. I decided to finally check out Jennifer Probst’s books after I saw a tweet that Emma Chase had retweeted on Twitter, which included a link to a list of books that are available to purchase from the iTunes store that Jennifer Probst had recommended people read, with Emma Chase’s first book, Tangled, being on the list. That got me thinking about how I had been interested in checking out Jennifer Probst’s books for quite a few years now. For the record, I’m pretty sure that I had come across Probst’s books long before I even discovered Emma Chase’s Tangled series back in 2014, but Emma Chase ultimately played a big part in convincing me to finally take the plunge and read one of Jennifer Probst’s books. Originally, I was planning to read The Marriage Bargain first, and I even bought the audiobook version of The Marriage Bargain, but I ultimately decided to read and review Everywhere and Every Way first instead since this is Probst’s latest book; that being said, here are my thoughts on Everywhere and Every Way.

Right off the bat, I have to say that much like Emma Chase’s Tangled and Legal Briefs series, as well as Christina Lauren’s book Beautiful Bastard have all exceeded the expectations that I usually have for the romance genre, Everywhere and Every Way also exceeded the expectations that I usually have for the genre. If I’m being honest, while I truly believe that Emma Chase and Christina Lauren have definitely both raised the bar in terms of what I expect from a good romance novel; in some ways, I feel like Jennifer Probst managed to exceed some of those expectations when it comes to the writing for this book.

Having recently read and reviewed the book Winter by Marissa Meyer, which is definitely a book that I personally think has a lot of issues with the overall pacing of the plot moving too slow for somewhat large chunks of the book, and the fact that that book is slightly over 800 pages long didn’t help those issues; one thing that I really thought Jennifer Probst did a great job of in terms of the writing for Everywhere and Every Way, is that the overall pacing of the plot moved at the perfect pace for the most part. While I think that having certain parts of any book be very exposition heavy can subsequently cause the plot of a book to feel like it’s being bogged down, and moving too slow; Probst definitely did a great job of handling exposition throughout the book when she needed to. I thought that was especially the case at the beginning of the book, when she was establishing the overall premise of the book, without it feeling like the plot of the book was moving too slow.

When it comes to the plot of Everywhere and Every Way, the book focuses primarily on the romance between Caleb “Cal” Pierce and Morgan Raines. However, it also involves a lot of conflict that exists between Cal and his brothers, Dalton and Tristan. The book pretty much begins with Cal’s father dying. After his father dies, Cal, Dalton, and Tristan learned that the terms of their father’s will stipulated that the family business couldn’t simply be sold to somebody, and the money from the sale of the company be split between the three of them. They all had to work together for a year, and the company had to earn a profit in order for them to be able to inherit it. If they managed to do that, then they would apparently be able to sell the company if they wanted to. Their father’s will also stipulated that they all had to live together in the same house during that period of time, which none of them was very happy about due to the fact that they had all become estranged after Dalton had kissed Cal’s ex-fiancée, Felicia; but apparently Cal was under the impression that Dalton had slept with Felicia. This is ultimately what led to Cal agreeing to build a house for one of Morgan’s clients, which is a job that he had initially not wanted to do. Naturally, that all led to Cal and Morgan becoming romantically involved with each other.

For the most part, I thought that the development of Cal and Morgan’s relationship was handled pretty well. However, there were some times throughout the book when the progression of their relationship was a little rushed in my opinion, especially on Morgan’s side of things. That was really the only instance where I had some issues with the pacing of the plot. Personally, I thought that Morgan, in general, was a pretty well written and likable character. That being said, one aspect of the writing for Morgan that I definitely think could have been handled better was the part of her backstory involving her having had cervical cancer when she was younger, and the fact that she had a hysterectomy as a part of the treatment that she underwent for it.

In the end, I thought that was something that felt rather underdeveloped in terms of the writing for Morgan. That part of Morgan’s backstory was established when she was talking her mom on the phone at one point in the book, and her mom asks her if she had found a new doctor yet since she had only recently moved to town. After that, the whole thing with Morgan having had cervical cancer was pretty much dropped and not mentioned again until towards the end of the book. When it was finally mentioned again, Morgan suddenly felt a sense of urgency about needing to tell Cal that she can’t have kids; especially after she meets some of Cal’s family members, and they ask her and Cal about them possibly having kids at some point in the future. That prompted Morgan to tell Cal about how she can’t have kids, which led to him having some doubts about the possibility of them having a future together.

Personally, I really like that Probst didn’t repeatedly beat the reader over the head about the fact that Morgan had been diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was younger. If Probst had repeatedly mentioned it throughout the book, I definitely think it could have gotten to the point where it quite possibly could have felt like Morgan having battled cancer at one point in the past defined who she was as a character. However, it definitely bugged me that until Morgan suddenly felt an urgent need to tell Cal that she can’t have kids, Probst hadn’t even acknowledged that part of Morgan’s backstory since it had originally been mentioned. Honestly, after a while, I had started to wonder if Probst had simply decided to completely drop that aspect of Morgan’s backstory. The fact that Probst didn’t mention it at all for a large portion of the book kind of made me think that she had made that a part of Morgan’s backstory simply because she wanted to feature Morgan’s mother in the book, but she hadn’t been able to think of anything else that Morgan and her mother could have talked about when they talked to each other on the phone at one point in the book.

The conflict between Cal and Morgan, and the uncertainty that Cal felt about whether or not they had a future together after Morgan told him that she can’t have kids was very interesting, in my opinion. It also felt more realistic to me, compared to the kind of conflict that a couple often faces in the final part of a lot romance novels or romantic comedies, which can sometimes come across as being incredibly cliché and contrived. Plus, it was really nice to see Cal talk to his brothers about what Morgan not being able to have kids could mean for their relationship in the long-term sense; especially given the role that the conflict between Cal and his brothers played in the book.

That being said, what I think could have been handled better in regards to that part of Morgan’s backstory, is that I feel like it really should have been acknowledged more and developed at least a little bit further than it was; instead of Probst only acknowledging the fact that Morgan had battle cervical cancer when she was younger about two or three times throughout the entire book. The fact that Probst barely mentioned it really made it so that I essentially had to make a lot of assumptions about how Morgan had been affected by the whole experience, both on an emotional level, as well as the impact that it had on her overall outlook on life. Having recently read and reviewed The CEO’s Unexpected Child by Andrea Laurence where a big part of the writing for the main male character in the book, Luca Moretti, and an integral part of the overall plot of the book revolved around the fact that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was high school; I really liked that Morgan came across as being fairly well adjusted, and as if she had found a certain sense of inner peace after having gone through all of that when she was younger.

When it comes to The CEO’s Unexpected Child, while I found the fact that Luca was clearly deeply wounded emotionally, and the fact that he had enough emotional baggage to sink the Titanic all the way down into the earth’s core as a result of having battled testicular cancer when he was in high school all very interesting; it also led to him having a really messed up view on how he should handle his love life and relationships. As much as I liked The CEO’s Unexpected Child, it was definitely incredibly frustrating at times that Luca having had testicular cancer really seemed to define who he was as a character in a lot of ways. It definitely seemed to dictate a lot his actions throughout the book, the motives behind the things he did, as well as his outlook on life, the world, and his relationship with the main female character in the book, Claire.

Morgan, on the other hand, didn’t really come across as being emotionally wounded by having been diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was younger, and not being able to have kids as a result of that. Thankfully, it also didn’t define who Morgan was as a character. As I was reading Everywhere and Every Way, I often found myself thinking about the feelings of frustration that I constantly had with the writing for Luca as I was reading The CEO’s Unexpected Child. Comparing Probst’s writing for Morgan to Laurence’s writing for Luca definitely made me really appreciate Probst’s writing for Morgan, because she was pretty much the complete opposite of Luca in terms of how their battles with cancer impacted the kind of people they became years later after thankfully having beaten cancer.

That being said, I do have to wonder if Probst meant to have at least some of Morgan’s hesitation about being in a committed relationship with Cal stem from that part of her backstory. The fact that there were occasionally times throughout the book where Morgan didn’t seem to be as into Cal as he was clearly interested in her did kind of annoy me. It also made me wonder if that had been Probst way of trying to show how having had cancer had affected Morgan. If that were the case, I’d say that the idea of those two aspects of Morgan as a character being connected to each other is something that was too subtle for the reader to definitively make that connection when they’re reading the book. I suppose that Morgan’s reluctance about being in a committed relationship with Cal could simply be due to the nature of her work and the fact that she moves around a lot for her job, though. This is ultimately all speculation on my part, because as far as I’m concerned, that aspect of Morgan as a character was rather underdeveloped. Probst doesn’t really give the reader very much to go on in terms of establishing how Morgan having had cervical cancer when she was younger, and consequently can’t have kids, affected her both as a person, and as a character in the book. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want Probst to have repeatedly beaten the reader over the head when it comes to acknowledging that part of Morgan’s backstory, because then I think Morgan could have easily come across as being as emotionally wounded as Luca did in The CEO’s Unexpected Child, if not more so. I simply wish that Probst had done at least a little more with all of that throughout the book.

While Everywhere and Every Way is a part of the romance genre, and I absolutely loved the relationship between Cal and Morgan, one of things that caused this book to exceed my expectations is the relationship between Cal and his brothers, Dalton and Tristan, and the role that the familial conflict between them played in the book. As I said at the beginning of this review, a lot of the conflict between them stemmed from the fact that Dalton had kissed Cal’s ex-fiancée, Felicia. One of the reasons I liked that aspect of the book is that while Dalton having kissed Felicia is definitely kind of a messed up thing for him to have done; his motives weren’t purely self-centered, and he didn’t do it because he was trying to steal Felicia from Cal or anything like that.

The reason Dalton did that was because he was convinced that Felicia would inevitably cheat on Cal, so he decided to prove that he was right about Felicia being likely to cheat on Cal by trying to seduce her. As weird as it might seem to people, especially people who read this book, Dalton’s actions had been coming from a place of love, which is one of the reasons I found that aspect of the book very interesting. I have to say that I was ultimately very happy with the way Probst handled the resolution of the feud between Cal and his brothers towards the end of the book, by tying it in with Cal finding out that Morgan can’t have kids.

Admittedly, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve finished reading Everywhere and Every Way, and while a part of me really wishes that I had been able finish writing this review and had posted it sooner; another part of me is glad that I wasn’t able to finish it sooner. I say this because I probably would have felt the need to be a little bit more harsh and critical when it comes to critiquing the few issues that I have with this book if I had finished this review sooner. Originally, I definitely had a lot of issues with the way Probst handled switching back and forth between Cal and Morgan’s points of view.

For starters, it originally really annoyed me that Probst didn’t begin each chapter by indicating from which character’s point of view the chapter was written. However, the further I got into the book, I realized that the reason she didn’t do that is most likely because there were times throughout the book where she switched from Cal’s point of view to Morgan’s point of view, or vice versa, during a chapter. That also bothered me at first, but the more of the book I read, the more I got used to her doing that. Some of the chapters seemed to be a bit on the long side, but switching from one character’s point of view to the other’s during a chapter made it so that it didn’t feel like the chapters were too long. Plus, I thought that Probst did a great job choosing the right moments within the chapters to switch from one character’s point of view to the other’s point of view. It also helped that whenever she did switch from one character’s point of view to the other’s point of view, she did it at a section break, so the transitions in points of view never felt like they were being handled in a sloppy manner.

This is probably a good time to mention that much like I have with almost all of the other books that I’ve reviewed at this point in time, I listened to the audiobook of Everywhere and Every Way instead of reading a physical copy of the book. The parts of the book that were written from Cal’s point of view were read by Sebastian York, and the parts of the book that were written from Morgan’s point of view were read by Madeleine Maby. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook of Everywhere and Every Way, not only because I thought it really helped make it easier to deal with how the changes in points of view were handled throughout the book; but also because I thought Sebastian York and Madeleine Maby did a great job of reading the book. I’ve been a huge fan of Sebastian York’s work on audiobooks ever since I listened to the audiobook of Emma Chase’s book, Tangled, and I reviewed the book. York has done a great job on every audiobook that I’ve listened to where he’s either the only person reading the book, or one of several people reading the book, if the book is written from the point of view of more than one character like this one is.

All things considered, Everywhere and Every Way is a really great book that definitely exceeded my expectations. As I said earlier, the conflict between Cal and his brothers and the way Probst handled it, is definitely one of the main reasons this book exceeded my expectations. In regards to this being the first book by Jennifer Probst that I’ve ever read, she definitely made an excellent first impression in terms of what I thought about her writing. Cal and Morgan are both really great characters that were both very well written. While I wish that Probst had acknowledged the part of Morgan’s backstory involving her having had cervical cancer at one point in the past at least one or two more times than she did throughout the book, I still thought the writing for that aspect of who Morgan was as a character was very well done in the sense that it didn’t define who she was as a character. Even though the writing and the overall development of Cal and Morgan’s relationship did feel a little rushed at times, the writing for their relationship was ultimately handled very well. Despite my issues with some of the pacing for how Cal and Morgan’s relationship was written and developed, the overall pacing of the book’s plot was otherwise handled perfectly. Given how much I loved Everywhere and Every Way, I’m definitely very excited to read The Marriage Bargain in what will hopefully be the relatively near future.

That being said, my final score for Everywhere and Every Way is 9.5 out of 10.