Review: All Signs Point to Malibu by Jennifer Snow
“But one thing I will say – a universal truth that took me a while to learn – the ultimate secret to success, the best path forward, is always the one that makes you happy now…not someday.”
The Basics
Title: All Signs Point to Malibu
Author: Jennifer Snow
Published: 2024
Note: I received an ARC from SparkPoint Studio in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: Canary Street Press — HarperCollins
Pages: 293
Format: Paperback
Genres: Fiction — Contemporary fiction, Romance, Contemporary romance, Magical realism
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Book Synopsis
Hailey Harris is a life-coaching influencer with scores of followers and dozens of satisfied clients. The key to her success? Her ability to see the future.
Her gift of sight, however, failed to forewarn her about the return of her ex, Liam, and when she learns that he has moved back to Los Angeles, she thinks a second chance with him is in the cards…that is, until she meets his fiancé, Sonia. Although disappointed, she is willing, albeit begrudgingly, to accept their engagement and move on, but a vision of his future has her reconsidering that stance. If her premonition is correct, then Liam’s forthcoming nuptials will end not in marital bliss but heartbreak. So, she decides to enact Operation Breakup, and when she is tasked with planning Liam and Sonia’s engagement party, she concocts the perfect plan to decouple the couple.
But she is not planning the engagement party alone. Liam’s best man and her longtime foe, Warren Mitchell, has also been asked to help out with the party, and he suspects that Hailey is up to no good. Somehow, she must figure out a way to simultaneously plan and sabotage the party, and as if things weren’t complicated enough, she is beginning to form a friendship with Sonia and develop feelings for Warren. Will Hailey continue to cling to the future, or will she finally learn how to embrace the present?
My Review & Overall Thoughts
TLDR: It won’t knock your socks off, but it’ll keep you entertained.
All Signs Point to Malibu is neither great nor terrible. It is average; it entertains without enthralling. And that’s not a bad thing, per se. After all, not every book can – or even wants to – be extraordinary. To paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, good enough is sometimes good enough, and All Signs Point to Malibu is precisely that. It’s good enough.
Its plot is a creative spin on the classic trope of a woman trying to stop her ex’s wedding. Instead of being driven by yearning or jealousy, the book’s protagonist, Hailey, is galvanized into action by a psychic vision. Convinced that only suffering awaits her ex, Liam, should he marry, she attempts to stop him from walking down the aisle, but as she soon learns, not even psychics can see everything headed their way. Unintended consequences arise from her interference, leading to a number of humorous moments.
Humor, however, isn’t the only side effect of her meddling. In quashing her ex’s relationship, she unknowingly lays the groundwork for her own romance – and it’s with the last person she would expect. Warren Mitchell, Liam’s best man, has long despised Hailey, so when she begins to develop feelings for him, she tries to tamp them down. But their chemistry is undeniable, and it spawns a loathe-to-love story filled with banter, laughter, and plenty of sexual tension. Their relationship arc is fairly predictable, but that is not necessarily a con. I, for one, do not mind predictability in a romance; it allows me to sit back and worrilessly enjoy the story.
While best together, Hailey and Warren are still enjoyable on an individual level. Both of them are compelling and likable in their own ways. Handsome and charming, Warren makes for a swoon-worthy male lead and love interest. Hailey, with her self-doubt and (for many of us) all-too-familiar worries, is relatable. Her age, 29, further boosts that relatability for those of us readers in our late 20s or early 30s. Moreover, she is entertaining, owing to her comically hypocritical nature and knack for getting herself into some rather ludicrous situations.
Enhancing the characters is the book’s narrative style. The story is written in the first person and present tense, which not only immerses us in the story but also grants us access to the characters’ thoughts and emotions. We know what they are thinking and how they are feeling, and we can observe how both of those change over time.
The not so good
The book’s greatest flaw is that it reads like a movie script. Settings are described but never truly brought to life. Scenes can feel rushed, as if up against some time constraint. The point of view frequently shifts, sometimes jumping back and forth between Hailey’s and Warren’s points of view multiple times within a single chapter. Even the ending, which features a grand public gesture, feels like something out of an early-2000s rom-com. While these attributes might work in a film, they are ineffective, to say the least, in a book. They cause the story to feel at times shallow, rushed, and jarring.
The dialogue also leaves something to be desired. It is a bit of a mixed bag, with hilarious jabs often met with stilted retorts.
Overall
Will I ever read All Signs Point to Malibu again? No. Would I recommend it to someone? No, but I also wouldn’t not recommend it. It is an entertaining enough read.
Have you read All Signs Point to Malibu? If so, let me know what you thought of it in the comments section below!
