Title: Overruled by Emma Chase (The Legal Briefs) 
Genre: New Adult Romance
Synopsis
As a DC defense attorney, Stanton Shaw keeps his head cool, his questions sharp, and his arguments irrefutable. They don’t call him the Jury Charmer for nothing – with his southern drawl, disarming smile and captivating green eyes – he’s a hard man to say no to. Men want to be him and women want to be thoroughly cross examined by him.
Stanton’s a man with a plan. And for a while, life was going according to that plan.
Until the day he receives an invitation to the wedding of his high school sweetheart and mother of his beloved ten-year old daughter. Jenny is getting married — to someone who isn’t him.
That’s definitely not part of the plan.
***
Sofia Santos is a city raised, no-nonsense litigator who plans to become the most revered criminal defense attorney in the country. She doesn’t have time for relationships or distractions.
But when Stanton, her “friend with mind-blowing benefits” begs for help, she finds herself out of her element, out of her depth, and obviously out of her mind. Because she agrees to go with him – to The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Mississippi – to do all she can to help Stanton win back the woman he loves.
Her head tells her she’s crazy…and her heart says something else entirely.
***
What happens when you mix a one stop-light town, two professional arguers, a homecoming queen, four big brothers, some Jimmy Dean sausage and a gun-toting Nana?
The Bourbon flows, passions rise and even the best laid plans get overruled by the desires of the heart.
Review
It has been so long since I read a New Adult Romance but I finally got back into it and decided to give this one a try. I’ve never read a book by Emma Chase before so I was excited to finally give her writing a try.
The plot of Overruled is rather interesting, it features a little bit of lawyer jargon at the beginning before Stanton finds out the mother of his child Jenny is engaged to be married. From there he plans to return home to stop the wedding and he decides to take Sofia – co-worker and friend with benefits with him. Now in terms of plot I found this interesting because usually it is the female character which wishes to stop a wedding of a past loved one. At least that’s what a lot of Romantic Comedies have shown me. Whereas here was Stanton a strong lawyer big in Washington DC trying to beg the mother of his child to not get married.
I really liked how Overruled also featured the small town vs city, it was really nice to see the contrast between Stanton in his city lifestyle vs the Stanton who grew up in the tiny town. I’m really a big fan of books like this when characters return back home.
Overall Overruled was an easy read, easy to get into. But I do wish there was more to it, more to the build up of Sofia’s hurt as Stanton tries to get Jenny back because then there would be more tension, more emotion to it. It felt like it was rushed and it all happened so quickly. Whereas if it was just slowed down a little bit as readers we could have really felt caught up between Stanton’s decision between Jenny and Sofia.
I really liked Stanton and Sofia together, they have this constant banter back and forth but Stanton on his own was so frustrating! Sure he’s a loveable jerk but at times he seemed to have no regard for Sofia’s feelings. He constantly kept asking for her advice on how to get Jenny back and had zero regard for how Sofia might feel being the woman he is sleeping with? I mean come on Stanton really, get your head out your ass and look at what you’re doing.
Jenny too was a character I found to be frustrating, there were moments at the beginning where we got to see flashbacks when her and Stanton were young from how they find out they were pregnant to when Stanton is at university. Jenny asked for them to be in an open relationship and then when she finds out he has slept with someone else she acts heart-broken and as if he has truly hurt her. I mean it’s what you asked for Jenny? I didn’t really get the inclusion of that moment as it just showed Jenny to be unreasonable. Why would you ask for an open relationship then get angry at your boyfriend for doing just that.
Sofia was without a doubt my favourite character in this book, she’s successful, flirty and feisty but sadly she is somewhat a doormat. Again as I’ve mentioned I definitely wish there was more to her and Stanton’s development. Just a little bit more detail so it could have lasted longer and not felt rushed.
Overruled was a 3 star read for me, I liked the characters and the plot but I just think it was lacking that something extra. Some more scenes between Sofia and Stanton as he attempted to win back Jenny or perhaps making it last longer the attempt rather than a few days to a week. Other than that it was an easy book to get into and I’m glad I gave Emma Chase work a try. I definitely will try her other writing as I like her characters just not their decisions.
Useful Links
mortalreader.wordpress.com 
2 thoughts on “Overruled by Emma Chase | New Adult Romance”