Could'a, Should'a Been Great Book But Robbed By Weak Ending
This book had SO much going for it. Overall, I did enjoy this book. It fit right along w/my mentality. Here's what I liked:
* Main characters 34+ in ages vs the YA/NA ones currently inundating contemporary reads.
* Very strong H&h. They know who they were as individuals. Both had made mistakes in their past, but acknowledged them as mistakes & were willing to accept consequences of those mistakes head on w/o running from them. (A refreshing mature mentality for once.)
* Enough drama to entertain w/o being over dramatic. I felt the characters acted reasonable w/the drama in their lives.
* Witty, witty, witty H&h. I so enjoyed the dialogue in this read. A lot of good-natured bantering between the H&h w/o it being obnoxious.
* Hard-won-over affections of the H&h toward one another. While I sometimes like instant luv, this book had none of that. The H&h started out w/no interest in each other. Falling in luv wasn't expected, & it was something "worked for" & not given away lightly.
What I didn't like & what I thought killed the book for me:
* The lacking validity that the H&h were a happy couple that had a HEA staying power because:
1. The luv'n that went on between the H&h WAS short changed. A few hot kisses; an "almost" do-the-deed scene; & a final mostly clothed, boots & all, deed-is-done scene were injustices to any romance reader. Not only that, the h was so confused & taken back after the deed was done, that's where the reader's mind stayed as well. There needed to be another luv scene that better showed & validated the H&h truly being in luv. As it was, there was no proof in the pudding shall we say.
2. The author got too caught up in wanting to show the cautious nature of the h she ended up wasting the last few pages of the book making the h look unbendable & prickly instead of taking the time to show & validate to us readers that this couple was in fact in luv, wanted to be together, & had the staying power. Wasted, wasted opportunity that sooooo hurt the book.
* I think this book ended very weak. It was like there was a time clock somewhere that the author was trying to rush against when writing the end. Instead of focusing on the stability of this couple, she chose to focus on the h's reluctant insecurity instead. Why?? Wrong, wrong move. There were probably a lot of readers that ended up not like the h because of that. Such a shame too. She was really a very likeable character.
I know I'm being extremely contradictory here. I'm rating this book a 4/5 stars because of how much I liked this H&h. But In the end, I can't really recommend this book because the ending seemed so lacking. I'm saddened by this because I enjoyed this H&h so much I wanted to share them w/my reading buddies. The wittiness & the chemistry in this book are rare treats from what's currently out there. I think if any one can borrow the book w/o paying for it, the H&h make this book worth reading if the one has the time. Other than that, I can't recommend spending time & money on an incomplete book. Such a dang shame too; this could have been one of my top liked books.
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