*tapes heart back together*

These characters ripped my heart up. I staggered out of it alive, and all the pieces are here, but mending will take a little while. Jesus. This is a really long book, particularly for a romance, but the plot needed the space. This is not a light love story. But I love where it ended. ( )

dnf @50%
Not bad, but couldn't bring myself to continue. I see where it is going, and it's so sad an melancholic.

As I start this review, my thoughts are so scattered that I am really not sure at all how to rate this book. At times I loved it and more than a few times I wanted to throw it aside never to look at it again. So...how to rate???

I decided to use the Louanne Johnson grading method and go from there. We shall see where this baby lands.


Louanne Johnson, played by Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds

Ok...so in this movie she tells her students..."At this point you all have an A...it's up to you to keep it."

So book...

Starting off…5 stars

Setting, Dialect, Tennessee Volunteers - 1 Star As a native Tennessean and a graduate of The University of Tennessee, I felt the feel of the book was pretty spot on. So Leta…

Our MC’s – ( 2 Stars)

Really, I loved these two from the start. I adored the friendship, the love being developed between them, the interactions with Jesse’s kids, their backgrounds, etc. They truly were a very sweet couple and their scenes (outside the bedroom) were really the highlights of this entire book.

The Sister and Gran – ( 1 Star)

Jesse’s sister and Christopher’s Gran were both fantastic, loving, hilarious, accepting, and all together wonderful characters. Only wish they had consumed more pages.

Joe – ( 2 Stars)

The fucking saving grace of this book for me was Joe (Christopher’s Brother-in-Law)…he was a shocking surprise as the rest of Christopher’s family (parents and father in law) were a bunch of assholes!

*****

Mid Term Report Card – Looking good…11 Stars

*****

Now back to those Assholes (-2 Stars) Yeah…every book needs a douchebag…there is no doubt. But this book was filled with them…likely close to half of the main characters could be categorized this way. From Jesse’s Sister-In-Law to Christopher’s parents. And on top of that they were all Conservative Christian Bible Quoting Lunatics. Really – Do we need more than one of these in a book?? It was exhausting.

Being Bi-Sexual – (-1 Star)
So Jesse is bi-sexual…

Honestly I am just not sure he ever really was…the reasoning, the marriage, etc. was so convoluted, to say the least….I think honestly he was confused. He desired dick from the start and never loved or even looked at another woman besides Marcy.

Marcy/Legal Issues – (-.5 Stars)

So Jesse’s wife is essentially dead and in a coma…she will not ever wake up and is being kept alive by machines. Jesse truly does love her and wants to say goodbye and move on, as it has been 5 years. He visits her weekly and there are some truly emotional scenes between them, where he tells her all about Christopher.



Jesse pays for her care but has no control over being able to turn off the machines (which would have been Marcy’s desire). This falls in the hands of Marcy’s sister. A lot of time is spent on this in the book really and honestly this was all just one big clusterfuck of a mess as far as I am concerned. I am still not convinced I understand all the issues related to this and will never know as this is never resolved.

The Sex – (-3 Stars)

Honestly this was the biggest issue for me. I think I know now that kink is not for me. Hot horny males…sure, but these two left me with this look on my face for probably 80% of these scenes.



Does this make me a prude? I am not sure. I mean for me…these two made Logan and Tate (Try/Take) look innocent. It was all about tone really. Our MC’s as I mentioned were loving and their relationship grew beautifully outside the bedroom…but in the bedroom I felt really no intimacy…no love, (except for maybe one scene in the middle of the book) It was acts only which just was a major turn off for me. It would be like throwing Charlie and Travis (Red Dirt Heart) in a porn…it just did not work for me at all.

And now to the FINAL Exam (-3 Stars)

Well…to be honest, I think Leta overslept and missed the final exam entirely. We are left with many things left unsaid and unresolved. To be 424 pages and not come to resolution or give us the following is a HUGE disappointment.

• Marcy is still hooked to machines…no resolution on this matter at all.
• 2 wishes should have been made at the end of the book as 2000 paper cranes were made. Only one wish was spoken aloud…what about the other wish? (This story revolved around Jesse’s daughter and was really a beautiful aspect of the book…but the end fell short for me)
• Christmas gifts were mentioned and discussed repeatedly but we never saw them opened.
• A proposal was mentioned that we never saw. Jesse is a jeweler…the design of a ring from him to Christopher could have been so special.
• Jesse never bottomed. Yep…this was discussed and then we never got there…to have so much sex in a book and not get this…really?

FINAL GRADE…1.5 Stars (FYI...my initial gut told me 2 stars...but 1.5 is just fine.)

Honestly I almost quit multiple times...and after all this...I wish I had trusted my instincts by 20% and hung this one up.

BR with Matty (who read this monster in a day) and Elsbeth (while the book sucked..our BR was much fun...see her review here)" ( )

3.5 stars ( )