Tag: broken relationships

REVIEW: The Plus One by Mazey Eddings

REVIEW: The Plus One by Mazey Eddings

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Chris was just the latest in what felt like a lifetime of men who leave. Indira catching him with another woman was just the tip of the heart-wrenching iceberg. Leaving Chris meant losing her home as well as her boyfriend, so she packed her things to go stay with her brother Collin and his fiancé, Jeremy.

She hadn’t figured Jude into the equation.

Indira and Collin’s best friend have NEVER gotten along. Every conversation was abrasive – like trying to pet a cat against the direction of its fur. And this time is more of the same as they both hang out in Collin and Jeremy’s guest rooms until the wedding. In fact, both Indira and Jude are more fragile than they ever were before, making this living situation more tense than usual.

But when Jude steps into an awkward moment between Indira and Chris, pretending he and Indira are a couple, they realize a fake relationship could help them both out. Indira gets a buffer in her interactions with Chris who is a groomsman in this wedding, and Jude gets a buffer from the loud crowds and pre-wedding shenanigans that leave him feeling a breath away from shattering. But it’s not long before their fake relationship starts feeling alarmingly real.

Review

I picked this up because I love fake relationship stories. And this one is especially good. Most of the peer group knows the truth, so the reader isn’t subjected to early angst – just later angst when the friends start to wonder how “fake” things really are. There are some hilarious moments mixed in to offset the tropey angst. And romance readers who like some steam in their stories will find a lot here to enjoy.

While I enjoyed the characters, and all the trope-y-ness, what really sold me on this was the psychology of the story. Both characters are working through past trauma and trying to find their way to something healthy on the other side. Their personal work and some of the therapy scenes were quite profound and super well-done.

I had no issues jumping into this Brush with Love series on book 3. I can see where the series connections are with the characters, but this story stands solidly on its own. In fact, I don’t anticipate going back to read the other two books. This one was the right story and characters for me.  (Language, sex, PTSD)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great! Might re-read.

REVIEW: Her New Story by Laura Bradford

REVIEW: Her New Story by Laura Bradford

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Kensington in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

It’s been a year, and Tess is still reeling from finding her new husband and her “best friend” together. In fact, her distraction is starting to impact her work. She missed a huge, newsworthy story that happened right in front of her. And now she’s dealing with the fall out – in Amish country.

Tess was supposed to get a fun, exotic assignment for her job at In Depth magazine. Her peers are going to dogsled in Alaska, hunt poachers in South Africa, and shadow Special Forces in Afghanistan. She was supposed to go to Belize. It feels so unfair.

But Tess is determined to find her story – something attention-grabbing, something to get her back in her boss’s good graces – and then she can get her career back on the right trajectory.

Review

While the four books in this “series” stand alone, there are threads of connection from Portrait of a Sister to A Daughter’s Truth (♥♥♥♥) to Piece by Piece and finally to Her New Story. And I have adored the previous three books so much, reading this was essential. I loved getting to spend some time with these characters again.

That said, Tess made it really hard for me to enjoy this. Her bitterness and feelings of betrayal are completely understandable. And I sympathized with her. But she let her experience turn her hard and prickly. And she was that way through most of the book.

Then, she let her prickliness drive her work. She wanted to find a flashy story in Amish country that fit – and reinforced  – her broken and bitter worldview that no one can be trusted but yourself.

I can’t fault the author here. She does an excellent job of telling Tess’ story. I just didn’t like her. Thankfully she was offset by the women around her (from the earlier books) as well as a flirty newcomer. Those other characters, plus Tess’s mentor who tried to be a mirror for Tess to see herself, kept me engaged and curious to see how things turned out.

The resolution felt abrupt to me, especially after enduring brittle, angry Tess for 80% of the book. But it was satisfying, and it left me feeling content about the whole in the end. Readers don’t have to have read the other books – or to have read them in any particular order – to read this. But I personally would recommend the other three first to give better context for this one.

Rating: ♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥ = Good/solid/fine