Review: You will love and hate this book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2014
I'm pretty sure I hated to love this book. Paisley is the poster child for broken and flawed. Between lies and truths, nothing goes right for her and she continues to spiral out of control. Getting to know her through her POV helps with understanding her. She wasn't living the kind of life where she was set up for success or had the right resources at her fingertips. Her family isn't supportive of her, her sister hates her, and no one thinks she's capable of anything. Even James, her sister's fiancé, doesn't have kind words to say to her even though they share a soul level connection. But James' words are at war with his true feelings for Paisley and vice versa. It would be easier if they did hate each other. After admitting to sleeping with James and becoming pregnant on his wedding day to her sister, Paisley hits rock bottom and slowly begins to climb back up. After 7 years, she is still trying to correct her mistakes and not lie or manipulate. She has enough self-loathing that I didn't feel a need to judge her further. James was very suspicious of her and kept his guard up. At times I thought he could have been less judgmental but I did understand where he was coming from. I hated seeing Paisley try to make things better only to fall flat on her face again because I wanted life to cut her a break. I also hated seeing James start to trust her again only to be disappointed and angry even more so than before. I hated all that because it was very apparent that what they felt for each other was not something they could feel for anyone else but the hurt might just be too great to overcome. Yet the anger seemed to be a part of the package of their relationship in trying to move forward from the past. Otherwise, I actually loved Paisley and James, they were so different from each other and probably an unlikely pair but they way they silently talked cemented that they belonged with each other. James was more forgiving than he let on and Paisley was stronger than she gave herself credit for. Still, I hated the constant poking and jabbing between them but then that's why I loved them harder together, because it took so much for them to set aside everything and look ahead to the future. Paisley's life won't ever be perfect but she knew what she needed in order to avoid the lies and addictions and she stuck to those promises at the very least.