Review: Reading this, and loving every page of it, it's effortless :)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2014
Review Originally Posted at: Book FreakThis is a story about love, losing it, living without it, only to find it once again – different, maybe much better, perhaps much strong, but LOVE all at the same time.I hate to see Wes suffer grief alone. She closed herself off, built walls around her heart, trying to be invincible when she lost the love of her life unexpectedly. I would really not understand why suffer this much if her boyfriend was a jerk, but no, Trey was perfect. He loved her, she loved him and they were having a great relationship together. It didn’t help when her supposedly support system, Annabella and Pierce were too caught up with each other to notice her slip.Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t the suicidal type (thank goodness), but grief – it was eating her alive, and it was just heartbreaking to read it. Amanda Heath had her mission accomplished if she wanted her readers to feel that deep sense of loss and grief that Wes was having. It was devastating, and if I were inside the story, I would slap her out of it (literally). Six months of grief is already depression, and for her friends not to notice it – it was just sad.If there was one thing I wished this novel would have – it would have been to get inside Royal Sander’s mind. I would love killed for his POV. He was the unexpected. I have met him in the first novel, but to know him deeper, to delve into his life and see him in a different light – it was just surprising. He walked into her life just when she needed someone to lean on. It started out with her tutoring him, then they became friends, and then out of the blue, she found herself falling for him.She wasn’t ready, she told herself. She was still mourning Trey, grieving him. And Royal – he was the enemy, or at least her set of friends think so. It is already hard to compete with the living, how much more with a dead person and a powerful memory, can Royal handle it? Or can Wes finally snap out of her grief and realize that Trey will no longer be with her? It was hard, but I admit, it was admiring to see Royal fight. He already saw her even before Trey did, already fell in love with her even before he did, they were friends even before they fell in love – he will fight for her, he will get into her life, he will be there for her even when she shoves right back. I love the fighting spirit, don’t you?More than Royal and Wes, I fell in love with Bentley. He’s a great younger brother who loved her sister and didn’t push her even though I was tempted to do so. He stayed with her, offered her a shoulder, gave her love, space and the support that she didn’t ask but he knew exactly what she needed. He stood up for her despite the fact that he was the younger brother, and even gave her sound advice.As for her friends? They were a complicated bunch, there were times when I liked them, times when I hated them – there were things I saw coming, and things I didn’t when it comes to Annabella & Pierce, even with Rachel. Just when I thought I already put him or her in the list of antagonist, he/she would do something out of the ordinary, and do things differently. As I said, pretty much complicated.I was glued to my Kindle, finished this in one sitting, ready and eager to see the ending for their HEA. The letter made me cry, (awwww), it was really sweet, and had me swooning right there. There were a lot of times where I get frustrated with Wes, angry at her – but at the same time, watching her change, or rather reading the fact that she starts to take those baby steps into letting go makes all of it worthwhile. It took some time, a lot of hard work from the people around her, support from unexpected people, and love & patience from Royal for her to start living once again.The ending: HOW COULD YOU END IT THAT WAY?! OMG, I can feel my breath hitch, my heart stopped and it hasn’t recovered until now. I couldn’t believe what happened, or how it happened – all the while, I thought…. And then… *SPEECHLESS*, I wish the third book was here already, because in my opinion, if the first two novel had knocked me off my feet, I think the third one will probably do something more severe to me and my senses. I could not wait to read Rachel’s story!Reading this, and loving every page of it, it's effortless :)✪Complimentary Copy was given in exchange for an honest review.✪More of my reviews at [...]