Review: A beautiful, touching love story that is so worth the read!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2014
This book has totally stolen my heart. I was expecting to enjoy Violet and Zach’s story but I was not expecting to fall in love with their past, their fallout, their pain, and their reunion. Playing For Love At Deep Haven proved to be a fantastic book full of genuine characters and a love story I can only hope for.When we first meet Zach and Violet, it has been 9 hard, long, heartbreaking years since they have last seen each other. Life hasn’t gone quite the way either expected. Zach, a musical prodigy who graduated from Julliard finds himself writing crap music for heavy metal bands and occasionally playing gigs as a fill in guitarist instead of writing the beautiful music his past love knew he was capable of. Violet finds herself alone, grieving the death of her long-time boyfriend, and desperately trying to work over her writer’s block to produce a book for her publisher she isn’t even passionate about. Long are the days she used to spend writing beautiful poetry with a deep meaning.Both seeking a reprieve from the strain of their daily lives, they both end up in Maine and by a strange twist of events, staying at the same house. This is where the story really starts to take off. For years, 9 to be exact, Violet and Zach have lived their own separate lives but each longing for one another, longing for the passion, companionship, rightness, and love they held, and still hold for each other after all these years.I absolutely loved how Katy wrote this story. Her writing was beautiful, yes, but beyond that, she allowed us to get to know two character how they are today and get a glimpse at who they used to be. I loved how effortlessly this story flipped between memories of the past and things that were happening in the here and now. How Zach used to be and who he is today, and the same for Violet. Zach is this broken-hearted rockstar wishing desperately he could go back 9 years and tell the girl he loved exactly how she felt and Violet is this broken-hearted, scared, sheltered woman an almost exact opposite of the easy-going, free-spirited young girl she used to be before her heart was shattered 9 years ago.Fate brought these two back together and I adored watching it all play out during their stay at Deep Haven. Everything from Violet’s obvious hurt and anger over the way Zach left her so long ago. Zach’s regret and desperate attempts to show Violet just how much he cares, how much he’s always cared for her. Over the course of two weeks, you watch a broken, shattered mess of a relationship, change and blossom into something so genuine and beautiful.Maybe it was because music played a huge part or maybe it was the poetry and song lyrics that scattered  some of the pages of this book. Or maybe it was because I could see a little of myself in both Zach and Violet. Or maybe it was because I wish for a love as passionate and lasting as Zach and Violet’s, a love that was tested time and time again but still stood strong. Whatever the reason may be, I loved this book. I loved it from the very first page to the very end. I loved seeing Zach and Violet as young college students, making the leap from friends to something more. I loved seeing how 9 years spent living a life away from one another changed them in more ways than one. I loved seeing how when together again, they found their way back to who they used to be. And I certainly loved how they each learned from one another; learned to trust, open up, and love again.If you are looking for a solid love story with two fantastic characters, a beautiful Maine setting, and lovely writing that will have you flipping from page to page as fast as you possibly can, than I definitely suggest you pick up Playing For Love At Deep Haven by Katy Regnery. It is most definitely worth the read.