Review: "Say you love me, Ivey"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2012
If she didn't tell you Gray, I would. Over and over and over again. I loved this book. Let me tell you why, you read the product description above. Well that is what the book is about. Now I am going to tell you what this book made me FEEL.When the novel opens up, it starts with Ivey's thoughts, but the words are only one aspect. You can literally feel her lack of hope, her loneliness, her hunger to make a connection even as she tells you that she "plays it safe" and doesn't allow herself to make friends, because Ivey has been on the road for ten years and she and her brother survive because she's a genius at pool. Which means they are hustlers. Hence why they don't have any connections, you can't hustle your friends...well Ivey can't, her loser brother would roll over a nun and sell her habit and loafers to make a buck.So Ivey sees Gray and falls for him, but she knows that's not smart, but Gray like all of Ashley's men sees what he wants and makes a move. Yet he's different. I've read every book written by Ashley and each hero is different, but they all have a running theme. They are protectors. Gray takes it up a knot. Not only is he a protector, he is a nuturer and OurIvey who is 22 and has been taking care of herself and her brother for over five years? She needs that. So the groundwork is laid and we get to ride with Ashley as she takes us to the HEA.Ivey takes a chance and doesn't play it safe and Gray? He gives her everything. Love, trust, hope, purpose...family, but they get played. They are played by Ivey's good for nothing brother and the town creep. I don't know how to capture in my review the feelings that Ashley evokes when this goes down. Because by the time this happens, you know that Ivey was on empty and Gray has been steadily filling her up and for them BOTH to lose that? Hurts. And they lose it for almost eight years.I'll be honest, I got scared at this point. I had nightmarish vision ofFor You (The 'Burg Series)andGolden Trail (The 'Burg Series), where the couple loses almost 20 years with each other and he's had a wife and kid and she's lucky if she got a bologna sandwhich at Christmas.Thank God, she didn't go there, but I am happy she went where she went. Ivey got to get rid of her loser brother and gain two friends and Gray didn't run off and get married, because he knew like I did, that "There is noone better than you, Ivey." I'm always at a loss when it comes to doing a review for an Ashley book, because it's not like anything really BIG happens, its a series of little things that build to a wonderful and engrossing reading experience, and I don't like spoiling it because I feel that the reader discovering those things is what makes her my favorite find of 2011.Therefore, all I can tell you is, reading this book is worth thr tears you are going to shead before you hit that HEA. That you want Ivey and Gray to be happy and when she says "I love you, Gray." You believe it and want that for each of them.