Review: Heartbreakingly Emotional Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2013
I really enjoyed this book and I will confess that CC Brown had me ugly crying before I'd even reached the 10% mark!!  Dallis suffers two heavy losses in close succession and she shuts down and locks away all that grief and sorrow and doesn't allow herself to feel.  She's excellent at compartmentalising but she's lost the ability to love, to grieve, to feel anything.  Everything that is Dallis is locked away inside a hardened shell and she is determined never to allow it to see the light of day again.  She never wants to allow herself to love and experience that sense of all-consuming loss again.And along comes Grayson Rivera and just how SEXY is that name?  Barista boy, coffee shop owner and manager and such a swoon worthy hero.  He's covered in ink and has the most beautiful blue eyes that Dallis can see herself getting lost in.  He's thoughtful, outgoing, funny, affectionate, compassionate, very very sexy and, like Dallis, is no stranger to loss either.  He's incredibly attracted to her and sparks fly between them when they come into close contact and he recognises in her all the suffering that he himself has endured and knows that he has to break down her walls if they are ever to have a chance.This was such a beautifully paced novel.  For me, to really enjoy an emotional story like this, I need to feel everything with the characters and CC Brown does this beautifully.  The characters were given the time to digest, feel and respond to everything that was said and done and I felt it all with them.  Nothing was rushed, there was no constant `he said, she said' - I really feel that this book is a perfect example of the `show don't tell' principle and it really needed to be.It's a heart wrenching story of one woman's incredible pain and loss and the right man coming along at the right time and recognising that pain and knowing what needs to be done and it's such a tear jerker as, slowly, Grayson forces Dallis to face up to and deal with all the emotions that she's so rigidly locked away.  He teaches her to open up, face her demons and give herself 100% to Grayson.  He makes it clear all along that he really likes her but he wants all of her and half of her is locked away and closed off behind an imaginary wall.  Dallis is a lucky girl to find a guy like Grayson just when she needed him most.I really empathised with Dallis and warmed to her despite her overwhelming pessimism and loved the way that Grayson awakens something in her that had been lying dormant for far too long.  He's telling her some cold hard truths that she's determined not to be ready to admit to but he works his magic and this is a fantastic story of emotional healing.  Keep the Kleenex handy.4 stars