Review: A decent story BUT with two distracting issues…
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 21, 2014
The plot is fairly engaging, and it’s an easy read. There is some excitement and some tear-jerking moments, which feel more biter sweet than angst so it’s not over the top. Shelby and Matt are both likeable characters for the most part. I appreciated the fact that her friends each saw the different sides to their “heart-break” from the past and presented them to Matt. I’d have to agree with some other reviews that they pick up where they left off a little too quickly without much discussion. Ten years is a long time and people do change to some degree from age 18 to 28 so it would have been more realistic to have some scenes where they reconnect/get to know each other again.Two issues significantly bothered me and caused me to give this book a lower rating than I otherwise would have given it.  ***The following may contain spoilers…Shelby and Matt’s failure to address safe sex and contraception:  Even though Shelby knows that Matt has been with countless women in their ten years apart, she doesn’t insist on him using a condom nor does he offer any assurance that he used them with his wild hook ups.  They also don’t address birth control together, which given what happened in the past, seems strange at least for her not to mention it.The plot twist w/Shelby’s gay friend, Jace:  The author apparently wants us to believe that this 28 year old guy, openly gay to his friends for at least ten years, films a love scene with his leading lady in a movie and suddenly become straight. “Are you telling me you’re not gay anymore?” Shelby asks him as if someone’s sexuality is so easily flipped.  The message seems to be that he just needed to fall in love with the right woman! WTF???  Shelby’s exposition sums it up, “Never in a million years would I have imagined that he would go to North Carolina and return home straight.” Seriously? This whole side character plot twist is very narrow-minded. I really wish the author would explain why she felt the need to include something like this rather than just have Jace find love with a man in the film/on the set.I think if the above two issues were resolved in a future edited version of the book, I could give it a better review and higher rating. I strongly urge the author to revise.