Review: 3.5 stars
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2014
I know I've said it before, but I have mad love for KA and her stories. Love, love, love her style of writing. Love the emotion her stories bring out of me. What I don't love are that sometimes her heroes do nothing to redeem their arse-like behaviour. And unfortunately, this is one such book.Isabella has issues. Her fear of upsetting her father and the consequences that follow lead her to make stupid decisions. She breaks up with the man she is hopelessly in love with because of her father and the story picks up twenty years later.Leaving such a big gap for a reunion of a couple is not a bad thing in my opinion. But my problem with this story was Prentice.The man walks away from the woman he apparently loves desperately, and moves on with another woman and they have a great life with their two children. Life is beautiful for him. He's successful in his business, his family life is great, he really loves his wife; what more could he want? But then his wife dies and a little while later, Isabella comes back into his life due to their two best friends getting married. Instead of letting the past lie where it is, he's bitter and angry, treating her appallingly all because she broke up with him twenty years ago. Never mind the fact that he moved on and had a great life. No, he constantly makes remarks and makes her feel bad about daring to breathe the same air as him.Then when it's finally revealed why she left him, does he grovel for the way he treated her? No. Why would he need to when she'll do it for him. Somehow she takes it on herself to apologise to him because it was all her fault and then they're all happily-ever-after.I love KA. I really do. But if Prentice's reaction had been different and he'd done an awesome grovel (Iike Mike Haines in Games of the Heart), then this would easily be a five star read for me.As it stands, the story is heartbreaking and every time I read it, it makes me cry. My heart hurts for Isabella and the treatment she receives from everyone in town. Except for those kids. They're great...but they're Fiona's. And it just made the ending all the more bittersweet.It's not my favourite, but the story is engaging enough. I usually have to read it with a lot of breaks because I'll end up throwing my kindle against the wall every time Prentice says something stupid.