Review: Reviewed for Scandalicious Book Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 16, 2014
4.5 Stars!  See the full review at Scandalicious book Reviews...[...]That long plot summary basically gives you the just of what this book is about. What I am about to tell you, is everything I think J.L. Mac did exceptionally well in her latest release, Vital Sign.Sadie Parker has lost her husband Jake, the love of her life, childhood friend, awkward teen frenemy, high school and college sweetheart, her first and last as far as she was ever concerned. J.L. Mac makes you feel ALL of that. Sadie adores her husband and it's evident in every considerate thought and care that she takes with Jake and I got that from just the prologue. Jake may not be a living breathing character for very long but he is written about so vividly that he really does take on a life of his own and I had no problem envisioning him or aching for the loss of such a beautiful love.Sadie is dead inside and has been for the past two years. She is completely heartbroken over the happily ever after that was stolen from her in a split second. She is angry, bitter, and at times, a raging <>. She knows it. She owns it. As much as her family and Jake's family continue to try and pull her towards the light, she only withdraws further. Never was I annoyed by Sadie's behaviour. Some might think this story is more about her love affair with her dead husband but I would argue that. J.L. Mac makes you feel her desolation and grief over a love so deep that it would bring you to the brink if you were to lose it. She is devastated and lost and really just wants to close herself off from everyone but I never found her outright mean, she just wants to be left alone, clinging tightly to her past memories, terrified if she moves on with her life that these memories with Jake will slip away."How am I supposed to let go of Jake if there are pieces of him still out there, living on in some perfect stranger."Sadie and Jake's family stage an intervention and convince her to meet some of the recipients that benefited from Jake's organ donations in hopes that it will spark some life back into her. Basically Sadie just goes through the motions to appease both families while jealousy continues to mount over the people who get to live because of Jake's death, that is, until she meets Alexander McBride. Now, you would think that it might be a little sickening for an attraction to take place between a widow and the man who now has her dead husband's beating heart in his chest... uhmm, hello, the skeptic in me would question if she really cares for him or is she morbidly trying to recapture something of her deceased spouse? J.L. Mac sets this up brilliantly and in a way that never turned me off or left me questioning the authenticity of their desire."I kept that heart safe before, Zander's heart, when it was Jake's, and my reflexes haven't changed. If anything, they've intensified."While Sadie struggles with her own guilt that she is betraying Jake's memory over an attraction to another man, Zander is struggling with his own self-loathing. He is disgusted by events from his past, he is not proud of himself, his life or his family and feels undeserving of the second chance at life that was handed to him. Are lines blurred as these two struggle to take what they need from each other? Yes. Did J.L. Mac have me cringing occasionally and silently chanting, no, no, don't do that? Yes. But she writes these characters so extraordinarily well that you experience all of their desperation and misery alongside them and all you can do is support their need to protect one another from the demons that haunt them within their own personal hell while pushing each other towards their deserved happiness, regardless of how they get there. This story isn't neat and tidy, it's gut wrenching, soul searching and messy but it's also beautiful, inspiring and hopeful."He's my proof of life. My vital sign."There a number of poignant moments in this book that take place between Sadie and her mother, between Sadie and Jake and between Sadie and Zander. I cried a number of times but prepare yourself for the big, ugly, snotty, heaving cry, because it's there, it's going to happen.