Review: 4 stars - This book has that perfect balance of emotional pull and authentic plot.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 16, 2013
This is book two in a companion series.  It's not necessary to have read the first one and I didn't.  I am thinking I want to go back and read it now, though.  I picked this one up because I loved the premise.  Crush from growing up and unrequited love plus giving into the lust all spelled a good read to me.  And it was.I loved the characters in this book.  Everyone thinks Claire had a perfect life growing up but that may not quite be true.  Her mom is a little over the top.  It made Claire real to me.  She had some body image issues growing up and she had a huge crush on Jake Manning.  Too bad he didn't even notice her.  Jake was the bad boy in the family, always getting into trouble and making his mom cry.  But he has a secret even his two brothers don't know about that changes the light on his bad boy image.  And he really has noticed Claire but he knows he's not good enough for the ministers daughter.  The truth is that Jake Manning is a fabulous guy that I just wanted to hug.  His secret made the mom in me cry and made me want to put the hurt on his fictitious father.  Whenever character inspire this much passion in me, I know they are written well.The best part of this book was the lack of angst.  Sometimes I read a book and it's so good but it's brutal on me emotionally.  The characters are making the worst decisions and I'm screaming at them.  This book has that perfect balance of emotional pull and authentic plot that makes for a comfortable and enjoyable read without the screaming on my part.  Things are stressed at times but I was never pulling my hair out and yelling at characters.  It was such a nice change.The hints the author gives to Jake's secret nudge the reader into understanding him better.  I kinda expected what his secret was but there was still this little punch that surprised me.  I'm super glad the author didn't dump it on me with a total shock.  That would have been too much.  Instead, I got him and I wanted to hug him.This is a quick read that was perfect to help me de-stress after work.  I could get lost in it's pages and forget the craziness for a while.  If you like a great romance with characters that become real for you, then this one is a great choice.