Review: GREAT READ!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 2, 2014
SUMMER'S BOOK BLOGAfraid To Love is a romance novel by M.J. Nightingale, while it is the second book in a series it can easily be read as a stand alone novel. Ana is a wild red head who prefers her relationships to be no strings attached, she doesn't do commitment and isn't risking her heart to love after being burned once before. She goes out to the bar and sets her sights on a sexy bartender named Teddy. Teddy is very willing to spend a night, or a few, with Ana, only once he has a taste of what she has to offer he doesn't want to let her go. Only Ana is keeping secrets that may push him away and she doesn't want to let him close enough to find out what she is hiding. Can she resist the connection and the passion they share? Is she too afraid to love to even give him a chance?Once I started this novel there was no way I was going to put it down, from the start Afraid To Love is full of hot, passionate and slightly kinky sex. As the story develops more emotions begin to come out and then things get really good and completely suck you in. M.J. Nightingale created two truly incredible and real, down to earth, relate-able characters. Ana is harboring a particularly painful secret that prevents her from attempting a relationship mostly because she fears rejections if her partner learns the truth about her past. It is heartbreaking to know what she is going through but she puts on a good front, she aggressively pursues casual relationships and goes after exactly what she wants in the bedroom pretending to herself and others that she doesn't need anything else. The reader gets to see just how much love Ana actually has in her heart from her interactions with her family to her chosen career but she is closed off to the entire idea of romantic love. Teddy, to put it mildly, is the type of guy any woman in her right mind would fall madly in love with, he is gorgeous, sweet, considerate, patient and caring. Everything he did for Ana melted my heart just a little bit more but also broke it because of what Ana was going through. There were some very heavy emotions in this book and the author really took the reader on an emotional ride with these characters. I wanted so badly for everything to work out for the two of them because they were both so loveable! I won't lie though, there were certain points where I wanted to shake some sense into Ana but it really just added to her character, she was absolutely terrified of falling in love and I couldn't really blame her for anything she did. It may have been a bit of a secondary theme but the end of this book really made me think about family and love and by the end of the novel I had happy tears streaming down my face. There was one point near the end that had me openly sobbing and praying for the happily ever after. The plot line was pretty straight forward, no major twists but there were some emotional secrets that keep the reader captivated and needing to know what is going to happen to the characters. Before I read this one I didn't know that it was a series but I can honestly say I'm going to go back and read the first one immediately and continue to read any more that come out.