Review: Heart Rending and Gorgeously Crafted
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 17, 2014
The concept of true love has been dissected seven ways to Sunday a thousand times over since the beginning of time.  But it doesn’t matter how much you romanticize it or study it or pursue it, even if you find it, there is absolutely no guarantee that life will cooperate and let you have it.Leo is easily one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever read.  To say this man is rough around the edges is the understatement of the century.  He is sandpaper rubbing you the wrong way just by existing.  But quite quickly, you start falling love with that delicious friction.  You start being wooed by his intense honesty.  You find yourself falling head over heels at how he does everything full throttle.When we met Leo in A Woman Gone Mad we only really got to see snippets of him until much later in the book.  I did not fall in love with him in that book, but I fell hard for him in this book.  Getting the chance to see the world through his eyes, getting to read page after page of his gorgeous cadence had me thoroughly enamored in no time.Kimber S. Dawn has crafted yet another incredibly heart rending book that gutted me without warning.  The flow and arc of this story is masterful in its pacing and sheer sweep.  To say that I was invested does not come anywhere near close enough to describing how entirely emotionally involved I found myself by book’s end.  Sobbing, laughing and wishing for just one more chapter.Perhaps the most profound element, however, was how eloquently Dawn walks Leo through Lil’s madness.  The sheer heart and soul put into those scenes are equally romantic, heart wrenching and incredibly passionate.  To walk next to Leo during that time of both little and overwhelming hope simultaneously is a gift and one of the most heart wrenching things I’ve ever read.The only thing life will ever promise you is change.  And lord knows, Leo goes through more than his fair share of change in this book.  But going on that journey with him is an endeavor of tragedy, nostalgia and unrelenting love.  There is so much beauty in this story that it serves to take even the most tragic pieces and make them feel worth it.Is this story an emotional roller coaster of the highest degree?  Yes, absolutely.  Is it also gorgeously written, beautifully told and absolutely worth the heart shredding?  Yes.  Yes it is.