Review: Well written story
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 12, 2014
While I thought this was a well written and touching story,  after reading this second book in the series, I'm not sure they're the kind of romance I'm looking for. This was a very sad, heart wrenching story that has a happy ending.  I feel like these are more about women wanting to run and hide from bad situations (in this case a devastating, violent one) rather than the usual books I've read about the women leaving home specifically to find kindness and love with a man that they can build on to have a happier, better future.While the story of Lily and Jake is a good one,  We again have a bride hiding a horrible secret, terrified that it will come to light, as well as a groom who has his own ghosts from the past. Instead of a light hearted, happy building romance, it's more about the struggles of hiding things from the other that prevents them from really getting to know and love the person they're with; though in the end it works out. While I thought it was excellent writing, I'm afraid I'd have to agree with other reviewers who have said there is a darkness about the whole story. I did feel the added entrance of the ex wife and then the violent situation that develops after Jake and Lilly were married  and worked through their secrets, was too over the top; at least for me. The ex wife suddenly showing up after all those years and then the violence Lily became a victim of was just way too much and kept the story too dark for me.I read it because, as I said the writing was very good and kept your interest. It's just not the lighthearted, slightly troubled but easy going type of romance I like to escape to. I enjoy the ones that I come away feeling happy & smiling about, knowing they are fiction and not very realistic but still uplifting and as I said, a happy escape.Each time I put this book down, I came away from it feeling sad and even slightly down pretty much to the end. Yes, it all works out and has a happy, very good ending  but  the sadness throughout is not a place I enjoy going. I read my romantic fiction to escape the violence, sadness and hardships we have to see on the news each day, this was not the book for that. I will remember this well written story but not as a pleasant, enjoyable escape to go to sleep at night smiling from.I plan to read the next book because I enjoy reading series but if it's as deep and dark as this one, I'm afraid I won't be continuing with the whole series. I'll find some more light hearted, happy, fantasy filled fiction to read. It's a,shame because the writing was truly very good.