Review: fabulous emotive, rollercoaster novel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2014
Don't Let Go, Sharla LovelaceReview from Jeannie Zelos book reviewsI've not read any of Sharla's work before so didn't know what to expect. I thought I’d be getting a gentle contemporary romance and I was hooked by the idea of older characters – its good to see that romance for anyone over 30 is still considered realistic, sometimes I think its assumed we're all dead from the neck down!!Anyway- expectation= gentle romance, actual experience = book I was blown away by! Its easily one of the best I’ve read in while. Its full of characters that act as real people, make mistakes, have everyday problems, and they resonated with me. I had a difficult relationship with my daughter when she was a teen ( great now she's older and so am I) so Jules and Becca had my sympathy. Like them the faults and problems I had were on both sides, but sometimes when you're entrenched in them you just can't see what you are doing wrong. Then the baby scenario – oh poor, poor Jules, parental pressure is difficult at that age. Been there, done that, different result but I understand how hard it is to try to stand up for yourself when you're used to parents that control every part of your life. I was grounded, and day after day after day came the pressure to do what they wanted, not to let anyone know I was pregnant, etc...So I empathised with Jules so much. Luckily she had some good friends and her gran for support. Then there's Noah, I understood his side more as the story unfolded, there were even more secrets than the ones that opened the book. He was just as lost as Jules, and thought he thought he was over her, but once he saw her again that sizzle between them was sooo intense. But he has a fiancée with him,  though that didn't stop the glances and stares when each thought the other wasn't looking.  There was so much sexual tension between them it was burning up.. I loved Noah and was rooting for him and Jules right from the start but...his fiancée was such a lovely lady and that made it tough. Luckily Sharla has a good answer...Poor Jules, it seemed just as she was getting over one disaster something else would come out, problems with the shop, her daughter, her ex-husband, Noah’s dad, who has the shop next to hers and hates her, and problems with the time of year which brought a special kind of sadness to her. I was on a roller coaster of emotions with her, kept getting tears in my eyes, then that would pass, then something else emotional would happen. It wasn't all angst though, once all the secrets were revealed there was a fantastic happiness for all of them, a bonus she never expected that lifted some of the years she'd been grieving.  It all came together in a fabulous, plot filled, and fantastic finale.  I spent the whole time gripped to the page, wondering just what else could come out. Just when I thought noting worse could happen something did. But I got my HEA, and that made it all worthwhile. A fabulous book and definitely once for the keeper files. Its priced at 2.41 for 301 packed with emotion pages.Stars: a cracker, stand alone and worth every one of the five stars!ARC supplied via Netgalley