Review: Good story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2013
I reviewed this book at MustReadBooksOrDie with my friend Shelley.Shel: This may tell you everything you need to know about this book: I read it in one sitting. I think it took 4 hours--only stopping for coffee and donuts. So, as you can guess, I really enjoyed it! Court: Hahaha, it did read really, really fast. Although you could've shared the donuts! ;)Shel: At the very beginning we have an interesting scene from Grace's past--that will come in to play later--and then we plunge right into her current life. She's graduating from college and has a summer before law school and it's in this time frame that we get to see the romance blossom between Grace and Parker. Because this novel is shorter than others, the pacing of their story is fast and I quite liked it. Nacole Stayton explained the gaps in time very nicely and I never felt that I was missing out on any part of their story.Court: I completely loved their story because Grace is pretty inexperienced and awkward. And that is so awesome and great. There is a part fairly early on that I seriously laughed for five minutes straight because you can just see the train crash coming...and it just cracked me up...Let's just say she caught him doing something he should've waited to get home to do...and had NO idea...giggling now just thinking about it. That being said...I enjoyed the happy and carefree first half of this story because it was simply that. It is obvious angst is coming, but I pretended it wasn't!Shel: I found the adoption storyline interesting and I absolutely loved that the families involved were shown in a positive light--no abuse or horror stories about evil parents or siblings here. I also enjoyed the secondary characters; none of them were strongly featured but their contributions were important to adding conflict, relief, and humor throughout the story.Court: I was grateful for that too. As all of the events unfold, she is hurt by not knowing things...but really at the end of the day they meant her no harm and loved her so much. Not every adoption story goes that way, so it was a refreshing direction. She has some growing up to do, and it was cool to see it play out. Park...he didn't handle a few things the way he should have, and again I could see the train crash coming but this time I was not laughing. The last few chapters are hard for Grace in way too many ways. Whoo!Court: We both discussed how much writing growth we see having read a previous novel of Nacole's before (and enjoyed that) so it is even more enjoyable and exciting because she writes sooooo good!Shel: I liked this story so much that I wish that it was longer and that Nacole Stayton would write a new story about ANY of the secondary characters; I'd love to read more about them all. Court: As would I. Can we have Carson up first? I need to know more about that guy!Shelley: 4 StarsCourtney: 4 Stars