Review: Emotionally Gripping!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 12, 2012
Cari Quinn's Heart Signs is an emotionally gripping story of love and heartache. Sam Miller is putting up billboard love notes to his dead wife Dani, to atone for his guilty feelings during their brief marriage. Rory Fowler is the worker for the sign company that takes the billboard orders and has slowly romanticized about Sam. Over the course of two years they have established an email relationship exchanging small talk about sports and life but nothing beyond the ordinary. When Rory sees the latest billboard and sees that his wife has died she calls him up to express her condolences and things change for both of them. They meet under funny circumstances which somehow ignites feelings again in Sam, which he hadn't felt in a very long time.I love the two characters of Rory and Sam. Rory is quirky and says what is on her mind most of the time. She loves sports and hangs out with the guys watching football at the sports bar. She is in no way perfect, from her uncensored comments to her insecurities of what to wear for their date, it makes this story more realistic for me. Sam is broken and in limbo after the death of his wife and doesn't know the next step on how to move forward. Sam wants to try a new tactic with his budding relationship with Rory and get to know her first before they make it physical. I think it was a good call on his part to take it slow and it wasn't something that Rory was used to herself. He wasn't ready to move forward just yet but he had feelings that Rory and he were something.What made me love this story were the little things throughout. I loved all the notes at the beginning of each chapter which showed me a little more about Sam and his feelings. They were tender and genuine and my heart was breaking at times. But then he starts to write them for Rory. One of the best lines in the book was his first email to her in which he says `Longing for you is the sweetest anticipation I've ever known.' I think that sums it up really nicely of what he was doing with her. Creating the anticipation and falling in love without either of them really knowing it. In the beginning they took advantage of talking on the phone for hours at a time and had some amazing phone sex. Who does that anymore? They have a give and take, and sometimes a push, but it all comes back to Sam deciding if he is ready to truly move on.Heart Signs is a compelling love story with raw emotions with two wonderful characters. You follow their story from instant attraction, to slow growing friendship and then to a passionate and loving couple. It is a book that had sensual heat building for both Rory and Sam and their first time together was somewhat magical. I absolutely love stories that draw all kinds of emotions out of me that had me tearing at tender moments and laughing out loud with silly funny moments. Ms. Quinn has done it again for me with another one of her well written stories (Insatiable) and I hope you will feel the same way too.