Review: Had both good and bad qualities
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 11, 2014
This was a difficult review for me to write. I was so excited to read this book, and was really expecting to love it, but unfortunately I did not love it the way I had hoped. There were both pluses and minuses for me in it, but I do feel that in my own personal taste the minuses outweighed the pluses. The last 20% I was really into and thought was great, but the rest I found very difficult for me to really get into and lose myself in the story. I also found it difficult to connect with the characters, and I REALLY could not stand Colton (like he really drove me nuts). I found him to be borderline obsessive and overly pushy and he completely irked me and turned me off. I didn't particularly like Carly Jo either for a good portion of the book although I did not dislike her the way i did Colton.Another thing which I did not care for was the way every word that ends in "-ing" was written as -n' (ex. loving was written as lovin' and crying was written as cryin'). I found this to be quite distracting from the story itself and it felt like half the page had words written this way. I understand that many southerners speak in this manner, however hearing it and reading it are two very different things, and I personally felt it was overkill to have every -ing word written like this.Also I did not like how after all the hell Carly Jo went through… as soon as she has sex again (years later) she doesn't even think to use any sort of protection. That just did not sit well with me at all. Especially when she was trying to push away Colton for a good chunk of the book, she shouldn't have been having unprotected sex with him. I am not so sure someone who went throughout what she did would have been so careless.I LOVED Heidi Jo's Character. She was AMAZING. This little girl brought so much life and happiness into the story, and I found myself smiling ear to ear whenever I read a scene with her in it. If I was ever to have a little girl of my own, I would want her to be just like Heidi Jo.Luke- I enjoyed his character and would like to have seen more of him. Honestly, I found myself rooting for him to win over Carly Jo since their first encounter (before they spoke). He sounded sexy as hell! I kind of wish he had been the main male in the story because then I would have been drooling! He was pretty laid back, and NOT psychotically obsessed with Carly Jo. He seemed like a truly sweet guy, especially after learning about his past, and the kind of guy I would love to be swept off my feet by.Again, I really enjoyed the ending... and with the cliffhanger and unanswered questions, I will probably end up reading book 2 so I know what happens. But if I did not enjoy the ending as much as I did, I honestly am not sure if I would read book 2 or not. Then again, I do not like leaving off in a series and not knowing what will happen, so maybe I still would have. Throughout the first three quarters of the book if you were to ask me if I was excited for book 2, I would have said no. But after reading the last 1/4 of the story, I can honestly say I am looking forward to the release of book 2 because I was left needing to know what the hell is going to happen