Review: On the fence.....could be 4 stars with some minor changes
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 10, 2013
This is a short story romance (less than 100 pages) about Lydia and Chase.  Best friends all through college, but never pursued it romantically until Lydia's last night in San Francisco--she was moving to NYC for a job.  We follow Lydia's struggle for a few years, with various events pushing/pulling her thoughts towards Chase.  I found myself shaking my head at Lydia's choices and at times it was hard for me to really root for her.  Chase, on the other hand, reminds me of that best guy friend you had that was secretly in love with you.  Of course, very rarely have I heard that guy friend being Mr. Sexy but character-wise it was believable:  dependent, caring, reliable, putting her needs before his own, a true friend. I was happy with the ending, as I do not like many romance/fantasy stories NOT ending in HEA :)Why only 3 stars?  While I loved the basic storyline and found myself wanting to know what was next, it was very hard at times to follow the story.  The story bounces from the present to the past, and it is not done in a way easily followed.  Usually, when doing a flashback I've found author's to either change the font, or at least state in the beginning of the paragraph that the past was being thought of.  I am not sure if it is due to the first person POV which limited transitions between past/present, but one paragraph in the present would end and the next would read at first as it is something happening right now, but through context one sees that it was in the past.  Fixing past/present transitions would bump this up to a 4 star for me.Recommend: YesPurchase: I got for free....worth $0.99 if flashback issue is addressed***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***While some have stated that they don't find it believable that you can be friends with someone for 6 years and never bring up romanic feelings, I did not have a problem with that.  Many times, fear of losing the friendship you DO have for the romantic relationship you might WANT will keep people from expressing those feelings.  We are led to believe that Lydia never gave any hints/clues to Chase that she wanted something more...Chase's personality is one of support and love and he would rather have her in his life as a friend than risk losing her by expressing his feelings.My MAIN problem with the story is this: how can you go from being best friends with someone for 6 years and then totally cut them out of your life from one day to the next? Yes, they had sex the night before she left. Yes, she was embarrassed.  But how can you throw away an awesome friendship over that?? She was moving, not like they were going to have the awkward hanging-out-after-the-fact encounters.  She ignored his texts for a YEAR....how can you do that to someone you supposedly card about?  Even if it was, "it was a mistake" reply...something anything... For these actions alone I felt she did not deserve him. But that's just my opinion :)  I did not take stars off for that---3 stars given to a story that makes sense/follows the product description and free of major editing problems.  Just because a story doesn't end the way I would like or follow the path I thought it should does not mean I'll penalize the author for that.