Review: Exes, Forgiveness & HEA
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 25, 2013
So the “cougar” has nabbed the cub. Now what? A wedding of course! And if you are Claire and have the perfect billionaire boyfriend it stands to reason you would want the perfect wedding – anything to erase the fiasco that was her first go round. At last, everything will be fabulous and flawless, especially if Jonathan has anything to say about it, but I guess nobody told her ex that.At last is right! I couldn’t wait to dive into Mid Life Love: At Last because I so adored the sweet story of Claire and Jonathan. However, I kind of felt a little off while reading the first few chapters. Was I missing something? So I stopped and went back to re-read Mid Life Love and get back in touch with these two. But nope still something was missing. Gone was the charismatic, effortless charm of Jonathan instead an aggressive, somewhat hostile, megalomaniac is in his place. Claire while always a tightly wound stress monster had added indecisive procrastinator to her makeup. The twins remained annoying however. I guess this is what planning a wedding will do to you.The introduction of the ex into the picture didn’t quite work for me and even more so the reason why. It was a hard pill to swallow and a bit too melodramatic. Jonathan doesn’t come out looking like the white knight, but rather insecure and jealous (but he still looks good); although he always does right by Claire in and out of the bedroom. Yes, the sexy time while hot seems more aggressive this time around and there is no shortage of the good stuff. There's a lot of sexy time, jealousy, wedding stuff, more jealousy, Jonathan sets her straight ( i.e. more sexy time) and repeat.I missed Claire’s voice in all this. Why is she dragging her feet with the wedding stuff, why is she avoiding Jonathan? He tells her that he “doesn’t know who she is anymore,” and I felt the same. She got everything she ever wanted so what’s the problem? Enter her ex husband, lurking and stalking in the background. Ah ha he is the reason for all this oftputtingness! Obviously from the first book, we know him to be a cheating, lying dirt bag and we, err Claire shouldn’t be giving him the time of day. But of course to move forward you have to forgive, it’s not for the other person it’s for ourselves, yada, yada, yada...WTF Claire why are you even entertaining this? But my girl, Ms. Whitney doesn’t let Claire linger in the pushover lounge and she redeems herself eventually. Kudos to you Ms. Williams for not caving in to the rainbows and unicorn. You gotta keep it real when you get the chance to face those that have wronged you.Mid Life Love: At Last left me a little wanting. The girl power moments were few, and the testosterone ran wild (I don't mind it in the bedroom or elevator, or yacht) but fisticuffs in the stairwell seemed a little gauche. Now if we had seen Claire handling businessI would have been ecstatic. Warning: Ryan and ilk, don't hang around the stairs when I'm around.Overall I was happy to see SPOILER ALERT Claire and Jonathan say I do, It was a little rough, but if you can’t go a little 'zilla while planning your wedding when can you? At least no one went to jail but it was just an okay read for me.