Review: Intense, emotional and touching story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2013
Liliana is holding strong. A mother to an autistic son who was abandoned by her dad and in charge of taking care of her ailing mother, Liliana is determined to make a life for herself without feeling pity for herself or the situation she is in. Yes, she wishes things could be different but such is life and one must deal and move on.Ryan is going through the motions, experiencing life but not really living it. He has been haunted by a past that marked him and continues to interfere with his life. He drinks, he hooks up, but he's weary of people and is emotionally unavailable. Until Liliana walks into his life and awakens feelings he once thought he could never feel.I enjoyed this story so much. It was such an emotional, intense read that it kept me reading through the night.Marie Hall did a great job of bringing both Liliana and Ryan's struggles to the page. I could relate to them and their pain, even when I haven't experienced what they have gone through. This was not an easy read by any means but it was a captivating and touching one. I wanted to see Liliana live her life without the burdens of taking care of her mother and feeling rejected by her son. And I wanted for Ryan to make the most of the second chance at life that he was given.Ryan was not an easy character to get to know. He had built a fortress around himself and he held tightly to the key so no one could break inside. However, Liliana with her caring personality and understanding nature helped him let go enough for him to let her in. Eventually he recognized that he indeed wanted to be a better man for her and that he could only achieve that by allowing himself to deal and let go of the past.Liliana was an awesome character. Maybe it was because she was Latina, but I admired her strength of will and her acceptance of her life. Her situation wasn't ideal, but she was true to herself and made the most of it. Even afraid of getting hurt, she went ahead and got involved with Ryan. She couldn't NOT get involved with him. He called to a deep place in her heart and even when they drifted apart, she never begrudge her time with him.I appreciated that the author didn't immediately made Liliana and Ryan's relationship an intimate one. Mainly because I loved seeing how their connection developed over the course of the story, but mostly because it made it that much more meaningful when they finally did become intimate. I loved seeing them carefree and forgetting their troubles even if just for a little while.The secondary characters that were introduced in the story were great and added to the story in their own right. I loved Alex and admired the hell out of him because of how protective he was towards Ryan. These two had a bond that went beyond that of cousins and it was a treat to see them together in the good times. But just as horrible to see them at their worst.Although the resolution to all of Ryan's struggles seemed a bit rushed, I believe that once Alex's story is told I'll get to see how Ryan is coping with his issues. Alex and Ryan are so interrelated in what happened that any resolution Alex achieves in his story will surely, in turn, affect Ryan.A Moment was an intense, emotionally-driven story about a boy who learns to let go of his past to become the man he was meant to be for him to be able have a future he never thought he would have and the woman who helped to get him there.