Review: An Emotional Roller Coaster
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 25, 2013
This review contains mild spoilers from Take Me Now, the first book in the series.Oh my goodness!  This book left me frustrated and fuming and pretty much livid with almost every single character in the novel!  Of course, it takes a skilled writer to make me so worked up over fictional characters, and Faith Sullivan excels at creating compelling, flawed lead and secondary characters who make believable (if infuriating) choices and realistic mistakes.  The author also creates even more flawed, scene-stealing, love-to-hate-them villains, and these characters (especially one in particular) combine with what seems to be poor Eric and Ivy’s endless streak of bad luck to create a whirlwind second installment.Now I have to say, I certainly didn’t start this novel feeling so furious toward all the characters.  Meant for Me drew me in right away with an unexpectedly sexy scene, and I loved how Eric was so protective of Ivy and determined to provide for her and their child on the way.  Ivy, on the other hand, is just as determined to contribute to her family’s livelihood and continue pursuing her writing career, so she finds herself working on a screenplay with Will—yes, the same Will she had a crush on all through high school, who turned out to be kind of an a**.  But in this book, we actually get Will’s point of view as well, and we find out there’s a lot more to him than the egotistical womanizer from the first book.  In fact, one of the things I liked best about this novel was how much we learned about so many of the secondary characters.  In some cases these revelations made characters more sympathetic, in other cases less so, but it always kept me on my toes.  Meant for Me takes place in a very small town where everyone knows everyone, and it seems like there’s an endless stream of secrets characters are desperate to keep hidden.  I nearly gasped aloud more than once!The most compelling aspect of the novel for me, however, was the medical problems during Ivy’s pregnancy and the way they affected her relationship with Eric.  This whole issue was so heartbreaking and handled so well, and it’s a terrifying thing that affects so many women in real life.  Though I was angry with both Eric and Ivy at the end of the book, I understood why both reacted the way they did.  I’m really hoping Eric and Ivy can find a way to work things out, and that fate will give them a bit of a break—but if there’s one thing this book has proved to me, it’s that Faith Sullivan’s books will take us to places unexpected and impossible to predict.