Review: Too different or not?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2013
We start out with Zoe and Rory (who, by the way, is a guy. I kept thinking of Rory fromGilmore Girls: The Complete Series Collectionand, well, she's a girl). They were married, then things got bad--Rory became a workaholic--and Zoe left Rory. Fast forward a year and Zoe is now the proud owner of a honeymoon resort, but she needs publicity to make it popular. Unfortunately for her, that means that she has to suck it up and ask her husband to help make that happen.Rory wants his wife back, but he loves his lifestyle. He doesn't see anything wrong with it. He was born and raised poor, and he feels like he has to prove himself worthy of the business that he has built. Zoe left him because she felt that Rory had become a cold, ruthless businessman--and she wanted the man she had married: the nice, honest construction worker.So Rory heads to the island that Zoe has been living in, and here's where the story really begins. Rory and Zoe can't deny the attraction between them--and Rory doesn't want to--but Zoe tries. Boy, does she try. She doesn't want to get sucked back into love with Rory, only to result in more heartbreak.I really admired Zoe. It takes guts to leave a man you love. She was really strong and I understood why she loved the island lifestyle.Before I talk more about that, let me clarify something. In this island, there is almost no technology. There is a satellite phone that works some of the time, and a really, really slow computer that shuts down occasionally. So you can see how it would be hard for Rory--businessman extraordinaire--to go to this island.Now back to Zoe. She loves not having to always rely on technology, and she loves the people who live on the island as if they were her family. I get that. It sounds like heaven, being able to be on a relaxing island.And then there's Rory. He's been trying to prove to himself and the rest of the world that he isn't that poor construction worker that had to work double shifts just to buy his wife a wedding band. He likes his lifestyle and it works for him.Something that bothered me was that from the beginning to almost the end, Zoe and Rory were always emphasizing that they were too different. And from what I could see, they really were too different. They both wanted different things. The loved their respective lifestyles. But they wanted each other as well--which is a problem.I truthfully could not seem to find a way for them to be together. Rory loved living in Southern California. Zoe loved living in Tonga, a really remote island. They liked different lifestyles. Rory needed technology for his business to work. Zoe couldn't live in an asphyxiating environment like it was with Rory.I kept thinking: How is the author going to do it? How will she realistically get them their happily ever after?This simple fact--that they did not go together--was what really made it hard for me to read. I loved the attraction between them, I loved the obstacles, but who wants characters that don't go together?Luckily, the author did a pretty good job. She realistically was able to have circumstances reset their priorities and have them have their happily ever after.And that's what matters.I recommend this book for people who love the "true love conquers all" mentality, and protagonists that overcome challenges that get thrown at them.