Review: Sam is perfect!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2014
Sam. Sam is perfect. And yes, I know I claimed otherwise when I read Live. A girl reserves the right to change her mind, okay?Oh yes, Sam is my new favorite MAR (That’s Mary Ann Rivers’ for you) leading man. And trust me, when you read this you’ll know he’s all man.Laugh is Sam Burnside’s story. In Live, Destiny Burnside, Sam’s little sister who shouldered her sibling’s burdens, emotionally and physically, all out of love for them – fell in love herself. Sam, the eldest sibling, didn’t do much to help her in return. And he came across as a major a-hole.But, in Laugh, we get Sam’s other sides. The other facets to his personality, his behavior and his gorgeousness. Sam has ADHD, and while we know how this disorder affects children and adolescents, we don’t always think how it affects those children when they grow up to be adults. It doesn’t just go away with age. That’s what’s so special about MAR’s writing. She knows how to take these everyday “ailments” we never think about and make a story of them. Call it what you will, I call it brilliance!Back to Sam. We know from book one that together with Lacey, Des’s best friend and nurse extraordinaire, he’s opening a neighborhood clinic. The clinic enters some sort of community collaboration with the local farm, owned and run by Nina Paz, a gorgeous Latina widow. And now Sam’s object of desire.Nina is strong, loyal, loving, and is very determined to do right by herself and her friends. All while being the best farmer she can be. I loved how MAR carried through Nina's passion for her profession and weaved it through this special love story.Nina reads Sam beautifully. She sees through him and intuitively captures the good and bad and knows how to handle him and extract his best. He’s not an a-hole around her and with her (except for a few incidents when it was mostly deliberate – they just have to be self-consciously damaged, don’t they? tsk tsk) and it seems as though Sam falls for her right off the bat.I’ve never been more surprised reading such as sudden attraction from both MCs in a contemporary story as I have in this one. But exactly for that out of formula plotting it felt more real and genuine.There are wonderful supporting characters in this, of course, the other Burnside siblings are among them (and I want to mention PJ because, come on – the boy needs his Lacey and I need their story like air is running out) but mostly I’m talking about Tay and Rachel, Nina’s best friends. They completed the story arc with their part and their personality amazingly well. Also, hint to MAR – I’d want to know how Tay’s doing in future books. Just thought I’d share.I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a ginger man as much as I want one now. And I know any ginger I’ll meet will be automatically compared to Sam. (especially if he looks like the ginger on the cover *dies*)