In This Life

by Christine Brae

Secrets ruin lives, and lies protect those secrets…

Wanting to escape her life in New York City before starting medical school in the fall, Anna Dillon convinces her best friend Dante to travel with her to Thailand on a medical mission. While volunteering in a coastal village recently ravaged by a tsunami, Anna meets Jude Grayson. They share an instant attraction that leads to a brief, passionate affair. When she has to rush home for a family emergency, he promises to stay in touch.

But Jude never calls, and Anna tries desperately to forget him.

Five years pass, and Anna finally moves on with Dante after giving up hope that Jude will ever return—until they come face to face again in a chance encounter. Reeling, Anna discovers the life-altering secret of why Jude never contacted her—and why they can’t be together. But the passion that ignited between them on an exotic beach years ago never died, making it impossible to stay away from each other.

And Dante? Anna discovers that the friend she grew to love—and trust—has a secret of his own.

• ISBN10: 1944109382
• ISBN13: 9781944109387
• Publish Date: 1 November 2016 (first published 20 January 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Vesuvian Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 325
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

"There is sacredness in tears, someone once said. What I learned that day was that without pain there could be no deliverance; without sin, no salvation. That in this life, it is only through sadness that one could truly experience joy."

First off I would like to say I am not the normal target for this type of book. I don’t really read much new adult nor do I really like reading it. I accepted the chance to read this book though without realizing that this was new adult, and after I found out I decided to go ahead and continue reading and to give it and this genre a chance.
Anna was a very real character, but she was extremely flawed and at time those flaws became very annoying. Anna goes to Thailand in order to get away from her mother who she feels has betrayed her and the rest of the family through having an affair. I got why she felt this way, but when certain things happened I wished she would have left Thailand and gone home. Instead she didn’t and ends up greatly regretting that decision and it massively changes her and how she deals with things. While she was in Thailand though Anna meets Jude who is also running from something (we don’t find out what this is for a very longtime.) while mostly their relationship is platonic it all changes when Anna gets a tragic phone call and basically needs comfort/distraction from what’s going on at home.
Fast-forward several years Anna is now with Dante and they have a somewhat happy life. Until Anna see’s Jude again and then everything spirals out of control and Anna starts going back and forth between the two being unable to make a decision of who she loves more/ who she wants to be with.
This is when I really started disliking the book. Anna to me got so annoying throughout this time because every time she would act like she had chosen one she would panic and then leave and go to the other one. It was just way too much back and forth and was just destroying all of their lives and was very confusing and could have been avoided. (If you ever find out something about someone who someone had previously had a thing for and still possibly loves tell them. Just do it.)
I do feel like some of the romance was rushed because of the time frames they needed to fit into and it made it seem like the connection shouldn’t have been as strong as they apparently were.
Overall I did have a lot of problems this book, which were mostly because this genre is just out of my comfort zone and I just don’t like reading about certain things.

See review first on my blog

I received this book as a gift from Red Coat PR and Christine Brae in exchange for my honest review.