Ing Cruz
Written on Jul 10, 2019
River has been moved around from foster home to foster home and has many emotional and physical scars. She is hesitant and at first dubious of the James’s as she feels that she’ll probably get moved again eventually. I liked River’s character. Her journey to being leery and slowly accepting her place in the James’s loving circle was great to read about. I really enjoyed being on her journey. The James have a son name Oliver ‘Ollie’ who is a great character. I can’t wait to read more about Ollie in his upcoming book. Ollie has a bestie name Everett who is like family to the James’s.
Everett was raised by his grandparents after his parents were killed in a car accident. His dad was close with the James’s dad and was partner in their company. Everett is close to his granddad who is very ill and slowly dying. He has his own demons and code he wants to live by to make sure he continues to make his parent’s proud.
The first half of the book was great. Had so much potential. I enjoyed River's story with getting use to her new life with her adopted family and her meeting and falling for Everett our hero. I like how they were friends and slowly started developing feelings for each other. There is an age gap but not too much.
Second half was where I got frustrated. Mainly I was frustrated with the hero. He was weak and cowardly. Everett has an on and off again girlfriend through this whole book. Things happen between him and his girlfriend plus his trying to live up to his dad’s expectation that drags this relationship on. I felt the reasoning behind all this was weak. This quote pretty much sums up our hero, during the second half.
"There’s a lot of shit I don’t want to do that I settle with."
He settled a lot. Ugh. Also second half wasn't enough time between River and Everett as a couple without all the baggage. It felt like once Everett pulled his thumb out of his butt we only get like 1 chapter of them together before the epilogue. Warning there is an event that happens that will not sit well with folks. The hero and heroine do sleep together while he is still with his on and off again girlfriend.
River, the first half of this book and Ollie are the reasons why this was a 3 Stars read for me. This was my first book by this author and I enjoyed her writing. I can't wait for book 2, which is Ollie’s book.