Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

Suffer Love

by Ashley Herring Blake

Sam Bennett falls for Hadley St. Clair before he knows her last name. When Sam finds out she is that St. Clair, daughter of the man who destroyed Sam's family, he has a choice: follow his heart or tell the truth about the scandal that links their families. Funny and passionate, Suffer Love is a story about first love, family dysfunction, and the fickle hand of fate. AGES: 14 and up AUTHOR: Ashley Herring Blake used to write songs and now she writes books, including Suffer Love. She reads them a lot too and has been known to stare wistfully at her bookshelves. She lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and two sons.

Reviewed by shannonmiz on

3 of 5 stars

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You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
3.5*

While I was writing this review, I felt like I'd read this book ages ago, but that wasn't really accurate. I'd only read it a couple weeks ago, but I needed to skim through it to remind myself of a few things. And then I remembered that yes, I did enjoy this book. But apparently, it didn't leave a lasting impression, which is okay, because not all books have to.

The fact that family was a huge theme in this book was great. Even though the families were not in the best places ever, you knew that there was love there, in some form, and that everyone was trying to heal from the aftermath of this affair. Of course, Hadley and Sam finding each other in the midst of this is not great timing (or very plausible, but whatever, stranger things have happened I guess). But the ups and downs of the family lives are really quite realistic, so I found that to be quite well done.
I also loved that there was a big focus on friendship- both on Hadley and Sam's ends. A lot of times either the guy will have friends or the girl will, or they'll not get along, but in this case they just each had pleasant, loyal friends who were positive influences in their lives. More of that, please and thank you!

The negative? Aside from being not very memorable after the fact, I kind of was a little weirded out by how much Hadley and Sam dwelled on the affair- and I don't mean because it was their parents (that is weird and should probably be talked about) but just the fact that their parents cheated in general. I don't know because I haven't lived through this situation, so I am certain I could be wrong here, but I don't know that I would have, as a teen, been so... "involved" in this particular infidelity. And to be honest, it kind of bothered me that the parents did involve the kids so much. Like Dr. Phil says, "you shouldn't involve kids in adult problems". Just saying.

Bottom Line: It was a sweet book, definitely had some emotional moments, and I definitely enjoyed it while reading it.

**Copy provided by publisher for review

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 5 May, 2016: Finished reading
  • 5 May, 2016: Reviewed