Tina's Reading Books

This is actually closer to 2.5 stars.

I wanted to like this book. At times I came really close to loving parts of this book. There were points when the writing was lyrical, beautiful --- almost poetic even.

And then there were times when I was snatched right out of the book by an awkward phrase or repetitive writer tics that felt like they were chipping away at my reading experience.

But even that would not have registered too widely if I was able to disappear into the story. Sadly, I could not. I just wasn't overly engaged in Brandon's and Natalie's love story. The book felt and read like the author took a lot of time and care to craft her characters and her story. Gratifyingly, the author has written a long, meaty book. This is not some dashed off novella with sexy times on every page. In fact the book takes place over seven plus years with little to no sex at all.

With better conflict or a more defined plot, the length would have been great. Unfortunately, in this case it had the effect of making the book sometimes feel unnecessarily tedious with really nothing to hang a plot on. I found myself becoming impatient with the pace and started skimming toward the middle-to-end.

And even worse, I don't feel that either character grew in all that time. They both still felt awfully immature, like their psyches were still stuck in their college-aged selves. And frankly the ending was terrible. What was that?

So not a winner for me.