Kindle Edition, KU (both books)
Author: Jewel E. Ann
Brace yourselves because I have thoughts!!!!
This is a duet that ends in a cliffhanger. I like to state that right from the beginning because I HATE HATE HATE that stuff.
The story begins with Therese (Reese), heading to Colorado to spend the summer with her estranged mom, who was in jail for 5 years. (For growing weed, which sounds ridiculous right now, right?). Reese has been raised by her grandparents because her dad has suddenly passed away soon after her mom was incarcerated.She’s an 18-year-old virgin, very Church-y and very sheltered. She hasn’t had a cellphone until recently. As soon as she gets to her Mom’s, she learns that her mom is leaving her all alone in the basement she rents from this guy for 5 weeks while she does some hairdressing training in LA. (WHAT THE FUCK?! You haven’t seen your kid in 5 years!!!!) Well, Fisher Mann, the landlord, is obviously fun and hot as you would expect in a romance novel. Rory, the mom, has also arranged for Reese to work with Fisher, who has a construction firm. So, they will not only live together but also work together. Nothing will come out of that, right? *major eye roll*
There is a lot of teasing and seducing and making out and not having S-E-X. They obviously catch feelings, but the age gap kicks in and Reese takes off to work in a mission in Thailand, leaving us the readers annoyed AF with a cliffhanger in our hands.
Book 2 is set 5 years later. Reese is definitely not longer the virginal teenager. She is now a nurse and wants to train to be a midwife and Fisher is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Angie. He suffers head trauma in a motorcycle accident and can’t remember Angie at all. Or Reese, who rushes back to Colorado immediately when she hears that he was seriously injured.
Fisher reconnects with Reese and they rekindle their friendship and pretty soon the attraction also takes over. Fisher is in an awkward position: engaged to a girl who lives with him, who his family adores and, to make matters worse, he keeps being told that he adores her. But these feelings are not there. But the feelings for Reese definitely are.
I am conflicted. I really thought I was going to love these books and well, I didn’t. Book 1 annoyed the crap out of me. I understand why she is like that but Reese is too immature and the “church-y-ness” irked me. I also couldn’t fathom a mother leaving her kid with a guy the kid doesn’t know. Ok, he’s her friend and she trusts him, but yeah, we could all see that he definitely couldn’t be trusted! LOL
The book was too long to end in a cliffhanger. To be honest, this all should have been one book…
And after all the making out and the dry humping and the “just-the-tip-ing” of book one you would expect that when they finally had sex it would be epic. Oh crap, it wasn’t. It was ridiculously disappointing.
I understand that with a five year time lapse, the characters would be different, but they are VERY VERY different. Fisher, with his amnesia, spends most of the book confused and I missed the cocky Fisherman of book 1, even though he sounded very immature then.
The amnesia trope is OK and it did help develop the story, but I could smell the “Angie situation” a mile away. I also get that Reese, now an adult, wanted Fisher to fall in love with her all over again, but keeping him in the dark about their past was not cool.
The side-story with the mom explains a lot in terms of backstory and I am glad that by the second book Reese has managed to learn to think for herself and get rid of the bigotry she learned from her grandparents.
Book 2 gets better, we do get a cute HEA, but for the love of Baby Jesus, there was no need for two books. AT ALL. I was so annoyed at some points that I thought I’d DNF, but my OCD tendencies made me finish them. I was happy with the last half of book 2 and the epilogue, though.
Dear authors, don’t write duologies if, with good editing you can have one good book. Just sayin’…
Possible triggers: main female character is very repressed by religion; bigotry; extremely judgmental characters; unexpected loss of a parent; homophobia; motorcycle accident
