My review in gifs...
Speechless. Truly. This was brilliant. Cannot wait to read this all over again.
Special thanks to my BR friends...Marco, Lloyd, Nikki, Elsbeth and Teri...What a ride!
And for my Levi and Dominic...
You boys are in my top three for sure. Love Love Love this couple. Damn.
Note:
I am not convinced we have seen the last of SOS...only time will tell.
I wanted so badly to love this. And I did really enjoy it but this is not my favorite of Roan’s work. The depth of exploration into the dynamics of these characters and this couple was lacking for me. And honestly this is probably just a personal beef but my gawd…3 pages at 50% just kinda destroyed things in my eyes and I lost my feelings for this couple to the point that as wonderful as the end was, I just couldn’t get back the feelings I had developed for them as a couple.
What Will did in “Where We Left Off”, I understood. His actions and their relationship was so beautifully crafted that it just made sense to me and I never hurt the way I did in this book. In a matter of 3 pages, when I had thought a reconciliation was coming, I got handed “Two Months Later” followed by “I plucked him from the small crowd waiting for us backstage and fucked him against the counter in my dressing room, his hands and his release leaving smears on the mirror. This was how it had been. A parade of men who, for just a few minutes, gave me something to hold onto.” And then throw in a real reconciliation and the decision to forgo condoms after months of fucking around with no mention of testing…yeah, I kinda lost my shit over Theo’s actions and honestly was not able to really let this go in my head.
What occurs is almost stating in passing as if it meant nothing. And I get it probably didn’t in the grand scheme of things, but in reality, it did. At least to me. I never felt the reason he was doing this…there was no lead up to these actions for me to understand why and as a result it made the relationship he did have with Caleb less important in my eyes. I mean towards the end of the book, he realizes Caleb needs time to process things. Why couldn’t he see this earlier…that Caleb was just being fucking stupid and needed time. Instead he resorts to what I perceive is typical Rock Star behavior and fucks nameless faces in his dressing room…which for me did not seem like the Theo we were getting to know at all. Nice.
Oh well. Overall, this is beautifully written, as all of Roan’s work is…just wish I had connected to these two more. And know my personal issue with this book is just that and did not seem to bother the others reading this book with me at all. To each his own. I will definitely be reading more in this series
Once again Nicky James tackles a very serious mental condition and does so with such thoughtfulness, such care and with love.
Not everything in life is easy, you know. It’s the people who risk facing the hard stuff and the scary stuff every day who come out stronger in the end.
And while this is a quote from the book, this could certainly apply to the author as well. She does not shy away from difficult stories. From stories of loss, mental health and death. She tackles these head on and with such love. And it is these stories which grab hold of your heart and soul and that ultimately become some of the most memorable reads for me.
This is one of those stories. The ability to get into the head of our sweet Huxley could not have been easy to write but my heavens...I felt it all. Every fear, every doubt. And to not only write about this character's condition but to develop an equally complex character in Aspen whose patience, love and understanding leads this character home could not have been easy. And where they ultimately found home was just perfection.
This is quite a long book and one that builds quite beautifully. Trust is not something that comes easily and therefore it takes time.
Not all people are out to get you, Huxley. Some people just want to be nice.
How do you build trust with someone who doubts your every move? Who reads things into statements differently and has fears you cannot begin to understand?
That definitely takes patience and time.
This book is that exploration. It is that journey of trust which is told here. And while your heart breaks, you understand the journey is not an easy one. Mental health is not easy. You cannot simply take a pill and make things better. Mental health affects the person and those around them in such a special way. And living with this falls on both parties.
Trust. Love. Understanding. Patience.
I cannot recommend this book and others by Nicky James enough. Open your heart to some feels you will not soon forget.
Log in with Facebook 
