If you're a romance fan, check out my review and enter the giveaway below...
Still UsAdult Contemporary Romance
Paperback & ebook, 314 Pages
May 19th 2018 by Hot Tree Publishing
Summary
From the first time they locked eyes, Lila Morrow and Luke Bowman had a special spark. Their first kiss sealed their fairy-tale romance… until everything fell apart.
Luke’s life began when he met Lila—and in many ways, it ended when she left him. Drowning in regrets, Luke is determined to give Lila the space to be happy. The sexy, singing roofer quickly realizes, however, he really shouldn’t have let her go.
After their breakup, Lila moves back in with her family. The twenty-nine-year-old veterinarian’s transition to a life without Luke isn’t as easy as she expected. With the help of her wild Grandma Claire and her high-heel-loving sister, Maren, she starts to play the field… but she isn’t sure she’ll ever stop loving the curly-haired man from her early twenties.
Luke and Lila’s love story ended, and their individual boxes have been packed. But as they explore the single life and the dating world, both discover sometimes the love you leave behind is exactly what you need to be happy.
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My Review
STILL US is a bittersweet story about losing love and fighting for a second chance at that love. Romance fans will love these characters, the emotional tug on the reader's heart, and the sweet romance.
Goodness. This story was crazy, blunt, full of chemistry and heart. I loved the characters, although Luke is rather depressing. I wanted him to figure things out for himself without Lila and still be able to fight for her. Lila has all these expectations and didn't quite see what was in front of her. I liked how easily it was to connect to them both - with their fears, insecurities, dreams, and wishes. Haven't we all had moments when we thought love would be easy and others when we knew it was worth working for? That, I think, is the epitome of this story. That love is worth the fight, but that it isn't perfect - that it takes work and effort and that we have to choose it. There was definitely a pull on my emotions in parts, even bringing tears in one place. Kudos to the author for being able to make me cry. I also loved Luke's sister, Scarlet, and the donuts shop owner, Dot. Lila's grandma is a dynamic character, full of dramatic personality. They brought a lot to this story.
Just a couple of things bothered me. I wanted more character development and more time with them figuring out how to make their relationship work. I think that would have added a lot more depth to the story. Also, I would have liked the story to have been cleaner. There was a a lot of profanity, and me being religious, I think that bothered me more than a lot of the other things. There was also a lot of crude references and innuendo and swearing. General romance readers probably won't have too many issues here, but it bothered me.
In the end, was it what I wished for? An engaging story with complex characters, crazy family dynamics, and an overall heartfelt romance.
Content: Quite a bit of swearing, some vulgarity, some innuendo, closed-door scenes.
Source: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, which did not require a positive review nor affect it in any way.
About the Author
Love celebrating genuine, sweet love stories with a touch of spice? Join Lindsay's VIP Fan Club here and get a Free excerpt of Remember When: http://bit.ly/rememberwhenexcerpt.An English teacher, an author, and a fan of anything pink and/or glittery, Lindsay's the English teacher cliché; she loves cats, reading, Shakespeare, and Poe.
She currently lives in her hometown with her husband, Chad (her junior high sweetheart); their cats, Arya, Amelia, Alice, Marjorie, and Bob; and their Mastiff, Henry.
Lindsay's goal with her writing is to show the power of love and the beauty of life while also instilling a true sense of realism in her work. Some reviewers have noted that her books are not the “typical romance.” With her novels coming from a place of honesty, Lindsay examines the difficult questions, looks at the tough emotions, and paints the pictures that are sometimes difficult to look at. She wants her fiction to resonate with readers as realistic, poetic, and powerful. Lindsay wants women readers to be able to say, “I see myself in that novel.” She wants to speak to the modern woman’s experience while also bringing a twist of something new and exciting. Her aim is for readers to say, “That could happen,” or “I feel like the characters are real.” That’s how she knows she's done her job.
Lindsay's hope is that by becoming a published author, she can inspire some of her students and other aspiring writers to pursue their own passions. She wants them to see that any dream can be attained and publishing a novel isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Giveaway
- Open to those who can be gifted a copy through Amazon
- Ends June 15th
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You can read an excerpt from STILL US on the author's blog here. Have you read any of this author's books?
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