I bet when you all found out I was reading a romance this week, you collectively rolled your eyes and said, "Oh boy, she's going to hate this." And I, myself, was actually really worried that I wasn't going to get into the romance - too many Harlequin stereotypes filled my mind. And being as Gina's got my precious book in her hands this week, I was pretty dern nervous that I was going to have to carefully choose my words.
Except that I was riveted to this book. It was honest, it was real and layered, and it was so much more than a "middle-aged-woman-meets-dashing-cowboy."
Twilah's having a rough day, y'all. She gets a phone call from Podunk, North Carolina saying that her drunk father has passed away, and finds her fiance in bed with her best friend. One thing at a time - Twilah decides to take a break from LA and cheating bastards for a quick trip down country lane to settle her father's affairs.
OR DOES SHE?
(Spoiler alert: it's not a quick trip).
Twilah hires handsome country-boy-with-a-dark-past Aiden to help around the farm because he doesn't ask for the money up front. One thing leads to another, boom-shacka-lacka-and it's a romance.
Except it's so much more than that, and that's why I was so riveted. Twilah is the daughter of an abusive alcoholic, a fact which presents itself subtly in her mannerisms and her reactions. When she discovers Aiden's past, it's not this blow up cliche kind of fight - rather, she's afraid that he's going to become her father, angry and violent, and when he proves himself to be calm and rational, it's just another stepping stone to building their little bridge.
The secondary characters were memorable as well - each with their own side stories, issues, and impacts to the overall plot. Victoria, in particular, was a hilarious and unique individual - but one that I could see popping out of the ground in Pensacola. Their own meet cute was kind of sporadic - a fender bender in the middle of a shopping trip - but the more that we got to know Victoria, the seize-life-by-the-balls mentality made sense. Her story was predictable, but executed incredibly well.
I actually think that's the crux of why I liked this book so much. There was nothing in here that was out of the ordinary or fantastical - hell, I could tell you the ending before the book even got started - but the execution of the predictable was so well done. I was rarely aware that I was actually reading a book, and there was never one point in the entire book where I rolled my eyes or made a face.
And that includes the steamy-steam scenes.
Oh myyyyyyyy.
So... and this is a big one, and I'm really nervous about saying this:
But The Long Way Home gets the first Five Star Rating of Fall for the Indie Book.
In fact, it gets the first five stars of ANY book I've read this year. I don't give five stars lightly because when I do give them, I want them to mean something.
So here you are. #meaning
Buy The Long Way Home
on Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment