I’ve actually been sitting at my computer watching my cursor blink for over 5 minutes. This book is just such a mixed bag for me that I don’t know how to start or what to say. So, I’m going with stream of thought to start to see if it kick-starts my brain. I should start by saying this is a new-to-me author, although it looks like he has a solid back library of a multitude of genres. And I absolutely love his bio on his Goodreads page.

Quite frankly, as much as I tried to see past it, my brain kept getting caught up on the student/teacher dynamic of Summer and Fox. Not where they are right now in their lives, but where they were a mere 5 or so years ago. In my mind, it’s too soon. Part of that may be that I have boys in Summer’s age-range and I’m somewhere in Fox’s age-range. But I’ve read plenty of age gap romances without issues, which makes me think it’s the power dynamic that is bothering me. Unfortunately, whatever my hang up was, it kept interrupting my flow while reading this story.

On the other hand, I adore the beginning of the actual relationship with these two. While it’s a bit of an aside, there is not a huge issue about gay/straight/bi. I was getting the vibe of “we love who we love”, and that’s something I always appreciate.

Here’s the thing, some of the things about this story that I wasn’t crazy about are things I think others will love. In my opinion, the author gets too wordy at times. In the beginning, it was actually appreciated by me. But once I got a feeling for the characters and their surroundings it felt like overkill. Some sentences would go on for so long I would forget what the sentence was trying to tell me in the first place. At a certain point, it turned into me feeling as though the author was telling me instead of showing me. Which made the link between Fox and Summer weaken at times. I felt a connection between the two for the first half of the book, but it started to wane the more every nuance was explained to me over and over again.

Although this story is a romance with an eventual HEA, it has on overall depressing (almost oppressive) feeling throughout. Again, something that some readers may love and appreciate. For me, not so much. There were also a few things that irked me here and there. I’m not going to list them out, but I can’t leave this one alone. You do NOT call a deceased spouse/significant other an ex. Just don’t. I would never call my deceased dad my mom’s ex-husband. It’s just icky to do so.

Trying to come up with a star rating is almost impossible for me on this one. Here’s how I’m going to do this. There were times in this story where I would have considered it a solid 4-stars. There were times that I had to bargain with myself to keep reading to the end of a chapter. There are things I disliked that I know others will enjoy. Since it seems my feelings waffle between a 2 and a 4, I’ll split the difference.

Oddly enough, after reading the Goodreads bio I mention at the beginning of my review, I’m curious to read something else by this author. He’s definitely got potential. I’d like to see if it’s just that we aren’t a good fit, or if I just read the wrong book by him.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.

Merged review:

I’ve actually been sitting at my computer watching my cursor blink for over 5 minutes. This book is just such a mixed bag for me that I don’t know how to start or what to say. So, I’m going with stream of thought to start to see if it kick-starts my brain. I should start by saying this is a new-to-me author, although it looks like he has a solid back library of a multitude of genres. And I absolutely love his bio on his Goodreads page.

Quite frankly, as much as I tried to see past it, my brain kept getting caught up on the student/teacher dynamic of Summer and Fox. Not where they are right now in their lives, but where they were a mere 5 or so years ago. In my mind, it’s too soon. Part of that may be that I have boys in Summer’s age-range and I’m somewhere in Fox’s age-range. But I’ve read plenty of age gap romances without issues, which makes me think it’s the power dynamic that is bothering me. Unfortunately, whatever my hang up was, it kept interrupting my flow while reading this story.

On the other hand, I adore the beginning of the actual relationship with these two. While it’s a bit of an aside, there is not a huge issue about gay/straight/bi. I was getting the vibe of “we love who we love”, and that’s something I always appreciate.

Here’s the thing, some of the things about this story that I wasn’t crazy about are things I think others will love. In my opinion, the author gets too wordy at times. In the beginning, it was actually appreciated by me. But once I got a feeling for the characters and their surroundings it felt like overkill. Some sentences would go on for so long I would forget what the sentence was trying to tell me in the first place. At a certain point, it turned into me feeling as though the author was telling me instead of showing me. Which made the link between Fox and Summer weaken at times. I felt a connection between the two for the first half of the book, but it started to wane the more every nuance was explained to me over and over again.

Although this story is a romance with an eventual HEA, it has on overall depressing (almost oppressive) feeling throughout. Again, something that some readers may love and appreciate. For me, not so much. There were also a few things that irked me here and there. I’m not going to list them out, but I can’t leave this one alone. You do NOT call a deceased spouse/significant other an ex. Just don’t. I would never call my deceased dad my mom’s ex-husband. It’s just icky to do so.

Trying to come up with a star rating is almost impossible for me on this one. Here’s how I’m going to do this. There were times in this story where I would have considered it a solid 4-stars. There were times that I had to bargain with myself to keep reading to the end of a chapter. There are things I disliked that I know others will enjoy. Since it seems my feelings waffle between a 2 and a 4, I’ll split the difference.

Oddly enough, after reading the Goodreads bio I mention at the beginning of my review, I’m curious to read something else by this author. He’s definitely got potential. I’d like to see if it’s just that we aren’t a good fit, or if I just read the wrong book by him.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.