is a Kindle Unlimited book about dysfunctional relationships between three fairly unlikeable people, The story focuses on the relationship of two sisters Tessa and Alli, and the man they both loved Sam, Its all very J. Hawkins Something in the Way like except shorter, and Alli is much more aggressive in gaining Sams affections, The book starts with a weird dream sequence between the grandma Phoebe and her late husband, It doesnt fit with the book blurb, so just go with it,
Most of the conflict has happened prior to the book starting, We go in knowing these facts Tessa and Sam were childhood sweethearts they had a fight on Christmas because she chose to go model instead of coming home to him.
he got drunk and slept with Alli Allibecame pregnant Sam married Alli Tessa left and has not been back in nine years,
At the beginning Alli has already asked Sam for a divorce they are separated because she cant stand being second best anymore, Her and Sam have a good marriage, loads of sex/faithful but he has never told her he loves her, and refuses to have more children, She has always felt like she trapped him, and that he still had feelings for Tessa, Sam is shocked and angry that Alli is breaking their family up, He feels he has done everything to be a good hubs/father, and that Alli will never be satisfied, Meanwhile, Phoebe has a stroke forcing Tessa to return home in the midst of their marital strife,
The author stated that she tried to explore the idea of first love vs, deep longlasting love. The problem for me was it was hard to find the “feelings” authentic or believable from characters that I didnt really like, Tessa is portrayed as a catty, selfcentered bitch, Alli is portrayed as an insecure, jealous brat, Sam is portrayed as a wimpy, dodgy coward,
Although, Sam doesnt really act he kisses herno tongue on anything with Tessa, and its clear his feelings are for Alli, He certainly is awfully wobbly he avoids answering any questions of telling either one how he feels, which got SO annoying Hes still doing “soul searching” as to what he really wants up until the end, Its all very The Bachelor How is it deep true love if you are even having to “think” about it
Then we have this sister element.
These two dont like each other at all, and didnt even before Sam slept with Alli, They never say anything nice to or about each other, Tessa is aggressively pursuing Sam even though she hasnt seen him in almost a decade, Thenpoofafter one food fight, everythings perfect, They love each otherall forgiven, Except Tessa still double checks just to make sure she doesnt have a shot with Samsigh
The book is not all that longpages and its free so you really have nothing to lose.
Everyone gets a HEA by the end, I initially picked up this book because the premise seemed to promise a lot of drama,
The main character Allie was by far the best character in the book, She is the younger of two sisters, Her older sister Tessa is in Allie's eyes perfect, She's tall, thin and gorgeous, She is also the first love of Allie's husband Sam,
Allie is a wonderful contradiction and that is why i think she is a great character, On the one hand she is a gogetter, She is focused, a good mother, incredibly likeable she simply makes things happen, However around Tessa and Sam she is mass of insecurities, In Tessa's case Allie always compares herself negatively to Tessa mainly on the basis of looks, In Sam's case she feels that she got him by default because nine years ago while Sam and Tessa had broken up after an argument, Allie slept with Sam and got pregnant.
As the book opens Allie and Sam are separated, Allie has been madly in love with Sam since she can remember and although he has been a good husband and father, she feels that something is missing that he is holding a part of himself back.
And she has come to conclusion that she simply can't love enough for the both of them, So she wants out.
Coincidentally, Tessa is coming back to town to see their ailing grandmother, Tessa has not been back home since Allie and Sam got married, For Allie it just means that Sam and Tessa can finally get together the way they should have all those years ago, From her perspective she had gotten in the way of fate, now she is getting out of the way and letting true nature take it's course,
I think on some level the author succeeds in showing us that Allie's perspective is skewed when it comes to those two and that it isn't quite an easy thing for a man to relegate his wife of nine years into the role of interloper.
Especially when the marriage has been a pretty good one, And yet the author also succeeds on another level in showing that Sam and Tessa do have some unresolved feelings for each other that they clearly do need to work out.
So what is real Sam's nineyear marriage and his wife or his old feelings for an exflame
The problem is don't think the story works through that question all that well.
I wanted to see Sam clearly examine what/who he wanted, I wanted the author to show me that Sam was truly struggling with the options he was given, I don't feel that happened, There would be points in the story when I felt like the we were getting tantalizingly close to a point where the story would click and I actually feel that the tangle of feelings and emotions being grappled with.
But it always slid away, just out of reach, The whole time I felt that all the characters, especially Sam and Tessa tended to talk around each other when they could actually finish a conversation without being interrupted.
In the end, Sam does realize where his true feelings lay, but it wasn't very satisfying, Throughout the story I thought that Sam was pretty passiveaggressive, And a bit of a jerk as well, really, Allie was clear about what she wanted from him and he stubbornly refused to give it to her and yet at the same time he wonders why she is pushing for a divorce.
Allie left no area for misunderstanding and yet he just didn't hear her,
Tessa comes off as pouty and entitled, She is also, imo, the least developed of the three,
The writing was excellent, I just wish the story had lived up to the dramatic promise, I bought the book because it got a lot of high
reviews and my bestie recommended it so much,
But I regret every minute I spent reading this
horrible book,
Sam, Tessa, and Alli grew up together, Sam and
Tessa were apparently madly in lurve, but during a
Christmas break when Tessa decided not to come home,
Sam got drunk and slept with Alli.
Nine years later Alli
and Sam are married and have a little girl, the product of
that night, At this point Tessa is a famous model and
one day Alli finds a box full of pictures of Tessa
among Sam's possessions, Tired of being in love
with a man that will forever love her sister Alli
files for divorce,
During all this drama Tessa and Alli's grandma is
hospitalized due to health issues and Tessa has to
come back home, Her return causes a lot of issues for
Sam and Alli and so the angstiness ensues,
OMG, the angst was too much for me and I spent the
rest of the book wanting to punch Tessa and kick Sam
in the nuts.
First of all, I know I have an unpopular opinion
because most of my friends stated that Allie was the
villain of the story for separating Sam and Tessa.
However, to me both Sam and Allie were at fault
because no one forced him to stick his into
her when he was supposedly madly in love with Tessa.
I would have felt bad for Tessa but she was such
a brat throughout the story that it drove me nuts,
With that being said here are the reasons why I hated
pretty much everyone in the story except for
the photographer,
This is a lengthy rant, DO NOT click on the spoiler
because it will give away practically the entire story,
Messy Stars
This was so good and so frustrating at the same time, I read it in one sitting, I don't know how my eyes were not bleeding from reading nonstop, all night, My bleary eyes couldn't focus on the Kindle screen, But I. Could. Not. Stop.
My reading addiction is insane,
I have mixed feelings about this one, I can't decide if I loved it or not, It has a HEA that I did love but I also feel like I needed more Idk, but I was left with lingering questions, I'm emotional at the moment and I blame Sam, the hero,
A few reviews I rec are from:
NMmomof
Geri Reads
Nikki ღ Navareus this one made me laugh
I hated Sam, I loved Sam. I had a love/hate relationship with him, He was annoyingly evasive about his feeling sometimes, it made me want to scream, Regardless, I truly believe our heroine, Alli, was his forever love, Without a doubt, his ideal match, He explains things well to Alli at the end and it sounded genuine to me, I heroworshiped the guy just as much as Alli and her sister, Tessa, did, I saw him through their eyes and I couldn't help but feel the same,
I loved Alli, Despite the wrong she did when she was young and in love! I rooted for her badly, I felt her anguish, her insecurities, My eyes got misty during one of her heartfelt conversations with Sam, I'm also glad she demanded better from Sam and didn't settle, She was stubborn and rightfully so, I cheered her on.
I hated Tessa for many reasons
that I don't feel like going into, But why, OH WHY did she have to be so beautiful I was sick of reading about her beauty because she was the other woman! Alli's archnemesis, She was the hero's childhood best friend and first love, and even though that was in the past, she was still an issue between Alli and Samyears later.
HEA: Yes.
Epilogue: Yes
Cheating: Um, . this is a gray area, in my opinion, A light kiss. And maybe some emotional cheating,
Would I read this again Yes, purely for the angst and because I feel another read might clarify a few things for me, .
Catch Hold Of Just The Way You Are Composed By Barbara Freethy Compiled As Text
Barbara Freethy