Long and Short Reviews LASR
Clint’s best friend, Beth, had introduced him to Chrissy. Clint was in his last term before graduating, and he was determined to focus on his studies, but he just couldn’t manage to get Chrissy out of his head. Clint and Chrissy were thinking that things were really going somewhere when Chrissy had to leave suddenly due to a family illness. It’s years later when they finally cross paths again. Will past hurts keep them separate? Or can they finally build something beautiful together? I found this to be an interesting and fun short story. I really liked both Clint and Chrissy’s characters – particularly Chrissy’s timidness and book-ish manner. I found it refreshing that Chrissy managed to be both a modern woman, but not overly bold or brazen. I wasn’t keen on the abruptness of the two paragraph explanation that Chrissy suddenly went home due to her mother being ill. It made the “college” section of Chrissy and Clint getting to know each other and the jump forward ten years in time to them actually starting a relationship quite jarring and I thought it derailed the smoothness of the story somewhat. That said, I ended up kind of thinking about the book in two different parts “college time” and “grown up” life. While I wish the segue between the two had been a bit smoother and better-described, the two parts themselves were great. I found this to mostly be a character-driven storyline/plot, as in the attraction, then beginning of the relationship between Clint and Chrissy is the driving force of what the story is about. I enjoyed the secondary characters – Beth and Zac – and found them to be both interesting and multi-layered, not simply there to add the requisite “friend” to the storyline. Indeed, a part of me hopes there might be a story revolved around Beth some time in the future as there was a slight hint at her new career and “grown up” life that could prove interesting. With a lovely happy ending and a really good, warm feeling I loved the wrap up to this story too. The sex – while hot, wasn’t envelope-pushing or extreme. I feel most romance readers who like a bit of spice in their story should find this book overall really good and happy. As a quick read it’s a great one for picking up when you don’t have a lot of time and I’d happily try more works by this author.
