At a quick glance, the male model reminded me of Chris Pine.....so, one-click :). Duh.
Should I read a book solely based on the cover. IDK, but I do it all the time. In this case, the story wasn't awful, but it could have been better.
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”trans·fer·ence: n. in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, a client’s feelings for the therapist. May be used to understand the origins of the client’s emotional and psychological problems.”
My Thoughts: The following are my thoughts about this book:
General:
- Trigger warning - mental health issues
- Setting: New York
Characters:
- Preston (age: 34, psychologist):
- ”Helping people is what I was meant to do, but everything has changed. What became my passion is now, once again, a constant reminder of what I lost."
- The following words/phrases were used to describe Preston: likes helping people, compassionate, non judgmental, kind, observant, sharp, serious, deep
- Eve (age: 24, works in marketing): recently suffered a loss and suffers from anxiety and panic attacks (most likely depression too).
- The following words/phrases were used to describe Eve: sad, burned out, depleted, exhausted, fearful, depressed, anxious, grieving, tired, overwhelmed, broken, alone, strong, loyal
The story:
Something was missing. I’m going to leave it at that for now. Maybe the points below will expound on this better.
- The female character: I completely understand how someone acts when they are depressed, but something about her behavior just didn’t ring true for me. So, rather than empathize with her, I became annoyed because she seemed weak rather than sick.
- The male character: who was he??? So little of the story was told from his POV so I never really connected with him.
- If I can’t connect with one of the main characters, then it’s hard to connect with the couple. Yes, they had steamy scenes, but sex doesn’t mean an automatic connection. I felt like I didn’t know them as a couple. They were either having sex or scared about their feelings because of the taboo nature of their relationship. Therefore, I felt their relationship lacked the depth that I needed to connect with them and root for them.
- The “Sloane” aspect of the story had a ton of foreshadowing and little information once it was revealed. This fell flat for me.
- This was a slow burn, which I was ok with. However, their first lengthy interaction wasn’t really until 25% into the book. So the first quarter was not about building them as a couple. In fact, seeing as it was told mostly from Eve’s POV, it had a more depressing feel/tone.
- When Preston did share his POV, it was only a few short paragraphs. No more than a page. Why so little of him? If the main issue is his profession and ethics, his side of the story should have had more insight.
- What triggered the constant nightmares all of a sudden. Was it the concussion? That was confusing to me.
- I have a feeling I would have loved Preston if I would have known him better and been able to feel what he was going through. He had the potential to be a book boyfriend, but without his POV, it was a missed opportunity.
Overview:
- POV: mostly from Eve’s POV
- Tropes: taboo (doctor/patient), age gap (10 years)
- H likable? Yes
- h likable? I struggled a bit with her.
- h virgin? no
- First time they kiss: 47%
- First time they sleep together: 65%
- First time they say I Love You 89%
- steamy? Yes, but I skipped some of their bedroom scenes because I just didn’t really care about them as a couple.
- OW/OM drama? not sure. “Heather” appears out of nowhere acting a little possessive and “very” friendly with the good doctor. So did he sleep with Heather during his break with Eve? He said it was just a date, but the way she acted made it seem like they were more. 🤷♀️
- H/h cheat? see above 👆
- Time apart? yes. They spend 10 months apart
- Did I skip pages? yes
- Big secrets? There were a few things revealed toward the end
- Did I cry? no
- Did I laugh? no
- Cliffhanger? no
- HEA? yes
- Epilogue? 9 months later
- Recommend? it was so-so for me.
Quotes
“Sadness can break a person. It can make a home inside you, slowly building a wall around your soul.”
“You’ve embedded yourself in my soul. And without you I would cease to be.”
“It doesn’t matter where you start, it’s where you end up.”
“We can no longer let our future be dictated by our fear of the past. We need to move forward.”
“When I lost you, I found me.”
“I want to kiss you till forever. I want to love you until forever, and when forever ends, I want to start all over again.”