'An emotional read full of the good, the sad, the feels and everything in between. Grab those bookish tissues! This is a read that will be pulling on those heartstrings till the very last page.
Thank you to Kelly Gendron and her team for providing me with an ebook ARC for me to read and review. I appreciate it!
As a rule, I try to avoid books which carry one or more of my 'triggers' in which would normally put me off reading, but the blurb to Willing Me Him was intriguing enough for me to push past those barriers which would usually keep me out, allowing me to dive head-first into my first ever Kelly Gendron read.
Equally as appealing, was the friends-t0-lovers element to this novel. We all love and can agree that we are all drawn to the super-appealing enemies-to-lovers trope, but what mad this friends-to-lovers trope even more special, was HOW these two (Jody and Theo Nash) became friends and would at least on the surface, seem to be stuck being so. The clue is in the title, 'Willing'. After loosing her brother, her heavenly guardian angel left him his best friend, and an oh-so interesting clause--not known to Nash--that went with it.
Already, the cogs were in motion as to when and how Nash would find this juicy little piece of information out, and I was right along with him for the ride and how long it would take us through the journey in the novel, to get to that point.
It was then only a matter of time, the lining up of the stars in the cosmos, as to when the friends element of the story would turn into the lovers and boy, oh boy, I was NOT prepared for the amount of cheek-heating steam! If I didn't know any better, I would say that my phone was turning hot in my hands at the insane chemistry, tension and perfect dash of angst that had built up between Jody and Nash. It was H-to-the-O-to-the-T! If Kelly can write a scene/scenes like this, I'm definitely going to be coming back for future reads!
Kelly's overall writing style for me as a first time reader was a change I had to get used to at first, but slowly as I read Willing Me Him, I quickly got used to the ease and flow of her writing style and thoroughly enjoyed how she told the story not only of Jody and Nash, but the story of those in and around their lives which contributed to the overall plot. Jody's deceased brother, albeit part of the story only in flashbacks/jump backs in time with mentions throughout, was a true testament to making a figuratively deceased character come to life as if he were an active part of the story. He was the glue/tie that kept both Jody and Nash in his life during his brief time on Earth, and it was fascinating to see how he would do that from up above.
My only qualm with the story--which based on other reviews, others can agree with me on--is the epilogue. The finale to the main bulk of the story was stand up out of your seat & start clapping, worthy, but the epilogue left me feeling like the story hadn't ended. If that makes sense. It felt like I was left hanging wondering on what happened with Jody and Nash, like the story hadn't been tied up and wrapped up in a nice bow. Definitely would welcome a novella or short story to complete Jody & Nash's story, for sure.
That said, it didn't deter me from giving this read a good, whopping, four stars for my first ever Kelly Gendron read. I'm hopeful that my next read of hers will be equally as enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to the next read.
Great job, Kelly!