This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by HollyS. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Long Contemporary category.

Here is HollyS's review:

I had high hopes for this book, I really did. A widower finds love with his best friend? Sounded like my kind of story, but about ¼ of the way through it I knew that I was ONLY going to finish so that I could write this review, because I love me some SBTB.

Let’s start with the good. Maisey Yates is a damn good writer. Untouched is one of my favorite contemporaries ever. She has this great way of writing contemporary dialogue that doesn’t sound forced or stilted, and she writes really layered characters in a way that makes you want to keep reading. This book may not have worked for me, but trust and believe I will continue to be a fan and I’ll keep reading her books.

I’ve read widower books before. Which is why I thought I would enjoy this one, bit this one kinda fell flat. I started getting turned off when Connor and Liss both started reminiscing about Connor’s dead wife. Initially it was ok, but it started to be overkill after awhile:

It was hard to describe the kind of desolation he had felt when he lost Jessie. The way the future felt as if it had been erased.

It sounds nice and flowery and all but this state of Connor in mourning was repeated over and over again throughout the book. To me it took away from the romance rather than added to it. I love books where H is broken, h swoops in and they live HEA. But that’s not what happened here. Especially since not only was Connor in mourning, but Liss had some pretty strong feelings about Jessie’s death too.

Liss and Connor had been besties for years. Liss always had a secret crush on Connor, but kept it quiet. Jessie came along and Connor fell in love with her, then married her. Liss was crushed, and carried her unrequited love for years, and then Jessie died. There was something a bit salacious about the whole deal. Almost as if Liss was waiting in the wings and Jessie’s death gave her the chance to pounce. She didn’t make a move on Connor at first, but her constant ruminations about the guilt she felt got under my skin…it’s hard for me to believe a romance is going to blossom with so much guilt ridden angst leading up to it.

They have a really well written friendship, but the undercurrent of guilt/remorse put a damper on things for me. Connor apparently had been living life under a rock after Jessie’s death. He got a big arm tattoo of her flower bed because he felt bad that he would always forget to water them. Drinking. Being distant with family and friends. All understandable after such a great loss. I just think there was too much explanation of how he behaved leading up to the start of the romance between him and Liss. I get that she helped him come back to life, but there needs to be a balance between establishing a good back story and making a romance believable. That balance didn’t exist here.

I don’t want to completely spoil it for anyone, so stop reading here if you want to read this book without knowing ANYTHING.

(NB: From this point on, the spoilers are plentiful for a specific aspect of the hero and heroine’s relationship.)

 

 

 

 

When these two finally started to get physical the first thing she did was for him only. Which was fine, but then he gets into this whole thing about how Jessie had never done that for him. Again, fine since there are lots of romances I’ve read where that’s the special something between the hero and heroine.

But then there’s at least a page or two where Jessie is made out to be a prude.

I MEAN C’MON, IF YOU’RE GOING TO SPEND A WHOLE BUNCH OF TIME MOURNING SOMEONE WHO IS DEAD DON’T DISRESPECT THEIR MEMORY BY TALKING SMACK. NOT COOL AT ALL.

It got worse. The first all the way love scene was really sweet and romantic. He bought her a vintage prom dress because she told him a story about how she wasn’t able to wear the one that she wanted. I loved the way this part of their story happened. Liss helped convince him to rebuild his barn, and the night before the party for the barn being finished she shows up in the dress. A really well written scene, with some good sexytimes.

BUT THEN….the afterglow (or not quite). We spend pages reading about Connor crying to Liss and letting go of all of his pent up emotions about Jessie’s death. RIGHT AFTERWARDS. He couldn’t let go a few days later? Before even? It had to be right at that moment. Ok at that point I was done. No way could I believe that these two were falling in love and going to end up with a HEA. Even though they did. Way too quickly after all of this angst. I just couldn’t wrap my head around that level of grief being expressed right at that moment.

Ultimately this was a really well written book with a not so believable romance by an author who I love anyway. Too much guilt. Too much seemingly underhandedness by Jessie. Connor was way too broken.