Always Been You
Five thousand miles from his ex, AJ is living with Lisa’s decision to call it quits and leave both him, and Alabama behind. Upon hearing that Lisa is moving forward from their engagement with a new (and handsome!) doctor-boyfriend, AJ is confused and broken at the idea of facing life without his soul mate. AJ finds himself at a crossroads, does he give up all hope of ever reconciling with Lisa and take a chance on love again with someone new? Or is his heart destined to be forever entwined with the beautiful Irish woman he met on the internet… who is now with another man?
I absolutely adored the first two books in this series but unfortunately, I didn’t love this book as much as the two. I couldn’t believe that after breaking up with a fiance and being so low emotionally that you could contemplate suicide, that anyone would be thinking “things may be on ice with you right now, Lisa Millar, but I am going to win you back, I am going to marry you and we are going to have hockey babies, damnit!” And essentially, the rest of the story is how he sets out to do just that.
The characters in the story are brilliant and you can feel their personalities shining through. They’re genuine, believable and really resonate through the pages. I absolutely love the author’s writing as she has such an easy to read style with brilliant humour.
The story felt borderline ridiculous at the beginning. It isn’t how any adult should behave. It felt as though there was an excessive amount of emotional drama added in for effect. I certainly wouldn’t expect someone who has been through such emotional turmoil to be looking for another partner so quickly. Lisa behaves so childishly and doesn’t seem capable of having an adult conversation so shouldn’t be getting married in the first place. AJ’s mental health is so pivotal in the second book that it felt like their breakup was crazy. She’d known about AJ being married for two books and didn’t seem to care about it half as much then. After seeing how well the two fit together and how solid their relationship was I felt pretty annoyed. I think I hated both the main characters for about half of the book…
Jeremy was really the only character I loved in every book. He’s such a reliable and kind friend, even if at one point he was basically spying for his best friend. He was so determined to make his best friend’s relationship succeed it was delightful to read. I’d also really like to try some of his cooking, it sounds exquisite.
Overall, I felt a bit disappointed at the end of this one. There’s a great amount of character growth in the story but it felt like a battle to get there. Despite wanting to knock Lisa and AJ’s heads together multiple times during this, it was a good journey for the characters. It’s well written, flows well and handles mental health brilliantly.
Purchase Links
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Always-Been-You-Williams-Book-ebook/dp/B082WL6V66
US – https://www.amazon.com/Always-Been-You-Williams-Book-ebook/dp/B082WL6V66
Author Bio –
Lasairiona McMaster grew up dreaming of an exciting life abroad, and, after graduating from Queens University, Belfast, that is exactly what she did – with her then-boyfriend, now husband of almost ten years. Having recently repatriated to Northern Ireland after a decade abroad spanned over two countries (seven and a half years in America and eighteen months in India), she now finds herself ‘home’, with itchy feet and dreams of her next expatriation. With a penchant for both travelling, and writing, she started a blog during her first relocation to Houston, Texas and, since repatriating to Northern Ireland, has decided to do as everyone has been telling her to do for years, and finally pen a book (or two) and get published while she tries to adjust to the people and place she left ten years ago, where nothing looks the same as it did when she left.
Social Media Links –
https://www.facebook.com/QueenofFireLas/
https://twitter.com/QueenofFireLas
http://www.lasandcolgotexan.com/
https://www.instagram.com/queenoffirelas/
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