Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
After a slow couple of days really struggling to get into this book. Amber and Freddy finally won me over.
The start was way to slow for me, but realise that it was probably needed for setting the scene.
I'm glad I carried on reading.:-)
The start was way to slow for me, but realise that it was probably needed for setting the scene.
I'm glad I carried on reading.:-)
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
This Love was just a meh read for me. I wanted to like it I really did, but it didn't start off that well for me and didn't get better along the way. **Some slight spoilers ahead**
So I should start by saying one of the things I really dislike in books is secret pregnancies. Unless there is a really good reason, the girl fears the baby daddy, the dad is abusive, etc., then I hate when they just decide to not tell the father they are going to be a father. I really can't stand that as no matter what you feel for the person, how hurt your feelings are, they deserve to know their child. Or at the very least the child deserves to know the rest of the family that he has.
The first part of this story, the before story, was just okay. I didn't feel the connection between the main characters so it was not as good as it could have been. I didn't see that they were really desperately in love, but I went with it hoping it would get better in the after section.
Amber and Freddy meet by chance one day when her car breaks down near his garage. They of course knew who each other was, but never really interacted. That was all it took for their whirlwind romance to start. From that moment they became inseparable even though Freddy was a tad older and Amber was applying for and going to go off to college. Only with Freddy still in her hometown she doesn't want to go off anymore. Especially after what happens to Freddy. She wants to give up everything to stay there with him and help him out. I liked Freddy, as much as I like anyone in this story, especially because he wouldn't let Amber give up everything for him. He knew that she would regret it one day and he didn't want to be that weight around her neck that kept her down. He wanted the world for her so in his clumsy way he tried to give her that. Only things didn't work out as planned and she stayed away for ten long years.
When Amber's mother starts getting really sick Amber finally comes home to help care for her. And she is not alone. She has Isaac with her. Isaac who is Freddy's son he didn't know he had. After a rough start, Amber upset by how Freddy tossed her aside so long ago and Freddy angry she never told him about his son, things get back to "normal" between the two of them. The fall back into their love for each other that neither really ever let go of. There is an soon to be ex-husband on Amber's side who gives them some problems and some really stupid decision making on her part that results in way more drama than there should have been in the last part of the story. She really doesn't seem to think sometimes and the last big bad thing that happened had me rolling my eyes so hard and yelling at Amber to just suck it up and do it already!! Then when things get worse it came off as just added drama for drama's sake and Amber yet again makes some poor decisions, but thankfully Freddy comes along and saves the day. Really without him I don't know what Amber would do. So yeah. I didn't really enjoy this read. Amber annoyed me at times, I yelled at her a lot, and I didn't really see the connection between the characters. Not the book for me.
This Love was just a meh read for me. I wanted to like it I really did, but it didn't start off that well for me and didn't get better along the way. **Some slight spoilers ahead**
So I should start by saying one of the things I really dislike in books is secret pregnancies. Unless there is a really good reason, the girl fears the baby daddy, the dad is abusive, etc., then I hate when they just decide to not tell the father they are going to be a father. I really can't stand that as no matter what you feel for the person, how hurt your feelings are, they deserve to know their child. Or at the very least the child deserves to know the rest of the family that he has.
The first part of this story, the before story, was just okay. I didn't feel the connection between the main characters so it was not as good as it could have been. I didn't see that they were really desperately in love, but I went with it hoping it would get better in the after section.
Amber and Freddy meet by chance one day when her car breaks down near his garage. They of course knew who each other was, but never really interacted. That was all it took for their whirlwind romance to start. From that moment they became inseparable even though Freddy was a tad older and Amber was applying for and going to go off to college. Only with Freddy still in her hometown she doesn't want to go off anymore. Especially after what happens to Freddy. She wants to give up everything to stay there with him and help him out. I liked Freddy, as much as I like anyone in this story, especially because he wouldn't let Amber give up everything for him. He knew that she would regret it one day and he didn't want to be that weight around her neck that kept her down. He wanted the world for her so in his clumsy way he tried to give her that. Only things didn't work out as planned and she stayed away for ten long years.
When Amber's mother starts getting really sick Amber finally comes home to help care for her. And she is not alone. She has Isaac with her. Isaac who is Freddy's son he didn't know he had. After a rough start, Amber upset by how Freddy tossed her aside so long ago and Freddy angry she never told him about his son, things get back to "normal" between the two of them. The fall back into their love for each other that neither really ever let go of. There is an soon to be ex-husband on Amber's side who gives them some problems and some really stupid decision making on her part that results in way more drama than there should have been in the last part of the story. She really doesn't seem to think sometimes and the last big bad thing that happened had me rolling my eyes so hard and yelling at Amber to just suck it up and do it already!! Then when things get worse it came off as just added drama for drama's sake and Amber yet again makes some poor decisions, but thankfully Freddy comes along and saves the day. Really without him I don't know what Amber would do. So yeah. I didn't really enjoy this read. Amber annoyed me at times, I yelled at her a lot, and I didn't really see the connection between the characters. Not the book for me.
Wonderful story of true love! Amber and Freddy are at first only high school sweethearts, life and normal confusions get in the way. True love will always find a way!
Out of all the Anna Bloom books that I have read so far This Love is my favorite. Freddy and Amber meet after Amber's car breaks down in front of Bale and Son's. Without them realizing it is love at first sight. My favorite line in the whole book is one simple line at the beginning that I think just defines Freddy and his swoon-worthiness; "I know who you are, Amber, and what car you drive." I say that's my favorite because they have never met before and Amber doesn't think she is anything special, but with that one line Freddy proves just how special she really is. Unfortunately Freddy ends up breaking Amber's heart and she runs. Ten years later and Amber is back with a whole pile of guilt, fear, and secrets she doesn't know how to overcome.
I love Freddy. He is a swoon-worthy Alpha but at the same time he is so forgiving and full of love for Amber still, even after ten years. Amber is still strong willed and stubborn, but she is also scared while trying to do the right thing. Freddy and Amber find their way back to each other and they find a way to overcome all of their issues. This is an amazing read about love, life, and forgiveness. It's about second chances not only for the main hero and heroine but for everyone else closely involved.
I love Freddy. He is a swoon-worthy Alpha but at the same time he is so forgiving and full of love for Amber still, even after ten years. Amber is still strong willed and stubborn, but she is also scared while trying to do the right thing. Freddy and Amber find their way back to each other and they find a way to overcome all of their issues. This is an amazing read about love, life, and forgiveness. It's about second chances not only for the main hero and heroine but for everyone else closely involved.
A bit disappointed with this one because I just loved Miss Bloom's Uni series.
I love second chance romances, I love books set in the UK, I love completely swoon-worthy guys, and I really love Anna Bloom, so it was an absolute no-brainer that I would devour standalone NA/Adult novel, This Love, at the very first chance I got.
And devour it I did! This was such a sweet, funny, at times sad, but overall beautiful book. Anna isn't the type of author to go with the crowd--you won't find sex-filled, angst ridden, love triangles or step-sibling love affairs in her books--so her books are always such a fantastically refreshing change to the romances we usually lose ourselves in.
As I said previously, this is a second chance romance, but where we would usually learn of the past through a series of flashbacks or confessions, the way This Love is set up, is in two sections. First Love, gives us the full story of Amber and Freddy in their late teens/early twenties, and This Love, skips ahead 10 years to when first love gets a second chance.
I loved Freddy and Amber then and I love them now. It was impossible to ever doubt that these two would end up together in the end. No matter what or who was put in their way, they were destined to be together. They just fit. How they managed 10 years apart, I have no idea, but they were stronger for it. No longer dependant on each other, just hopelessly in love.
Anna Bloom never fails to make me fall in love with her writing, her stories, and her characters, and I think that This Love, and the majorly swoon-worthy Freddy Bale, are my favourite yet. A dazzling, magical, 5 stars.
And devour it I did! This was such a sweet, funny, at times sad, but overall beautiful book. Anna isn't the type of author to go with the crowd--you won't find sex-filled, angst ridden, love triangles or step-sibling love affairs in her books--so her books are always such a fantastically refreshing change to the romances we usually lose ourselves in.
As I said previously, this is a second chance romance, but where we would usually learn of the past through a series of flashbacks or confessions, the way This Love is set up, is in two sections. First Love, gives us the full story of Amber and Freddy in their late teens/early twenties, and This Love, skips ahead 10 years to when first love gets a second chance.
I loved Freddy and Amber then and I love them now. It was impossible to ever doubt that these two would end up together in the end. No matter what or who was put in their way, they were destined to be together. They just fit. How they managed 10 years apart, I have no idea, but they were stronger for it. No longer dependant on each other, just hopelessly in love.
Anna Bloom never fails to make me fall in love with her writing, her stories, and her characters, and I think that This Love, and the majorly swoon-worthy Freddy Bale, are my favourite yet. A dazzling, magical, 5 stars.
Although the romance is an 'insta-love' trope, I felt the 'before' part left more of an impact than the 'after'. I hate secret pregnancy trope, especially when the mom doesn't tell the dad for silly reasons such as her ego. It is unfair to the father and the baby. Wish the 'after' parts were more fleshed out. Freddy forgave her too quickly. Amber was annoying.
I really enjoyed this truly sweet story about love, growing up, forgiveness, and redemption.
Poor Amber and Freddy, they fell hard, they fell fast, and then they fell apart. I loved Anna's storyline for Amber during her last year of high school. She does an amazing job of putting down on paper what it is like to fall in love that young, how it pulls you and surrounds you in these amazing feelings and makes it hard to focus on anything else but the person you are with, especially for someone like Amber who is a challenging home life. Now you know from the onset of this story that Amber and Freddy don't make it through their young romance, the book opens with Amber rushing back after a 10 year absence to her small town home village to help her ailing estranged mother, running in to her high school best friend, and then the heart wrenching appearance of Freddy at her door.
I loved how we get the entire back story between these two, rather than just a flash back and then their current story. It was almost like reading two books of the same series in one and I am so glad it was just the one because if we'd been left with what I know would have been the stopping point for 'book one' I may have just thrown my Kindle across the room, haha.
Now I will say that there are a lot of choices made in the book, mainly by Amber, that make me want to shake the heck out of the characters. Even with that, I loved this group of characters. They were so real and refreshing. Amber's relationship with her best friend made me flash back to my high school best friend. I enjoyed how there wasn't this ugliness underneath their friendship that we seem to see in a lot of books. Was there trouble, was there jealousy, yes...but that happens, what is important is that they stick together. Even after years of separation there is still friendship.
Freddy and Amber fell into that insta-love that sometimes grates on my nerves, but in this instance it felt real, different, refreshing. And can I tell you how much I adore Freddy? I mean he just amazed me at every turn, seriously if I'd have been Amber I'd have been head over heels as well. Although I do question what he's done for 10 years while Amber was away. We basically know what happens with her romantically, but we don't get any of his romantic background for those 10 years. Now my romantic heart just wants to believe that he simply pined over Amber, working in his garage and never looking at another woman, but 10 years is a long time. It might have broken my heart to know it, but I think being able to see how he truly spent those years would have been nice, no matter if he did spend those years a hermit or a womanizer . The thing I love about Freddy though is he's not perfect and is never made out to be, but he is perfect for Amber and he's just an incredibly kind and sweet guy.
In the end the book is really about Ambers' redemption, about finding the love of her family and friends. About knowing that she was never given up on. They waited, everyone of them waited for her return and I love that. I love that she didn't come back to a place full of hate and had to fight for acceptance. I love that what she truly had to fight was herself and that everyone else was there loving her as they always had, except maybe Henry...and well just like everyone in the story we'll just ignore him *wink*.
This is a beautiful read for any Contemporary Romance fan. You'll want to snuggle up with this one, it's not overly emotional or painful read, just something you'll want to get comfy with and enjoy a wonderful HEA. I will say for any American readers you might want to have google handy, I had to look up a number of UK English words, haha, but they won't detract from the story.