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zaza_bdp's review
4.0
Une fois n'est pas coutume, j'écris mon avis sur un KA un looong moment après l'avoir terminé. En fait sur le coup, j'ai plongé tête baissée dans le roman,je me suis immergée dans l'histoire, j'ai vécu avec mes tripes tout ce que traverse l'héroine, et j'ai vraiment été bouleversée par les émotions décrites par KA.
Mais après, avec du recul, je rends compte que oui, KA sait à merveille décrire les sensations, les émotions et les souffrances de ses personnages, et je sombre corps et âme avec eux ; seulement, une fois que je reprends mes esprits, je ne peux pas passer à côté de la faiblesse de certains éléments du récit.
Si j'ai beaucoup aimé ces allers-retours avec le passé (moi qui aie d'habitude peu de patience pour ça), et pas seulement en raison des mentions au Chaos MC et aux personnages de Rock Chick, il manque quand même plusieurs scènes clés, et jusqu'au bout j'ai cru qu'on y aurait droit, mais non.
En terme de relation amour/haine, on est servies ici, mais j'ai trouvé que Cady était trop gentille et se laisse traiter comme une moins que rien par trop de monde. Elle est loin d'être aussi forte que les habituelles héroïnes de Kristen Ashley, et puisqu'en face Coert est horrible avec elle un long moment puis fait volte face sans qu'ensuite aucune explication n'ait vraiment lieu entre eux, cette impression d'une nana "carpette" est décuplée.
Après, cela reste un pur roman dans la tradition Ashleyienne, où l'amitié et le sens de la famille occupent une place prépondérante, avec de superbes descriptions de paysages, une belle histoire de seconde chance (avec toutefois de grosses faiblesses en ce qui concerne la communication et les explications) et en prime une romance secondaire qui m'a donné des papillons dans le ventre.
Mais après, avec du recul, je rends compte que oui, KA sait à merveille décrire les sensations, les émotions et les souffrances de ses personnages, et je sombre corps et âme avec eux ; seulement, une fois que je reprends mes esprits, je ne peux pas passer à côté de la faiblesse de certains éléments du récit.
Si j'ai beaucoup aimé ces allers-retours avec le passé (moi qui aie d'habitude peu de patience pour ça), et pas seulement en raison des mentions au Chaos MC et aux personnages de Rock Chick, il manque quand même plusieurs scènes clés, et jusqu'au bout j'ai cru qu'on y aurait droit, mais non.
En terme de relation amour/haine, on est servies ici, mais j'ai trouvé que Cady était trop gentille et se laisse traiter comme une moins que rien par trop de monde. Elle est loin d'être aussi forte que les habituelles héroïnes de Kristen Ashley, et puisqu'en face Coert est horrible avec elle un long moment puis fait volte face sans qu'ensuite aucune explication n'ait vraiment lieu entre eux, cette impression d'une nana "carpette" est décuplée.
Après, cela reste un pur roman dans la tradition Ashleyienne, où l'amitié et le sens de la famille occupent une place prépondérante, avec de superbes descriptions de paysages, une belle histoire de seconde chance (avec toutefois de grosses faiblesses en ce qui concerne la communication et les explications) et en prime une romance secondaire qui m'a donné des papillons dans le ventre.
trudyd's review
4.0
WOW!! This was a very complex, complicated second chance romance. A great way to say goodbye to the Magdalene series.
This was not a quick and easy read for me, but still enjoyable.
6/25/2021 Listened to audiobook. Definitely an emotional read packed full with second chances.
This was not a quick and easy read for me, but still enjoyable.
6/25/2021 Listened to audiobook. Definitely an emotional read packed full with second chances.
mefrost's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
julieschein's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
earthboundcutie's review
4.0
I liked this well enough, this had a lot of KA elements that I liked. However, there were a couple things I didn't love. Cady was lovely but there was something I didn't quite connect with with her. She was very forgiving which I am NOT, I don't really hold grudges but Cady is just so easy going and open hearted that it was difficult for me to always stay in the story.
Also, I was SO EXCITED for an obligatory kidnapping but then that story line got wrapped up REAL QUICK, so no go.
BUT, there was lovely kid stuff and reunions and I actually LOVED Cady and Coert at the beginning doing their fighting/flirting thing. And I totally fell in love with Midnight.
OMG I almost forgot!!! Verity and Elijah ugh I died I love them I wish we could get a short story of the start of their relationship.
Also, I was SO EXCITED for an obligatory kidnapping but then that story line got wrapped up REAL QUICK, so no go.
BUT, there was lovely kid stuff and reunions and I actually LOVED Cady and Coert at the beginning doing their fighting/flirting thing. And I totally fell in love with Midnight.
OMG I almost forgot!!! Verity and Elijah ugh I died I love them I wish we could get a short story of the start of their relationship.
armoreira's review
4.0
Overall rating: 4 stars
Hero: 4
Heroine: 4.5
Plot: 4
Writing style: 5
Secondary characters: 4.5
Character development: 4
--
Sex scenes: Hot
Sensible subjects:
Love triangle:
Cheating:
HEA:
God, how I missed reading a Kristen Ashley book. After almost a year break is good to have my fix again. And I loooove the Magdalene series, The Will is probably one of my favorites of all KA books. So when the book was released in the middle of my vacations, I as like :
And The Time in Between did not disappoint. Is it the best KA book? Nop, not even close. But did it keep me hooked in the story since the beginning? Yes, absolutely. It is a beautiful book about loyalty, family, friends, love, forgiveness, and everything that KA always gives you. The first part of the book was great, a 5 star for me without a doubt. But after that the plot got a little bit boring and predictable, and to be honest I found the end a little bit dull.
Anyway, it's a KA so I will consume (almost) everything that she wrights, so for me this was the perfect read for the holidays.
Hero: 4
Heroine: 4.5
Plot: 4
Writing style: 5
Secondary characters: 4.5
Character development: 4
--
Sex scenes: Hot
Sensible subjects:
Spoiler
NoLove triangle:
Spoiler
NoCheating:
Spoiler
NoHEA:
Spoiler
YesGod, how I missed reading a Kristen Ashley book. After almost a year break is good to have my fix again. And I loooove the Magdalene series, The Will is probably one of my favorites of all KA books. So when the book was released in the middle of my vacations, I as like :
And The Time in Between did not disappoint. Is it the best KA book? Nop, not even close. But did it keep me hooked in the story since the beginning? Yes, absolutely. It is a beautiful book about loyalty, family, friends, love, forgiveness, and everything that KA always gives you. The first part of the book was great, a 5 star for me without a doubt. But after that the plot got a little bit boring and predictable, and to be honest I found the end a little bit dull.
Anyway, it's a KA so I will consume (almost) everything that she wrights, so for me this was the perfect read for the holidays.
salimah's review against another edition
3.0
This book is about 200-250 pages too long (approximately—I listened via audible), but the premise is engaging and emotionally resonant. Love a credible second chance/tortured back story— lots of that here. I’m giving it only three stars mostly because this book stayed too long at the fair. After a while it seemed that things kept happening just so things could happen...
The principals had mostly themselves to get over once back in each other’s orbit. There’s little in the way of outsider attempts to undermine them romantically, though there is a quickly resolved problematic element via a villain from their shared past.
This is such an improvement over KA’s Complicated, which went out of its way to make the male protagonist’s ex so awful that her children swore immediate allegiance to his new woman. I found the central couple to be so unrootable because of this in that one that I couldn’t even finish it. I mention that here because there are some similarities via the hero’s profession and children/family entanglements from previous relationships.
This one does feature a reformed problematic ex, but most of her evolution is already in place by the time the story starts. I love that the narrative has her firmly in the past by the time we come into the action and that the author doesn’t build up her heroine at this woman’s expense. The heroine is rootable on her own without making this woman irredeemable. But the ex does have to deal with the reverberations of her past actions in a way that is satisfying.
I could not get past the bequeathing of a woman to a man, so The Will was a non-starter for me. I say this to say this is the only book of the Magdalene series I’ve read. I don’t plan to read the second book either.
The principals had mostly themselves to get over once back in each other’s orbit. There’s little in the way of outsider attempts to undermine them romantically, though there is a quickly resolved problematic element via a villain from their shared past.
This is such an improvement over KA’s Complicated, which went out of its way to make the male protagonist’s ex so awful that her children swore immediate allegiance to his new woman. I found the central couple to be so unrootable because of this in that one that I couldn’t even finish it. I mention that here because there are some similarities via the hero’s profession and children/family entanglements from previous relationships.
This one does feature a reformed problematic ex, but most of her evolution is already in place by the time the story starts. I love that the narrative has her firmly in the past by the time we come into the action and that the author doesn’t build up her heroine at this woman’s expense. The heroine is rootable on her own without making this woman irredeemable. But the ex does have to deal with the reverberations of her past actions in a way that is satisfying.
I could not get past the bequeathing of a woman to a man, so The Will was a non-starter for me. I say this to say this is the only book of the Magdalene series I’ve read. I don’t plan to read the second book either.
beeppeep's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this one! Very emotional; it tugged on my heart strings more than other KA books. Probably in my top five for KA.
anasatticbookblog's review
5.0
The Time In Between by Kristen Ashley
Standalone Contemporary Romance, 3rd in an interrelated Series but stands well alone.
4.75-5 stars
I was going through all the quotes I highlighted in The Time In Between by Kristen Ashley as I prepare to write my review. It’s so tempting to just post them all here and let you fall in love yourself, because just re-reading them gave me goosebumps and I got a little choked up. It will be so hard to choose which to use for this review. Kristen brought the magic again. While I pretty much fall in love with every Kristen Ashley book and she is the only author I am happy to re-read, I think the Magdalene Series was just cemented as my favorite with The Time In Between.
--------------------------
After a painful loss, Cady Moreland is coming to Magdalene to start the next chapter of her life. A chapter that began eighteen years ago but had a heartbreaking ending. The time in between was full of family and friendship, but Cady could never get the man she fell in love with all those years ago out of her heart.
Coert Yeager has learned to live without the girl who entered his life right when she shouldn’t and exited delivering a crippling blow he never would have suspected. The time in between was full of failing to find what he was missing…and life-altering betrayal.
But when that girl shows up in Magdalene and buys the town’s beloved lighthouse, even if Coert wants to avoid her, he can’t. A fire in town sparks a different kind of flame that won’t be ignored.
As Cady and Coert question the actions of the two young adults they once were thrown into earth-shattering circumstances, can they learn from what came in between and find each other again.
----------------------
You MAY find there are some MINOR plot points but not spoilers in this review. If you want to know nothing more, skip to the down and dirty at the bottom.
Cady fell in love 18 years ago in Denver. Young and stupid, hanging with a bad crowd and rejected by her family, she fell for “Tony”. While Cady might have had some loser friends, she was good, hardworking and a dreamer through and through. Until her best friend went crazy, she found out the guy she loved, “Tony” was really an undercover cop, and everything fell apart. Cady had nobody, until suddenly she was given a family. But in the 18 years since, she has never stopped thinking of Coert Yaeger, aka “Tony”.
“Christ, every time, every time I moved inside you and you called me Tony, I died a little.”
After a family loss, Cady, 41, has the money to go anywhere, and she buys a beautiful lighthouse in the coastal Maine town of Magdalene, where Coert happens to be sheriff. But he makes it VERY clear, he wants nothing to do with her.
“Right, I think it’s safe to say out loud that you went back there because you’re still in love with him and you wanted to see if that could be salvaged,” Kath said baldly.
I drew in a sharp breath and kept staring at the view.
“Right?” she pushed. “Is that safe to say?”
“Yes,” I whispered my admission.
“And that didn’t work out. In the meantime, you found that lighthouse and you feel right there, yeah?”
“Yes,” I answered. “And those two don’t fit together. I get that. I get how that’d be super confusing. It’s still the way it is.”
Coert is a single dad to the most adorable little girl ever, Janie. Kristen Ashley writes THE BEST kids, no matter what age. There was no way not to fall in love with her!
“In the time in between, you were loved and made something beautiful. So it might be difficult, but I know you had those things. So I can cope.”
As Cady and Coert get thrown together, and a threat looms over their heads, Coert’s protective instincts come out, and immediately he, like any good KA alpha, makes sure she is secure.
But now I was being confronted with all the time that had happened in between. Confronted with the fact Coert had lived a life where he got a toolbox, the tools in it and had learned how to do things because experience and years and life had taught him how. Experience and years and life I had not been a part of.
Midnight the dog became another lead role in the story. Not only does Kristen Ashley write kids well, but pets too! But still, despite being protective (that's his job), Coert was still holding a lot of anger toward Cady.
Eighteen years ago Coert and I fell together against all odds. Then it ended. And neither of us got over it. No more missed opportunities. It was time to risk everything.
I have “the scene” here in my quote notes but you need to experience it yourself. Shit, I am tearing up (the good kind) just re-reading it.
The build up to togetherness was so amazing, I could not put the book down for a second. But once they are together, they are so healthy! As mature adults in their forties, they just KNEW.
“…they’d both jumped from their opposite sides of the shore into the raging waters of everything that came in between and neither of them had life vests. They just had to have the determination, since they’d made it through the rapids to each other, to hold the fuck on.”
The second half of the book moved a little slower while we lived with the couple and her wonderful adopted family visiting. I read the first half in one sitting and if the book ended at 50-60% I think I still would have loved it. But no, we were treated to so much more. There was so much story and years to make up for and we get to live with how they blend their lives. Kristen Ashley writes amazing families. They don’t have to be blood to be amazing and this book proved it. I also loved the way Coert’s ex, the mother of Janie, was portrayed. She could have been easily vilified, but seeing healthy co-parenting was a really wonderful thing to read about.
“Now I think I understand why you’re prettier when you look at Daddy. Because what’s inside is coming out.”
All right. That was it. I’d completely fallen in love with Coert’s daughter.
We were treated to a little family side romance that I loved, scenes with the Magdalene bad guy Boston Stone, and we were treated to the beauty of Magdalene again in the third book of the series. Kristen’s style is so visual and descriptive that I can see all of Magdalene so well! This would make for a gorgeous movie.
“She’s pretty,” Junior murmured.
“She’s everything,” Coert murmured back.
Once Coert gets over himself, holy crap, is he the perfect KA alpha.
“This is it. This is me. I’m your man. The man who loves you. The man you love. This is who I am. This is how it is. This is how it’s gonna be. And if you don’t understand what I’m saying to you, I’ll spell it out. My job is to look after you. My job is to protect you. From bad shit. Or just from the crap of life happening. It’s always been that since the first time we kissed. And when I don’t, and there will be times when that’s out of my control, like arguably that whole fiasco we endured, I’m gonna feel that. It’s gonna live in me. I’ll be able to hack it but that doesn’t mean it’ll go away. And you have to let me feel that because it’s just plain…me.”
They are older, and they missed so much time in between, they had a lot to make up for.
I’d spent half a lifetime wanting to take care of Coert Yeager and now that I had my chance, I wasn’t missing any of it.
I didn’t share all of that with Coert but I knew he got it when he asked gently, “Running to catch up?”
“As fast as I can.”
Damn….now I just want to read it all again.
Likes:
Dislikes:
Note:
Have "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman ready to listen to. (click link for lyric video)
The Down & Dirty:
Sigh….Swoon….The Time In Between is the perfect alpha male romance. Featuring an EPIC second chance romance, a mature couple who knows what they want, a great kid and amazing dog, a wonderful extended family and friends and a beautifully scenic location, The Time In Between joins the first two in the Magdalene series as all-time favorites. This is Kristen Ashley at her best. This series focuses on mature couples blending families rather than the explosions and kidnappings and motorcycles of some of the other series, but there is still drama and excitement, it’s just a bit more tame. I am so sad to see the series end here, but it seemed pretty clear that this was it for Magdalene. Luckily, you can READ MY INTERVIEW ON ANA'S ATTIC for my exclusive interview to see what’s next!
Rating: 5 stars (really 4.75-5 because there was a slight drag), 4 Heat
Purchase The Time In Between by Kristen Ashley
***5% of the proceeds from the first week of sales of THE TIME IN BETWEEN release will be given to HALO Animal Rescue in Phoenix, a no-kill shelter. HALO stands for “helping animals live on” and is a shelter started by a mother/daughter team of committed animal advocates who have done a huge duty for animals in this area, and continue to do so with unwavering love, support and energy. For more information on HALO or to donate to the work they do, go to www.halorescue.org.***
