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A review by ryanpfw
More Than Enough by Jay McLean
2.0
2022 update:
I’ll discuss my re-read of the entire series after five years, and my thoughts on More Than Enough.
First of all, I truly thought for years I rated this book at 3 stars. I really struggled with it the first time. 4 stars? Wow.
I’m a fan of the fish-out-of-water, create-your-own-family process plotline of More Than This and that drew me in. I’m not exactly the target audience, and there are parts that always get on my nerves, but that’s the same with every book I read. (For the record, “I clean the guns when my sister’s boyfriend comes over, and even though my high school girlfriend lived with us and my friend lived in a cabin with his girlfriend in high school and all these girls belong to us, my sister’s not dating until she’s 30” toxic bullshit for starters.)
Still, I’m poised to read every book in this series, warts and all. There’s so much humor and so much family, and that’s what I come for. This one just had too many misses, and I set the bar low.
In my first pass of the series I liked everything well enough, loved Forever, and thought this was easily the weakest of the first batch. As Forever was my favorite, I jumped into the Preston series. I was cold on Lucas, warmer on Logan, and really liked Leo because his character calls the others out on their toxic bullshit and defends his family. I wish someone would have tried that here.
So here’s where things stand overall. My opinion of More Than This didn’t change much this time, and even though this is a series of extreme angst and I baked that in on arrival, His and Her drove me up the wall. The angst was off the charts as the characters made crazy life choices. Forever kept top marks, but even the angst there bled into my brain more than the first time.
And now Enough. I was afraid what I’d think. There’s insta-love, regretful characterization (here’s looking at you Holly) and Riley was the doormat to end all doormats. A lot of readers were hugely disappointed that Heidi was not the female lead. I couldn’t care less. There were narrative coincidences and inconsistencies that didn’t quite work, but didn’t tremendously bother me either if that was all we were talking about. Jake doesn’t recognize ‘Riley Hudson’ as the person who destroyed his dad’s office until he meets her face to face, given how much he later knows about Jeremy. I get Dylan was away serving while this all happened, but it was just odd that word didn’t spread (although it’s nothing compared to the secret kept in the second half of the book.) Dylan doesn’t remember Jeremy from school at all, until he suddenly remembers a deep heart-to-heart they had on his lawn. Everyone was totally fine with Amanda the student giving Dylan therapy. That sort of thing.
The unspeakable cruelty in the middle of the book was unnecessary. Dylan goes through so much pain and the worst happenstance to befall a character in a series that includes an entire family murdered in a home invasion, but there was absolutely no reason why it had to impact Riley in the way it did. Looking back at the entire series, Jake and Mikayla had obstacles, Logan and Amanda made terrible decisions driven by the plot to keep readers hooked, Cam was very, very stressed, and Dylan had an actual excuse for his behavior, but instead him saying “this awful thing happened and now I need to make crazy life choices to benefit the plot” he bottled up what happened and NO ONE LIVING IN HER HOUSE SAID ANYTHING to Riley until a literal memorial service. Dylan opted for “I will destroy her life so she’ll leave me on her own and I can stew alone.” The plot pivoted from cruel domestic abuse to “I’m abusive because I love her and I abuse her to drive her away.” I read that in 2022.
Here’s my bottom line. It’s a story about two people who watched someone they loved die in front of them and feel tremendous guilt. It’s not supposed to be an easy read. Riley and Dylan were barely functioning humans. Holly made life decisions for Riley like she was a preteen, Riley never once questioned her ability to do so, nor did any other character after the first 50 pages. While they were the right decisions, that’s not the point. I wanted Riley to make her own choices, not defer to her badly written mother. There were countless opportunities for her to pack up her house and leave, even if she used Jeremy as a crutch and said he would have wanted more for her. Anything.
Holly gave her alcoholic, underage daughter alcohol. Every day. While fearing she wouldn’t live through the day. She found her passed out in the bathtub, not realizing she almost drown earlier in the day, and she kept it up, and had the audacity to get on a soapbox in the back half of the book and lecture everyone about what she would allow and not allow her grown daughter to do. Dylan held Holly’s feet to the fire briefly until she said that she loved her daughter and wouldn’t let her be hurt, which was demonstrably not the case, and then Dylan was all “we shall never speak ill of you again.” Actions, not words, remember?! It was beyond insane and infuriated me. Spoilers for Logan, but there’s a character there who keeps a damaging secret and is cast out by the Prestons for her crime. Different people, different standards, but the narrative treatment of poor decision makers was night and day notable.
There was no growth from Riley once she pulled herself up by her bootstraps. She hung in there with Dylan when he literally terrorized her, wouldn’t back down until her mom made her, and when he finally got back to a good place and hopped back on the tracks in one chapter, it was business as usual for the rest of the book. Narratively, it didn’t work at all.
This wasn’t the messy story of characters who made bad life decisions but got to the right place in the end. This was the story of characters who made bad life decisions, got lucky in the end, and didn’t put in the effort to rebuilding. I’ll keep reading any Preston book that comes out, and will be there for the revival of More Than. I won’t do a full re-read again. I’ll be sticking with This and Forever, but likely won’t return to His/Her/Enough, but credit to Amanda’s character for acknowledging her self-worth.
Three star books are flawed. Two star books leave me angry. I’m far more on that side of the pond.
Original——————-
Coming off More Than Forever earlier this year, with my favorite characters of the series, I struggled with Enough.
I love the secondary characters of this series and it was great to return to the universe for a few days. Jay McLean always has to throw an angsty curveball at you, and I've found the understated ones (Forever) work for me far more than the over the top ones (This/Him/Her), but this was the first one that went for actual cruelty.
Dylan was put into an awful situation, but his response was horrific and what was less acceptable was how little Riley stuck up for herself. The whole "I belong to you...here's his address" characterization triggered more than one eye-roll, and I get what the author was going for in how she handled his behavior, but beyond the romanticized plot line of a novel the message there was "be a doormat and hope for the best." This carried over to her allowing her mother to drag her around like she's a teenager without rights without any discussion. Her character needed a bit more spine.
And while I'm getting things off my chest, Holly's behavior at the start of the novel was unjustifiable and it's difficult to reconcile her with the character we get later in the story, who I enjoyed very much.
The ending rebounded sharply, and I truly enjoyed the entire cast of characters in this sendoff. That second to last reading session was as rough as they came, and at one point this was easing towards a 2-star rating or lower. The counter-revelation, the cops, and the quacking helped mightily.
I’ll discuss my re-read of the entire series after five years, and my thoughts on More Than Enough.
First of all, I truly thought for years I rated this book at 3 stars. I really struggled with it the first time. 4 stars? Wow.
I’m a fan of the fish-out-of-water, create-your-own-family process plotline of More Than This and that drew me in. I’m not exactly the target audience, and there are parts that always get on my nerves, but that’s the same with every book I read. (For the record, “I clean the guns when my sister’s boyfriend comes over, and even though my high school girlfriend lived with us and my friend lived in a cabin with his girlfriend in high school and all these girls belong to us, my sister’s not dating until she’s 30” toxic bullshit for starters.)
Still, I’m poised to read every book in this series, warts and all. There’s so much humor and so much family, and that’s what I come for. This one just had too many misses, and I set the bar low.
In my first pass of the series I liked everything well enough, loved Forever, and thought this was easily the weakest of the first batch. As Forever was my favorite, I jumped into the Preston series. I was cold on Lucas, warmer on Logan, and really liked Leo because his character calls the others out on their toxic bullshit and defends his family. I wish someone would have tried that here.
So here’s where things stand overall. My opinion of More Than This didn’t change much this time, and even though this is a series of extreme angst and I baked that in on arrival, His and Her drove me up the wall. The angst was off the charts as the characters made crazy life choices. Forever kept top marks, but even the angst there bled into my brain more than the first time.
And now Enough. I was afraid what I’d think. There’s insta-love, regretful characterization (here’s looking at you Holly) and Riley was the doormat to end all doormats. A lot of readers were hugely disappointed that Heidi was not the female lead. I couldn’t care less. There were narrative coincidences and inconsistencies that didn’t quite work, but didn’t tremendously bother me either if that was all we were talking about. Jake doesn’t recognize ‘Riley Hudson’ as the person who destroyed his dad’s office until he meets her face to face, given how much he later knows about Jeremy. I get Dylan was away serving while this all happened, but it was just odd that word didn’t spread (although it’s nothing compared to the secret kept in the second half of the book.) Dylan doesn’t remember Jeremy from school at all, until he suddenly remembers a deep heart-to-heart they had on his lawn. Everyone was totally fine with Amanda the student giving Dylan therapy. That sort of thing.
The unspeakable cruelty in the middle of the book was unnecessary. Dylan goes through so much pain and the worst happenstance to befall a character in a series that includes an entire family murdered in a home invasion, but there was absolutely no reason why it had to impact Riley in the way it did. Looking back at the entire series, Jake and Mikayla had obstacles, Logan and Amanda made terrible decisions driven by the plot to keep readers hooked, Cam was very, very stressed, and Dylan had an actual excuse for his behavior, but instead him saying “this awful thing happened and now I need to make crazy life choices to benefit the plot” he bottled up what happened and NO ONE LIVING IN HER HOUSE SAID ANYTHING to Riley until a literal memorial service. Dylan opted for “I will destroy her life so she’ll leave me on her own and I can stew alone.” The plot pivoted from cruel domestic abuse to “I’m abusive because I love her and I abuse her to drive her away.” I read that in 2022.
Here’s my bottom line. It’s a story about two people who watched someone they loved die in front of them and feel tremendous guilt. It’s not supposed to be an easy read. Riley and Dylan were barely functioning humans. Holly made life decisions for Riley like she was a preteen, Riley never once questioned her ability to do so, nor did any other character after the first 50 pages. While they were the right decisions, that’s not the point. I wanted Riley to make her own choices, not defer to her badly written mother. There were countless opportunities for her to pack up her house and leave, even if she used Jeremy as a crutch and said he would have wanted more for her. Anything.
Holly gave her alcoholic, underage daughter alcohol. Every day. While fearing she wouldn’t live through the day. She found her passed out in the bathtub, not realizing she almost drown earlier in the day, and she kept it up, and had the audacity to get on a soapbox in the back half of the book and lecture everyone about what she would allow and not allow her grown daughter to do. Dylan held Holly’s feet to the fire briefly until she said that she loved her daughter and wouldn’t let her be hurt, which was demonstrably not the case, and then Dylan was all “we shall never speak ill of you again.” Actions, not words, remember?! It was beyond insane and infuriated me. Spoilers for Logan, but there’s a character there who keeps a damaging secret and is cast out by the Prestons for her crime. Different people, different standards, but the narrative treatment of poor decision makers was night and day notable.
There was no growth from Riley once she pulled herself up by her bootstraps. She hung in there with Dylan when he literally terrorized her, wouldn’t back down until her mom made her, and when he finally got back to a good place and hopped back on the tracks in one chapter, it was business as usual for the rest of the book. Narratively, it didn’t work at all.
This wasn’t the messy story of characters who made bad life decisions but got to the right place in the end. This was the story of characters who made bad life decisions, got lucky in the end, and didn’t put in the effort to rebuilding. I’ll keep reading any Preston book that comes out, and will be there for the revival of More Than. I won’t do a full re-read again. I’ll be sticking with This and Forever, but likely won’t return to His/Her/Enough, but credit to Amanda’s character for acknowledging her self-worth.
Three star books are flawed. Two star books leave me angry. I’m far more on that side of the pond.
Original——————-
Coming off More Than Forever earlier this year, with my favorite characters of the series, I struggled with Enough.
I love the secondary characters of this series and it was great to return to the universe for a few days. Jay McLean always has to throw an angsty curveball at you, and I've found the understated ones (Forever) work for me far more than the over the top ones (This/Him/Her), but this was the first one that went for actual cruelty.
Dylan was put into an awful situation, but his response was horrific and what was less acceptable was how little Riley stuck up for herself. The whole "I belong to you...here's his address" characterization triggered more than one eye-roll, and I get what the author was going for in how she handled his behavior, but beyond the romanticized plot line of a novel the message there was "be a doormat and hope for the best." This carried over to her allowing her mother to drag her around like she's a teenager without rights without any discussion. Her character needed a bit more spine.
And while I'm getting things off my chest, Holly's behavior at the start of the novel was unjustifiable and it's difficult to reconcile her with the character we get later in the story, who I enjoyed very much.
Spoiler
And was Dylan ever in court for his DUI?The ending rebounded sharply, and I truly enjoyed the entire cast of characters in this sendoff. That second to last reading session was as rough as they came, and at one point this was easing towards a 2-star rating or lower. The counter-revelation, the cops, and the quacking helped mightily.