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amylferg 's review for:
Before We Came
by Sloane St. James
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Somehow this is a debut novel?? I don’t believe it. The plot. The writing. The side characters. Fantastic.
Let’s start with the good stuff. Lonan & Bridg’s love was palpable from the beginning - heck, I felt it when they were little kids sharing their first kiss. That was adorable. Afterwards, Lonan’s inner dialogue was compelling and beautiful, I could practically feel his heart healing through the pages.
As for Bridg, at least in my opinion, she handled everything fairly maturely.
I UNDERSTAND that some readers might get frustrated by a choice (or choices) she makes near the end of the book but all you really need to focus on is Mickey’s advice to Lonan regarding Bridg’s upbringing and compounded trauma to check yourself during Bridg’s recovery process.
Lonan’s decisions near the end proved that even some of the best MMCs are still..just men. Without spoiling too much I’ll just say there is a some slight OW drama that was entirely unnecessary AND very out of character for Lonan. His love for Bridg never waivers but he makes a few silly, unfortunately thought out, little mistakes - nothing to do any real damage - but just, pointless? So when I reached the last 10-15% I was perplexed how quickly everything resolved.
And then, when I got to the very end and realized this is actually a debut novel? Shocked. I do wish the kidnapping/missing child plot was developed a bit more and that Bridg had more time to embrace her independence. She earned that time to herself and it did feel overshadowed by the love plot. Not that I wasn’t happy to see them get their HEA but Bridg deserved time to carve her own little path in the world. Regardless, great story and I will be reading the rest of the series.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Somehow this is a debut novel?? I don’t believe it. The plot. The writing. The side characters. Fantastic.
Let’s start with the good stuff. Lonan & Bridg’s love was palpable from the beginning - heck, I felt it when they were little kids sharing their first kiss. That was adorable. Afterwards, Lonan’s inner dialogue was compelling and beautiful, I could practically feel his heart healing through the pages.
As for Bridg, at least in my opinion, she handled everything fairly maturely.
I UNDERSTAND that some readers might get frustrated by a choice (or choices) she makes near the end of the book but all you really need to focus on is Mickey’s advice to Lonan regarding Bridg’s upbringing and compounded trauma to check yourself during Bridg’s recovery process.
Lonan’s decisions near the end proved that even some of the best MMCs are still..just men. Without spoiling too much I’ll just say there is a some slight OW drama that was entirely unnecessary AND very out of character for Lonan. His love for Bridg never waivers but he makes a few silly, unfortunately thought out, little mistakes - nothing to do any real damage - but just, pointless? So when I reached the last 10-15% I was perplexed how quickly everything resolved.
And then, when I got to the very end and realized this is actually a debut novel? Shocked. I do wish the kidnapping/missing child plot was developed a bit more and that Bridg had more time to embrace her independence. She earned that time to herself and it did feel overshadowed by the love plot. Not that I wasn’t happy to see them get their HEA but Bridg deserved time to carve her own little path in the world. Regardless, great story and I will be reading the rest of the series.