Scan barcode
A review by mnwakeford
Meet Me Halfway by Lilian T. James
2.0
Disappointing
This purported to be a "realistic" romance, but this it was not. In real life, any man with a decent sense of self preservation would not pursue a character like Maddie, who had so little self love she might as well have got "doormat" written on a post it note on her forehead. I was all for reading about a struggling single mother working multiple jobs to make a better life for herself and her child. However, once the author decided to add domestic violence into the mix, it all got a bit much.
There came a point where I was channelling my inner Oscar Wilde: to have one abusive relationship may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness; to then also endure sexual harassment in the workplace looks like a deliberate sabotage of oneself; to open a front door after loud knocking in the middle of the night without first checking who is outside... well by then, I'd had more than enough of wet blanket Maddie. It felt like the author was deliberately inflicting on us one sob story after the next to win sympathy for the main female character, but it ended up doing the opposite.
This purported to be a "realistic" romance, but this it was not. In real life, any man with a decent sense of self preservation would not pursue a character like Maddie, who had so little self love she might as well have got "doormat" written on a post it note on her forehead. I was all for reading about a struggling single mother working multiple jobs to make a better life for herself and her child. However, once the author decided to add domestic violence into the mix, it all got a bit much.
There came a point where I was channelling my inner Oscar Wilde: to have one abusive relationship may be regarded as a misfortune; to have two looks like carelessness; to then also endure sexual harassment in the workplace looks like a deliberate sabotage of oneself; to open a front door after loud knocking in the middle of the night without first checking who is outside... well by then, I'd had more than enough of wet blanket Maddie. It felt like the author was deliberately inflicting on us one sob story after the next to win sympathy for the main female character, but it ended up doing the opposite.