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A review by ohthatellie
In This Moment by Autumn Doughton
5.0
Sometimes you come across books that are so unexpected that you're surprised why you've never read or heard of them before. In This Moment was one of those cases.
"All we get are moments, Cole. One at a time, like heartbeats. Once one of them is gone, that's it. No do-overs. No repeats. Every moment possesses its own kind of magic and what we do with it counts. It counts."
Aimee Spencer moves back to Florida to attend college after spending her senior year of high school in Portland with her grandparents following the death of her best friend. Determined to start over, she promises to start living her life and move on from her past. Enter Cole Averly, resident playboy with a past he himself is running from, feels an instant connection to Aimee. The two embark on a friendship and soon more but both find they can't run from their pasts forever.
Told in alternating POV's it was a real treat to really get inside the heads of both the main characters. In Aimee, we had all the grief and guilt associated with the death of her best friend, Jillian, the year before and her just trying to bury all that emotion and start really living her life again as opposed to just going through the motions. With Cole, we get the ultimate dude thoughts but he's a really sensitive and thoughtful guy. I loved reading his thoughts and seeing what makes him tick. I liked the fact that both of them were very similar in the sense that both of them are runners figuratively and literally. They're afraid to face the past. This obviously becomes an issue in their relationship later on but we don't dwell in it too long. While some of the themes in the book were dark it never felt heavy and angsty or melodramatic. It had the right balance of drama and warmheartedness.
Of course this was also a love story between Aimee and Cole and while they do have past experiences with the opposite sex, it was the first 'real' relationship they have had and it was so wonderful to get to experience that with them. Yes, there were a couple of love scenes but they were very tasteful and revealed just enough but never got graphic which is very common nowadays in romance books. I really enjoyed the banter they had going and this game they played throughout the book of changing one letter from book titles to create new books. It was so adorable and I was smiling like an idiot the whole time. The side characters were just as endearing and Aimee's friend Jodi provided much needed comic relief and bluntness for her because Aimee can be so serious and inside herself at times that she needed a friend the polar opposite.
All in all it was a very special book. One that was very realistic and uplifting. Anyone can read this and enjoy something about it. This may be my first book by this author but it certainly won't be my last. There's just something so special about Ms. Doughton's writing that I find truly remarkable. She made the most basic of plots interesting and different and not heavy or dark at all. I really appreciated that. Many writers out there would just make the plot just so dark and depressing and it was refreshing that this felt so different. I recommend this to everyone and at 99ยข it's truly a steal.
4.5 stars
"All we get are moments, Cole. One at a time, like heartbeats. Once one of them is gone, that's it. No do-overs. No repeats. Every moment possesses its own kind of magic and what we do with it counts. It counts."
Aimee Spencer moves back to Florida to attend college after spending her senior year of high school in Portland with her grandparents following the death of her best friend. Determined to start over, she promises to start living her life and move on from her past. Enter Cole Averly, resident playboy with a past he himself is running from, feels an instant connection to Aimee. The two embark on a friendship and soon more but both find they can't run from their pasts forever.
Told in alternating POV's it was a real treat to really get inside the heads of both the main characters. In Aimee, we had all the grief and guilt associated with the death of her best friend, Jillian, the year before and her just trying to bury all that emotion and start really living her life again as opposed to just going through the motions. With Cole, we get the ultimate dude thoughts but he's a really sensitive and thoughtful guy. I loved reading his thoughts and seeing what makes him tick. I liked the fact that both of them were very similar in the sense that both of them are runners figuratively and literally. They're afraid to face the past. This obviously becomes an issue in their relationship later on but we don't dwell in it too long. While some of the themes in the book were dark it never felt heavy and angsty or melodramatic. It had the right balance of drama and warmheartedness.
Of course this was also a love story between Aimee and Cole and while they do have past experiences with the opposite sex, it was the first 'real' relationship they have had and it was so wonderful to get to experience that with them. Yes, there were a couple of love scenes but they were very tasteful and revealed just enough but never got graphic which is very common nowadays in romance books. I really enjoyed the banter they had going and this game they played throughout the book of changing one letter from book titles to create new books. It was so adorable and I was smiling like an idiot the whole time. The side characters were just as endearing and Aimee's friend Jodi provided much needed comic relief and bluntness for her because Aimee can be so serious and inside herself at times that she needed a friend the polar opposite.
All in all it was a very special book. One that was very realistic and uplifting. Anyone can read this and enjoy something about it. This may be my first book by this author but it certainly won't be my last. There's just something so special about Ms. Doughton's writing that I find truly remarkable. She made the most basic of plots interesting and different and not heavy or dark at all. I really appreciated that. Many writers out there would just make the plot just so dark and depressing and it was refreshing that this felt so different. I recommend this to everyone and at 99ยข it's truly a steal.
4.5 stars