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A review by mjsam
Just Physical by Jae
4.0
This is 4th story in the Hollywood series, although I don't really count Dress Tease (#3), since I'd call that a snippet, not a story.
Anyway, this is a follow on from Damage Control, and here Jill gets her own story. In all honesty though, Crash is the real star here. The story centres around Jill and her struggles with MS, which I give Jae extra kudos for, as she doesn't shy away from any aspect of living with MS, and there are several thought provoking scenes.
The problem lies in two areas, 1) the two women spend a lot of time together, but they rarely discuss anything of substance, it's usually push pull stuff about Jill's MS and some superficial discussions about family, so I struggled to believe they'd built the kind of foundation that would last them through Jill's illness.
2) Both women have demons to overcome and big decisions to make, but Jill's constant retreating from Crash wore thin well before the halfway mark, and by the end Jill wasn't the only one suffering. Crash's steadfastness and the way she went about learning about MS kept me hanging in there but it was a struggle to like Jill's character at many points.
We do get to spend more time with Grace and Lauren from book 2, but the other secondary characters aren't particularly fleshed out. There's also a reference to the characters from the first book that was so quick you'd miss it, and honestly wasn't necessary, as neither character had appeared in the book.
This gets four stars regardless, as it handles a difficult topic (and well-researched at that) and though the love story was frustrating at times, I was still rooting for them to have a HEA.
Anyway, this is a follow on from Damage Control, and here Jill gets her own story. In all honesty though, Crash is the real star here. The story centres around Jill and her struggles with MS, which I give Jae extra kudos for, as she doesn't shy away from any aspect of living with MS, and there are several thought provoking scenes.
The problem lies in two areas, 1) the two women spend a lot of time together, but they rarely discuss anything of substance, it's usually push pull stuff about Jill's MS and some superficial discussions about family, so I struggled to believe they'd built the kind of foundation that would last them through Jill's illness.
2) Both women have demons to overcome and big decisions to make, but Jill's constant retreating from Crash wore thin well before the halfway mark, and by the end Jill wasn't the only one suffering. Crash's steadfastness and the way she went about learning about MS kept me hanging in there but it was a struggle to like Jill's character at many points.
We do get to spend more time with Grace and Lauren from book 2, but the other secondary characters aren't particularly fleshed out. There's also a reference to the characters from the first book that was so quick you'd miss it, and honestly wasn't necessary, as neither character had appeared in the book.
This gets four stars regardless, as it handles a difficult topic (and well-researched at that) and though the love story was frustrating at times, I was still rooting for them to have a HEA.