A review by bobsvoid
All of Me by A.L. Jackson

5.0

"What were you doing there that night?"
I looked at him, hoping he'd understand. "I was taking a chance, Ian. I was stepping out taking a chance. Praying someone might see me. Might listen. And when I looked up, what I found was you."

Love and romance are such complex things aren't they? There is this notion that love should be easy and quick. Most people who have been in love know otherwise. Love isn't a pretty feeling that looks like a Valentine's day ad. Love can be painful and cruel. All of Me is a romance that is full of angst that details the challenges that come when you fall in love.

Sometimes two people will come together and that love will look like the ones you see in the movies, the ones people dream about. It can be simple and fulfilling and doesn't take much work to get to that happily ever after. However, All of Me doesn't show us that kind of love. It shows us how raw it is and can be. It depicts people who don't want to be in love and fight with all they have to avoid it.

Loving someone might be masochistic. You put your heart on the line knowing there's a chance it can break. Intentionally or not isn't the point. A.L. Jackson gives love stories that follow two people who go through the cruelties that love offers. In the end it might not always end up great, but the possibility that it could is always worth it. Sometimes falling in love is as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning.

"Kisses are forever, and only for the ones you love most."

If there is someone who knows fear it's Grace. She's a dreamer and believes in fairytales even though she's living in a nightmare. She knows all about the dangers that loves brings. Yet, one night when she tries to fight for herself she connects with a man. A man who she knows is dangerous and has a heart that beats wrong. But Grace learns that it beats perfectly with hers.

Ian is a man that has seen too much darkness in the world that he's lost faith in almost everything except for his brother. He's wicked and everything a good woman should avoid. He knows this, but he can't help but want what he can't have. He's not the hero of the story, but all he wants is to save his Angel Girl.

Love isn't always peaceful and sometimes it's not kind. Sometimes two people are only meant to be together in another life. Regardless, this story teaches us that love is worth the challenges that come with it. Love can make you a better person. Sometimes the darkest nights can be saved by the hero. And sometimes that hero has some stains on his armor.

"You're going to ruin me, Angel Girl."
"And you're going to save me."