December 2, 2016 – My Tiny Obsessions

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One last chance for love.

It’s been a year since Eden last spoke to Tyler. She remains furious with him for his abrupt departure last summer but has done her best to move on with her life at college in Chicago – and she’s finally over Tyler…isn’t she? As school breaks up for the summer, she’s heading back to Santa Monica, but she’s not the only one who decides to come home…

Despite their breakup, Tyler’s determined to rekindle what they once had. Having been left behind to deal with the aftermath of their bombshell revelation and a family torn apart, Eden’s not sure she can forgive him. Now she must search her heart and decide if Tyler is worth the risk once and for all.

I buddy-read this book with Kat @Life and Other Disasters, and she already posted her review of it, and you can read it here! You can check out my reviews for book 1 and 2 here: Did I Mention I Love You? and Did I Mention I Need You?.

I had high expectations for this one, especially because I absolutely loved the second book, so I wanted my HEA, but I wanted sound reasoning, good choices, great growth, you know… the whole package. I did get some of those things, so I can’t say I’m disappointed, but I somehow expected a little more.

I still loved the writing on this one, and I think that Estelle has a great future ahead of her, because the writing is great and some parts is actually beautiful. But while the pacing in DIMINY was so amazing, the pacing here felt off. The whole book takes place in a little over 2 weeks, and it just felt like so little time for everything that had come before. First of all, the first half of the book went by ever so slowly, and then the second part of the book felt rushed.

After being away for a year, I thought that Eden and Tyler needed more time to actually talk and resolve everything between them. Because one minute Eden is absolutely mad, and hardly 3 days later she’s absolutely in love again. I’m not doubting the love at all, because they never stopped loving each other, but a lot of shit went down during their year apart, and I just didn’t thought it was believable that everything would be that fine so fast. I wanted them together, of course I did, but I wanted a slower build-up.

Once again, I absolutely loved Tyler… he got better with each book. He had an amazing character development, and I thought he was kind of perfect. Eden though… hmmmm…. I understood why she was so angry, I really did, but she still felt so immature at times. I did like that they both develop a lot throughout the series.

I loved that they FINALLY accepted their relationship as it is. Yes, they’re step-siblings, they’re in love, and they don’t care what you think about it! Aleluia! It took them long enough :D. Their relationship is sweet and romantic and perfect, and I just wish it had gone a little slower than it did.

I was super ok with the resolution of the book, I thought it made a lot of sense, after everything that they’ve been through.

Ok, so apart from the pacing of the story, what else I wasn’t OK with? Some things were not properly explained or resolved. Like Kat said, Eden spends 3 books dealing with her issues with her body, yet here, her solution is not acceptance, or working out, or balance… her solution is to deny herself things she likes, and she kind of compares it to the changes in Tyler’s life, that he had to make himself do, and wow, not comparable at all.

Another thing that I didn’t like was her dad’s explanation to their ruined relationship. It honestly didn’t fly with me, and I absolutely loathed her dad, because no parent has the right to call his daughter what he did, and blame it on what he did.

I also wish there had been some more resolution in terms of Tyler’s history and his family, I felt like a lot of things were mentioned, but not properly tied up.

Overall, it was a good conclusion, but because the pacing was off, I felt like there was a lot of things right at first that could have been cut, and room made for more important issues.

I still love this series, and Tyler will always have a special place in my heart. 😀

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Again, I managed to read 20 books last month, and from my original 14 books on my TBR, I read 11 and started the 12th, so… not bad! I’m gonna aim for 14 books again, and see how that goes.

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