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5 Smooches!
Synopsis
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Life can be messy,
And love can be too.
Most people say that it’s not important where you’re going, but instead, how you get there.
Unfortunately for me, the journey to love was absolutely agonizing. Love and Hate wrestled with my life day after day, year after year, and the only way to stop it was to let one of them win.
Which one?
I fought to love harder. But I loathe my love story.
Warning: This standalone novel contains explicit language, sexual content, and potential triggers.
Review
The first thing I need to say is that if I could give this book more than 5 Smooches, I would. It rocked my world. It blew me away. It made me cry like a baby while my husband sat and looked at me like I was crazy. In other words, it was freaking amazing!
I am fan of Laurel’s and I have enjoyed her other books but this one really took the cake and, in my opinion, her books are just getting better and better every time. Hate: A Love Story really was just magnificent.
This book is a story of family, friends, love, and I guess hate too. Whitney meets Blane in her pre-teens. She is tough and recluse, pushing others away but Blane doesn’t take no for answer and he worms his way right into her heart.
“Why do you think I’m the type of person you’d want to be friends with?”
“Because you’re the type of person who asks that question.”
Not too long after they start their friendship Blane brings a third bestie into the group; Franny. She is quiet, sensitive, and reserved; a bit of a dreamer.
If he’d already picked out a friend he deemed worthy of this – of this special place we had found with each other – then she must have been pretty special herself.
These three become the best of friends together, forging ahead into their teen years, being supportive and loving to each other; REAL best friends.
They clicked more than the orange button on Amazon.
So, this book is Whitney, Blane, and Franny’s story. It is the story of their families, complete with crazy and hilarious grandmothers. It is the story of their wins and their losses.
Saying goodbye to someone you love isn’t really the hard part. It’s living every day, not being able to say anything to them at all.
Their story is going to blow your mind. It has so much angst and drama but really, how could it not? This novel spans decades of friendship and family and we all know that things change in decades and not always for the good. Keep the tissues on hand and try to keep the sobs under control…some parts of this book was absolutely heart breaking. But the love story, I hated it and I loved it. It was beautiful and it was tragic all in one breath.
Sadness for the hearts we had to break, the hard lessons we had to learn, the loved ones we had to lose.
So, yes this book spans years and skips a huge hunk of time. Yes, there might be a little bit of a love triangle. Yes, there are some really sensitive subjects addressed. So, a lot of you people out there who are hung up on this crazy shit are going to be all like..noooo I can’t read this, but I am going to tell you now, you are going to miss out on an amazing story! Don’t be dumb!
DON’T LOOK FOR WHAT IF. Embrace what is.
~Amie
