Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Let Love Live

SERIES: The Love Series #5

AUTHOR: Melissa Collins

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH:  298 Pages

BLURB:

Who would you become if you lost the only person who ever mattered?

For twenty-six year old Dylan Hopkins, the answer is easy. He’s become no one. Memories of the happier times are all he has left as he finds himself meandering numbly through his now dull life. Though he cares about his work and family dearly, he’s yet to let himself find love again. Afraid of letting go of what he once had, Dylan chooses to keep his heart buried, where it belongs, having died a long time ago.

Conner Michelson is about to change everything Dylan knows. He’s every bit the bad boy persona – tatted up, ex-MMA fighter, but after an injury leaves him unable to fight, he has to rethink his goals. Having just opened his own gym, Conner can cross his first major life accomplishment off his very short list. Next up: find a man he can settle down with and build a family. Seems simple enough – a dream most people have, but when he meets Dylan, his carefree, easy-going life is thrown into a tailspin.

Determined to keep Dylan in his life, Conner vows to resurrect Dylan’s long ago buried heart and let love live once more.

REVIEW:

To be honest I’m rather stumped about what to say about this book. See, thing is, I didn’t really enjoy it but at the same time I recognize that it is a good book, if that even makes sense. You’ll have to forgive me if this review ends up being a bit rambly and unfocused (I know right, what’s new) but I’m going to do my best to explain why I’m recommending a book I sorta wish I hadn’t read.

I should start with the fact that this book read as two completely separate stories to me. The book is divided into Before and After, the two parts of the story set eight years apart. The first 45% of the story (Before) is told from the interchanging point of views of Dylan and Shane with the remainder of the book (After) alternating between Dylan and Conner.

From what I can gather, and I’m not guaranteeing this is totally correct, this is book #5 of an otherwise m/f series that features Dylan in some or all of the other books. The other books also, I think, have made readers aware of the circumstances of Shane’s death. Gasp! It’s ok, I didn’t just give away a secret plot twist, we know from the prologue that poor Shane’s story is going to end in his death. Now if anyone just whined – but I don’t wanna read about vajayjays (fist bump), that’s not a problem because that was actually just my long winded way of saying that this book can definitely be read as a standalone. Although Dylan is in the other books we don’t need to know what happened in those other stories to understand his character.

Oh, but back to the whole Before/After thing. This was my BIG issue with this story. I could tell from the blurb that this was going to be a hurt-comfort sort of read. Dylan had a sad and rather traumatic backstory and Connor was going to come along, help him heal and they’d find their happily ever after. And actually, that’s pretty much how the second part of the story goes. However, as much as I love reading hurt-comfort stories, I’d rather not read so much about the hurt part of that. Ideally I would have rather learned about Shane through a few flashbacks and I know, I know, most readers complain about flashbacks and sometimes I’m one of them. But the thing is, 45% is such a large chunk of story that I couldn’t help but get attached to Shane, no matter how much I really tried not to. To read the death of such a young, shattered character, and from his own point of view, is not something I look for when I read a romance. It may sound shallow but I prefer the vanilla version of hurt-comfort.

The second part of the book is exactly what I wanted to read. Dylan isn’t the only one who needs to heal, Conner has his own wounds and I loved the way they both acknowledge that it probably won’t go smoothly but they agree it’s worth the effort to try. I fully bought into the speed with which these two men fell for each other because they both admit to themselves that they’ve reached a point in their lives where they are ready to move on from their pasts and are ready to love. Which is the whole point of the book and the title I guess. You need to let love into your life if you want to do more than just survive it, if you want to actually live it. I think the author did a fabulous job of conveying that.

I realize that reviews are usually just the sole opinion of the reviewer and I know I’ve thrown that line out there a few times when I’ve either enjoyed a book that others didn’t like or when I’ve disliked a book by a popular author. But with this review, I feel the need to add that no other reader seemed to have the same opinion as me. I checked out some other reviews, there are literally dozens of them, over a hundred actually, and although I didn’t read them all not one that I saw agreed with me. I feel that it’s only fair to point that out because, like I said, I recognize that this is a good book. It’s very well written, the characters have flaws and depth, it felt like the author had total control of her story and shared it with us in a well planned out and deliberate manner.

I honestly applaud the job she did and my rating reflects that, but sadly, it was just too heartbreaking for me to enjoy.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon