Description:
"That’s how I constantly felt, that I lacked the abilities others had to function normally."
Thirty-one-year-old proofreader Bailey Mitchell is a slave to her tics. She inherited Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder from her father, and it’s done nothing but inhibit her love life. She’s run the gamut of boyfriends—none of them willing or able to cope with her condition.When she meets 32-year-old Reece Powell, her new coworker at Beach Elite Marketing Firm, everything changes. He falls in love with Bailey just as she is—quirks and all—and she, in turn, opens her life to him. His love seems to change her—to help her better manage her OCD. But when tragedy strikes, she is consumed by the destructive nature of her condition. Reece sees the ugly side, and he’s left with a choice: stay or run.
Review:
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From the cover to the content to the characters, LOVELINES was the perfect combination of a sweet and sometimes heartbreaking romance. I laughed, cried, and fell in love with Reece, Bailey, and their journey.
Bailey has been dealing with her OCD since childhood. Not the cutesy eccentric habits kind of OCD, but real and true diagnosed OCD. Her life is ruled by schedules, counting, and routines. When she meets Reece, he helps her fight some of those tics, but she knows one day it will all blow up in her face. She’s had too many failed relationships when the guy couldn’t deal with her neuroses to believe there’s any alternative.
Reece is the perfect hero. He is just imperfect enough to be believable and yet perfect enough to be swoon-worthy. He makes mistakes, but at the end of the day he truly loves Bailey, tics and all. In fact, he thinks all the things that drive everyone else crazy about Bailey are cute. He wouldn’t even attempt to help her improve if he didn’t know it was the right thing to do. He’s lived a life full of broken promises but he’s determined that his relationship with Bailey will be his first to break the mold.
When the inevitable happens and tragedy strikes, Bailey finds herself drowning in her disorder. She is determined not to bring Reece down with her, even if it breaks her heart in the process.
There truly wasn’t one thing I would change about LOVELINES. Bailey was flawed and insecure and yet she had a heart of gold and a desire to live and to love. Reece was this broken, amazing man who I just wanted to wrap up and cuddle. He was so patient with Bailey and yet he loved her so passionately that he could lash out in a fit of emotions and pain. He didn’t always handle her OCD the way he should, but who would? Nobody is perfect and that’s what I loved about LOVELINES. It embraces the imperfections in humans and makes us fall in love with them anyway. It was told in a very unique perspective, alternating between a first-person narrative whenever Bailey was narrating but switching to third-person when told from Reece’s point-of-view. While I’m usually very picky about perspectives and it can be a deal breaker for me, I thought the way S. Walden wrote it worked. It made me pause a few times, but it didn’t remove me from the story or break up the flow.
Anyone who reads LOVELINES will get sucked into the storyline and the romance. I couldn’t get enough and I’m excited to read the other books in the series. It promises to be an interesting series, each involving different characters, and S. Walden promises to be an author to watch out for. If the three books I’ve read by her are any indication, she is here to stay and to make a name for herself. I’m just excited to get to experience her magic as it happens.
**Haha – guess what?!? After writing my review, I realized there had been an update—to the cover and to the series. It’s no longer a series though there will be a separate, stand-alone book that S. Walden intends to write at a later date. Apparently the original cover (which I loved because it so perfectly embodied Beboppin’ Bailey and Reece and who they were as a couple) didn’t translate to the author’s image as a writer of tough, taboo topics. I started reading S. Walden for her taboo subject matter and so in hindsight, I can see why the new cover will better translate to her target audience. It’s more like a cover I would pick up if I weren’t familiar with the author. As I am familiar with S. Walden, however, I will pick up her books regardless of the cover.
**Complimentary copy provided by the author/publisher for an honest review.
**Reviewed by preppea on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews.
Enter to Win!
She loves her fans and loves to hear from them. Email her at swaldenauthor@hotmail.com and follow her blog at http://swaldenauthor.blogspot.com where you can get up-to-date information on her current projects.
Social Links:
Website ● Blog ● Facebook ● Twitter ● Goodreads
Buy Links:
Amazon ● B&N ● Smashwords
