Christina

I loved being inside Tom’s head. He’s a wise-ass and makes no apologies for his actions. Everything he did felt real, even when he was a total asshole. Both Tom and Reese have some serious and deep-rooted issues. Tom doesn't trust anyone, he’s paranoid, and he’s selfish, while Reese is dealing with his past abuse. Obviously, it’s not smooth sailing for these two. Even though it took forever for Tom to address his issues, I took solace that at least he recognized that he was making stupid decisions and trying not to hurt Reese. To me, this was a positive step and I had faith he would finally come to his senses.

All the characters felt authentic. I loved Cash and Steph. They were great side characters. There were no bells and whistles in this book. It was two guys trying to live their lives, but unfortunately they buried their problems and hid from the world. Eventually they realize that this doesn’t work. It was a long time coming, but that’s what made this feel real to me. It sucks to face reality and deal with these types of issues and Tom was no exception. It got to the point where he didn’t have a choice. There were many times I wanted to smack him and yell “wake up!”, but it was all part of the journey.

Sometimes the writing got long-winded, but I got used to it. If I didn’t like Tom so much, I would have got annoyed fast. My other problem is that I wished we saw more of Reese dealing with his trauma. Even though this was Tom’s book, I was invested in Reese just as much.

I wasn’t that fond of Jack, but I will definitely give the next book a try since I enjoyed this one so much.