Review: Tessa Ever After by Brighton Walsh
SYNOPSIS:
In this grippingly emotional New Adult novel from the author of Caged in Winter, what you want isn’t always what you need…
Jason’s been living (and loving) the rich playboy lifestyle for five years, but now his parents are pressuring him to get involved in the family business. The last thing he wants is another obligation, but when his best friend moves out of state and asks Jason to look after his sister, he can’t just say no.
Tessa had to grow up way too soon. After dealing with the aftermath of her parents’ deaths, then becoming a teenage mom, she knows the meaning of responsibility. Which is why, at twenty-two, she’s looking for so much more than a party boy. She’s looking for someone who can stand by her and her daughter…forever.
A relationship between them is doomed from the start, but who says they can’t have a little fun? But as Jason gets closer to Tessa—and her daughter—fun starts to turn into something else… Something Jason’s not sure he’s ready for.
REVIEW:
Alright, this book has been sitting on my shelf forever and I finally took the plunge and dived in. I was hesitant because I wasn’t a huge fan of Caged in Winter, but Tessa Ever After was definitely an improvement and while I don’t quite think the author is “there” yet with her writing, she is definitely improving. And given that this book is 3 years old, who knows what her current writing style is like.
So let me start with the things I did like. I rarely read books where the leads have kids but in a pleasant surprise, Haley (Tessa’s daughter), was adorable and added comic relief and an abundance of cuteness to the story. I really liked that Tessa and Jason had a history, most of which were already heard in Caged in Winter, so Brighton didn’t rehash or repeat it. I already knew about both of there personalities. Now while I say this, I did feel that there relationship was a little rushed. While Jason is a playboy, he almost instantaneously was absolved of this. I wanted to see him work a little harder to get in Tessa’s good graces and show her that she was different.
So the story flowed smoothly but around 70-80% my interest started to wan. Not sure why but it started to feel like things were being dragged out or conflict was being created just to make the story a little longer. I didn’t really see a lot of character growth which was disappointing. Tessa was really hard on herself in the beginning of the book and it would have been great to see her at the end realizing what an amazing parent she is instead of being reassured by those around her and never really believing it. Jason took far to long to pull his head out his *ss. Overall, I enjoyed the story and plan on reading the last book, Paige in Progress.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
