This is a reissue of one of Ms. Holt’s earliest works and after reading this; it is easy to see how much he has grown as a writer. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
Can a moment of passion outlast years of secrets and misery? For Julia Patterson, meeting Luke Buchanan awakens within her a passion she’s never dared dream possible. He claims her body and helps her remember what it means to be a woman. But Fate has a twisted sense of humor. Just when Julia is ready to step over the threshold into a wonderful new life, her almost-ex-husband is diagnosed with a heart condition that puts her divorce on hold. Turning her back on Luke is the most difficult thing she’s ever done. But Julia has a secret, one that Charles discovers and uses against her.
Years later, when Luke walks back into Julia’s life, the passion between them is just as explosive. But Charles is still controlling her from the grave, and the secret Julia has hidden for fourteen years could destroy their dreams forever.
Review copy provided for an honest review
In Finding Julie, Desiree Holt manages to take two hot button issues and still turn out a book that I found engaging and while I didn’t love it, it was hard for me to put down. For a romance there was really very little of that in this book and I think that is my biggest issue although I have heroine issues as well for a couple of reasons. I don’t mind messy romances especially when a couple works through everything over time and comes out on the other side stronger than ever, but I felt like we were cheated to that part of the story and honestly this book left me with more questions than it answered and for someone like me that is never a good thing because my inquisitive mind can’t let it go.
Julia Patterson and Luke Buchanan meet when their companies do work together and there is an instant attraction, some hot and steamy sex, a follow up visit and then Julia’s life comes crashing down around her and their connection is broken.
It is very rare that I don’t like a heroine but unfortunately Julia is one that drove me quite crazy. She made choices on her own, many that weren’t good and several without obtaining advice from legal counsel. I get that she was stressed, that she was being mentally abused/bullied, but for someone who was a partner in a company and educated she didn’t seem to have a lot of common sense. She refused to listen or let her friends help and to be honest her stubbornness caused her years of grief and hurt many people close to her. I will be flat out honest and say that in my book she committed a couple of offenses that I just can’t condone and that is probably why I not only couldn’t identify with her.
Luke is one of those heroes that is easy to love but at times a little too easy going and quick to forgive. However I will say that there were moments when to me he seemed somewhat overbearing and I was surprised given Julia’s history she put up with it. I hate that he was treated so poorly and that he gave up so much for falling for a woman who gave up and didn’t fight for what they wanted. At times he was just a little too perfect but again, that’s kind of what makes him such great hero material.
This book spans 14 years with a lot of time we don’t see and time I would have loved to see especially from Luke’s point of view. The actual romance part between Julia and Luke was fairly short although I will say that the majority of time they spent together was of an intimate nature and it was hot and sexy as expected from this author. The rest of the story dealt with Julia’s life with her children and everything she went through to provide security for them. Don’t get me wrong I admire her for her dedication to her children but she sacrificed way more than she needed to.
While Finding Julia was a good story it wasn’t a great one for me. The heroine was too weak for my tastes and because of that made decisions that hurt so many people in her life; people who loved her and only wanted what was best for her. While I appreciated the epilogue I would have love to actually see some of the events referenced actually taking place and most of all I would have loved to see the hero actually get mad and make the heroine grovel a little for everything he put him through (maybe that’s mean of me to say but she got off way too easy). This is a reissue of one of Ms. Holt’s earliest works and after reading this; it is easy to see how much he has grown as a writer. Finding Julia played out like a family drama and as a drama it is a very good, but for those expecting a Desiree Holt romance, this one missed that mark.
Thanks Slick for the review