I liked All I Need Is You; there was enough good in it to keep me reading and to make me curious about what is to come next in this series. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
As a dancer who creates mesmerizing visions onstage, Neve James is looking for the same kind of stability in her love life. Her pen pal, Rory McRoy, is on leave from deployment in Afghanistan, so she heads to Boston to surprise him. After corresponding for months as part of a “Support Our Troops” initiative—and exchanging dozens of “Read When You’re Alone” letters—Neve knows what Rory likes, and she intends to fulfill his every fantasy. But all they get are a few blissful moments together before they’re interrupted by a woman claiming to be Rory’s fiancée.
Rory has fallen hard for Neve’s letters. When he finally meets her in person, he has to have her, right then and there—until Neve takes off in a fit of anger. Forced to return to Afghanistan before he can fix things between them, Rory waits four agonizing months to prove that he’s not the man Neve thinks he is. But by the time he arrives in New York, she’s already made up her mind. Luckily, Rory never backs down from a challenge, and he’s prepared to put everything on the line for love.
Review copy provided for an honest review
There was a lot I liked about All I Need Is You by Wendy S. Marcus but it wasn’t without some problems especially in regards to the main characters. This book was complicated, entertaining and very sexy and I did enjoy it quite a bit, but in my opinion it would have been a much stronger story if the characters had been tweaked just a bit.
For me the best part of this book was when they were pen pals with each other both at the beginning and towards the end of the book. I loved their letters and emails to each other, the sexual bantering and the sharing of their lives. I felt they got a good feel for one another in these letters and while they didn’t discuss everything as we find out, they did share a lot and at times they shared things they hadn’t really shared with anyone else. They built a foundation for a relationship on that early correspondence and they repaired it with the later, there is something special about that to me and obviously to them as well.
I appreciated that Neve Jaimes was a woman who owned her sexuality, but I had issues with the fact that she decided to change because of some bad decisions she made and felt that in order for people to see her different she had to completely move on with her life. I really believe she was a confused young woman who was in need of some counseling stemming for some issues in her past and I questioned continually why she didn’t involve the brother she loved so much in her decisions or when she was having an issue with an old hook-up especially since he is a police officer. Honestly I kind of loved the Neve that was all out there and unapologetic about her life, the one that lived life and the one that followed her dreams because the new Neve was very judgmental especially of herself and she didn’t want others to think bad about her yet she never cut herself any slack. In reality her character was pretty darn confusing but what I did love about her was the way she helped her pen pal Rory McRoy through some difficult times and the way she was there for him when he came back and needed a friend and confidant.
I liked Rory McRoy a lot although I don’t felt we really got to know him as well as we did Neve. I did wonder about his opinion of Neve and the fact that he didn’t think she was the type of girl he’d marry when he got out of the service and I kind of hated the way he didn’t have Neve’s back the couple of times he should have, but I believe he was a decent guy he just had a skewed view of life and marriage from his own family’s background. There was no doubt he was an upstanding guy and I appreciated that even though he was of short stature, it didn’t bother him and he had good self esteem. I admired the way he was there to help Neve through a tough time and that he respected her need to heal and helped her as she tried to regain her strength and get back in shape for a big audition.
Both these characters had some issues Neve from an event in her early teens that changed the way she saw life and rocked everything she thought she knew about her family. The affects of battle have taken their toll on Rory and he’s suffering from PTSD. I liked the way these two took care of each other and the way there were there as a sounding board or just to help them deal. There was a general respect for one another in that regards but unfortunately it didn’t spill over in to other areas which is why their relationship was so volatile. To be honest I was disappointed in both of them for not trusting each other more and for not communicating better in all aspects of their lives leading to a whole lot of unnecessary drama in this story.
While the premise of this book was very good, the execution was lacking. Overall I liked All I Need Is You; there was enough good in it to keep me reading and to make me curious about what is to come next in this series.
3.5 stars
I agree Slick the premise was good but…I gave it 2 Stars it just didn’t work for me