| Title: | Lasting Kind of Love | |
|---|---|---|
| Author: | Jen A. Durand | |
| Publisher | Durand Publishing | |
| Publication Date: | October 31, 2016 | |
| Publisher's Description | Five years ago, Luca left Ashton with a broken heart and Olisa stayed behind determined to not regret her decision. Now the mother of a four-year-old boy and working as a neonatal nurse practitioner, Olisa wasn’t looking for love. She had a good life. When Luca returns to care for his dying father, the two reconnect. The bond between the two hasn’t faded. Both wiser and older, they needed to discover whether they had a lasting kind of love. |
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| My rating: | **.5 | |
Luca and Olisa dated throughout high school and college. Luca, who craved the approval of his distant single father, joined the military after they graduated from college. Olisa felt blindsided by her fiance’s decision and worried about him and their future. She decided that she didn’t want to feel that way and eventually broke up with him when he was deployed. Although they were no longer dating, they remained in contact after their breakup. Not over the dissolution of their relationship, Olisa had a one night stand and ended up pregnant with her son Cam, now four years old. It took some time for Luca to get over Olisa being pregnant by another man, but they resumed their friendship, and when Luca returned to town to take care of his ailing father, it was Olisa he asked to get him from the airport.
This book tells the story of how Luca and Olisa found their way back to each other, but I have to be honest, it was basically the shortest journey ever. These two characters still loved each other, and from their flashbacks and present scenes, it was clear that they each viewed the other as The One. As refreshing as it was to read a book where the protagonists weren’t constantly getting in their own way with needless distractions, there’s something to be said for the satisfaction that one feels when characters separated by circumstance successfully bridge a gap and come together. This book had none of that. The characters faced challenges that the author never believably tied to their relationship with each other. Gregory, Cam’s father, popped into the book past the 50% mark, but why? He wasn’t a viable romantic interest for Olisa and Luca never really viewed him as a rival. He didn’t even make much of an effort to actually see his son, considering the legal avenues he could have used, if he’d chosen to do so. The Gregory subplot seemed pointless and added nothing to the story as a whole.
I spent a lot of time thinking about how to review this book. It’s not bad, but it is incomplete and requires editing. It has a clear focus, namely getting Luca and Olisa together, but lacks any sense of genuine conflict. The only part of this book that seems fleshed out (pardon the pun) is the sex scenes. At $2.99, I expect more from a book. As it is now, Lasting Kind of Love reads to me more like a $.99 book. If the author can introduce a believable source of conflict (internal or external: what must the protagonists overcome to be together?) and make Luca and Olisa’s coming together feel more like a triumph and less like a foregone conclusion, I can see it being worth the higher price tag.
I received this book from the author for free, in exchange for an honest review.