All My Life

Sigh...I don't really have much to say about this book. It wasn't a bad book by any means (hence the 3-Stars). It had sweet moments. The flashbacks of Garrett and Mia were cute. It had funny moments. It was well written. It had a great small town feel to it. Mia was a good kid. I loved Garret's Dad. Devlyn and Garrett were cute together. The sex was hot. I cried a little. I was pissed off (a lot). Last, the ending was sweet. All good things...





That said, as soon as I found out the hero's daughter was 17/18, and not a young child (as the cover suggested), I knew this was going to be a struggle for me to get through because now we have a heroine that has been pining for this hero for 20+ years. She sees him ask out, fall in love with, and knock up Mia's mother. She sees him going into the house of his Thursday night hookup. And of course, she has had nothing but shitty relationships. She gave up opportunities because Garret and Mia needed her. She just pathetically sat on the sidelines while Garrett lived his life...groan.





On top of that, we have a hero that not once thought of the heroine as more than a friend (and quite frankly took advantage of her friendship) for 20+ years. Even though he has seen her EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and she has basically been a Mom to Mia. Then BAM figuratively out of the blue he is all over her like white on rice? Since I was already annoyed about the above stuff, I started to get extra prickly, and a lot of things started to annoy me more and more. The whole “keeping the fact they were together a secret” from everyone, seemed entirely unnecessary. You are adults, just be upfront! As well as the whole “she wants kids; he doesn't” thing that should have been resolve before even starting a relationship (IMO). I also wasn't a fan of the letters by Mia's Mom (or her coming back into the story to cause a bunch of ridiculous drama). Nor the plethora of OW that show up to date the hero. Nor the way too often mentions of what he did with OW (and he wasn't even a manwhore, but it got repeated way too many times). All these things made it extra hard for me to feel a connection between Garrett and Devlyn. Nor did find it remotely believable that after 20 years this hero all of a sudden saw the heroine as more than a friend.





So yea, it was pretty much the timeline, and the fact I couldn't help but feel that the heroine was a self-sacrificing doormat, that did this one in for me. Had the daughter been younger, and not so many years had passed, I probably would have given this one a much higher rating. Still, a lot of people will love it, and they should. So do read a few more reviews before you decide on whether to read it or not.