{"id":23364,"date":"2014-06-06T08:03:15","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T12:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=23364"},"modified":"2017-07-04T08:15:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T12:15:10","slug":"review-come-to-me-softly-closer-to-you-2-by-a-l-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=23364","title":{"rendered":"Review: Come to Me Softly (Closer to You, #2) by A.L. Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 <\/strong>Paperback<\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

3 stars – so many feels, too little story<\/b><\/p>\n

The sequel to the highly emotional Come to Me Quietly<\/a> gives us the follow up to Jared and Aly\u2019s story and we get to see them move forward with lots of detail, lots of swoon, and a beautifully happy ending that these two characters thoroughly deserve.<\/p>\n

Warning – this will be a little spoilery if you haven’t read the first book.<\/p>\n

This book picks up the morning after Come to Me Quietly<\/i> finished, with Jared and Aly reveling in their reunion. Jared is still broken, but he knows that he can\u2019t live his life without Aly in it, and he is finally accepting of his importance in Aly\u2019s life, and how much she loves him. He still believes he isn\u2019t good enough, but he needs her too much to walk away.<\/p>\n

The significance of what Jared and Aly mean to each other is a huge part of this book, and there is a lot of time spent exploring that. Jared, in particular, clings to Aly as the only light in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout you, I don\u2019t have anything. And you\u2019ve given me everything.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Maybe\u2026just maybe\u2026there was something in this fucked-up world I was supposed to be living for. Last night had only confirmed it. I was living for her.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But despite the happiness that the two of them have finally found together, he doesn\u2019t know how to atone for his past, and his guilt and self-hatred slowly continue to consume him.<\/p>\n

Shame twisted through me on a gale-force wind \u2013 flashes of \u2026 what I had done. They all clashed in a violent fury against the love I\u2019d found in this life, and the light that was Aly.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The battles that Jared goes through are absolutely heartbreaking \u2013 for both him and Aly. Although it takes a long time to get there, I really like the way that his big moment comes about, and I felt so proud of him when he finally started dealing with his demons.

<\/span>Spoiler <\/div>
The big moment with his family was a looooong time coming, and it is one of those spine-tingling moments. It felt absolutely realistic, with the emotion just pouring off the pages! Amazing stuff!<\/div><\/div> And through it all Aly continues to be her fantastic and supportive self. She loves Jared with everything in her. She believes in him, and is so committed to him, and I love the way she stands by him without question.<\/p>\n

This man was mine.
\nVolatile yet pure.
\nCorrupted yet worthy.
\nMy beautifully broken boy.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m a huge fan of AL Jackson, and love the way she writes, but I must confess I struggled with this one. To me, it felt like an overly extended epilogue. There are pages and pages and pages of the two of them gushing about their love for each other \u2013 both in dialogue, but more frequently as an inner monologue. It\u2019s beautifully swoony, but it got to be a little OTT even for me, and I am a self-declared sap of the highest order! And for a huge proportion of the book, that was pretty much all that was happening in the story. Yes, Jared and Aly were moving forward, but it was all dragged out in such minute detail (with yet another overlay of love and gushing) that I found myself getting bored, and I actually had to put this book down and go off and read something else. Twice!<\/p>\n

This is definitely a book for mad Jared and Aly fans who want lots of love and gush, and who want to witness every single little moment of them moving on in their lives together. The writing is beautifully emotive, and I\u2019m glad I persevered with the book \u2013 it was worth it for the story that takes place in the final 20%.<\/p>\n

So yeah, mixed feelings, but I\u2019m generally satisfied. 3 stars.<\/p>\n

An advanced copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Closer to You series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \"\"\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

Come to Me Quietly (#1)<\/strong> (Jared & Aly)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Come to Me Softly (#2) <\/strong>(Jared & Aly)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Come to Me Recklessly (#3)<\/strong> (Christopher & Samantha)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 <\/a>|\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out our A.L. Jackson Author Spotlight<\/a> for more awesome reads.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review 3 stars – so many feels, too little story The sequel to the highly emotional Come to Me Quietly gives us the follow up to Jared and Aly\u2019s story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,9,29],"tags":[35,678,48],"class_list":["post-23364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feeeeeeels","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-a-l-jackson","tag-closer-to-you","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Come-to-Me-Softly.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-64Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}