A beautifully written story. I hope that I get the chance to go out the way that Paris did when my time is up. ( )

What can you say to this...

I knew it was going to be heartbreak city at some point in this book, and it delivered. Probably why I put off reading this one for so long. But even with all that this is truly a fantastic, beautifully written story that grabs you and doesn't let go. Just make sure you have plenty of tissues handy!

Reread October 2020
Even knowing what was going to happen it still is heartbreaking. I still take my hat off to this author for writing such a difficult topic with such poignancy and grace. It's a very, very hard book to read, but it's one I'll never regret reading! ( )

Brilliant! ( )

I don't know what I can add to what everyone else has written. Andrea Speed is one of the best authors I've ever read. I'm hesitating now to start Undertow for the same reason I knew forging ahead after Bloodlines would be hard, only I've had some distance. Not that it will make a difference--I've read the first few pages of Undertow.

I ended up caring so much about the characters I just knew there had to be some way things would be all right. Hmm. Ms. Speed is one hell of a talented woman. There was lots of tissue involved. I'll just leave it at that.
( )

This one was better than the first. A lot cleaner (which is why I'm going with a steady 3 and not a 2.5 again), but boy, was it sad (though you could see it coming since book 1). However, it still suffered from the telling-not-showing aspect to some parts, and I still fail to see how it's not important to really show the resolution to a case or other similar parts to the tale when there's not much meat under the story (other than showing the interaction between the couple/MC and other characters, but I still think something essential fails at that part because although it's fun to read it just leaves you kind of 'meh' as the point of the story, at least until we reach the sad-ending part).

Also, what was up with the parenthesis on this one? There were a bunch of sentences that could have been just as well out of parenthesis, but the winner to the WTH-prize was.... "(!)"
Did I get a bad copy or was that actually part of the book? It wasn't the author signaling she should write something witty there?
Because if it was really part of the book, someone needs to review their writing. Not only the amount of parenthesis was annoying on this one (there were way more than on the first, and yes, I see the irony of my review having a lot of these too, haha), but I think "(that was surprising)" or "(What the fuck?!)" or some such would have looked, sounded and felt waaaaaaaaaay better than the overly expressive "(!)".
Did it convey the feeling? Yes.
Did it work to make me do anything but flinch and shake my head? No.
After the first time it appeared, I kept expecting the book to have smiley faces and a "WTF" in it instead of spelling out the words. If there'd been just one more of those !, it might have ruined it enough that I would have lowered the rating another notch. ( )