Ok....
Bewertet mit 3 Sternen
~This was my first book by Jo Raven and I liked it. It was ok :)
It´s about being helpless and lost. It´s about life and what impact changes, situations, people and experiences- no matter if good or bad- have on it. It´s about learning to cope and learning to live again and finding yourself and the person you once were, the person you want and need to be.
The book is written from the point of views from both main characters called Matt (Matthew) and Tay (Octavia).
Matt is a dad of two and a widower who can´t cope with the death of his wife. Even though it was years ago he is still broken and hurt. His nightmares are haunting him. Even after he ran away with his kids to a little town where he thought he could start over. But him being tortured and unhappy isn´t changing. And his behaviour towards others lets others think he´s an asshole. But what hurts him the most are the looks on his kids faces. Them being distant, sad and hurt. He´d do anything for them, they are his life, but how could he make them love him again? What can he do to make them happy? Was it a mistake to run away and to hide?
Octavia is a young woman whose life never was easy. Her family was always struggling with money as her dad left the family behind. Now as her mother has a huge amount of debt, Tay tries everything to help her. Being a second mom to her sister and brother qualifies her as a nanny, right? Well, when she couldn´t find a job in the whole town, Matthew Hansen stepped up and offered her a position as the nanny for his kids. But why did he do it? The first time he woudn´t give her the job and acted like the asshole he is. What changed?
It didn´t take long for Octavia to fall in love with his kids. It didn´t take long to figure Matt out. It didn´t take long to fall for him. But could a broken man like Matt ever be able to love her back? Will he ever be able to mourn his wife and be happy again? Will he be able to be himself and live again? And what about his kids? Will they be able to get close to their dad again and love him? And what about all those letters and knives? Is someone playing a prank or is there someone after Matt and his family? And if so: Why and Who? And why were Tay and her family bullied all this time? Why did Ross and even Jasper hate her family so much?
Well... Read this book and find out yourself ;)
My Opinion:
As I already mentioned, it was my first book by Jo Raven and it was good. The writing style was fine, even though there were a few spelling mistakes. But the way how Matt was described... How tortured he was, how hurt and broken. I liked it. It was easy to understand him and why he was the way he was. I also loved how much of an asshole he was. At the beginning I didn´t like him much but the more I got to know him and the more I got to know about his feelings, his thoughts and the reasons, the more I started to like him. And I loved how much he cared for his children, even though he was so helpless with them, didn´t know what to do and how to be the dad they needed. It was great that Tay then became this job and then a part of their lives. She helped him a lot.
I loved how she was able to get close to Matt more and more. How she was able to break his walls down, break the ice that surrounded his heart. She made him "human" again. She made him feel and helped him grieving and becoming the man and dad he needed to be. Tay was great. She was so strong for them and also her own family. And that is even though she was bullied and hurt by others so often and all her life. She had a thick skin and was very mature for her age.
The thing with Adam and with Jasper and Ross. all predictable. There was no surprise to me. I didn´t like Adam from the beginning. I was suspecting that he was behind everything. And it didn´t take long to figure out what connection Jasper had to Tays family.
I think the scenes where they (won´t tell who, no spoilers here from me :P ) went missing- it could have been a bit more detailed and exiting.
Somehow I needed a bit more background story. About Matts wife, what she died from. Why Tays mom never did anything about her dad and never moved away. I mean it´s 18 years. She struggled financially. She knew who the dad is and where he lives. The town was speaking bad of her. Why did she never do anything about it? The dad was to blame. He should be the one the town was gossiping about. He had two families. Tays mom could have hired a lawyer and have the dad forced to pay for the kids. Why wasn´t she doing it? ..... And so on and so on...
The Epilogue was a bit disappointing to me. I´d have wished for Tay to be pregnant. What happened to Adam? How much was the punishment? What happened with Jasper and Ross now that everyone knows? Will Matt really move away with them? I dont know. The end didn´t really seemed like an end to me. :/
But there are more books. Maybe I´ll find out more in them, even though they seem to be about other characters. I´ll see about that. :)