Rough Water by Melissa Pearl

Synopsis:
Sometimes love is more than a feeling…it’s a choice.

Justin Doyle loves his new wife, Sarah. Deeply. Madly. Passionately…. And he wants a divorce.

A few weeks into their marriage an unforeseen tragedy strikes, bringing their lives to a screeching halt.

For Justin, the loss hits him in deep and profound ways. He is wracked with a guilt which feeds his belief that he has never been—will never be—good enough. Sarah tries to be there for him while she deals with her own sadness, but he pushes her away…to a place neither are sure they can recover from.

The one thing they need most is each other. And it’s the one thing they don’t have.
Can they find their way back to the place they were before? Or is wedded bliss just a fairy tale?

    

My Review:
3.5 stars — I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

Well crap.  This book didn’t work out as well for me as everyone else.  I’m not sure if it was just a mood I was in, but I just didn’t feel all the emotions that I was expecting to.  Now, that’s not to say I didn’t tear up at points…but I had been anticipating some bawling, and it just didn’t come.

Part of it is that I had been anticipating a tragedy at the beginning of the story, and so maybe I just wasn’t allowing myself to get sucked in because I was too busy trying to figure out what the tragedy would be?  I honestly don’t know.  All I know is that my cold heart didn’t shed a tear.  And that made me sad, and so I put the book down and went to bed.

Now when I picked the book up again the next day, I started to get my emotions involved a bit more.  I really felt for Justin and all the guilt he was feeling.  He definitely made me choke up.  I definitely felt for his character and what he was going through.  And I actually found the initial part of the book and what they were going through as a couple dealing with the tragedy (badly) to be unfortunately realistic, and I could totally see it happening.  And even though this book touches on one of my button issues that normally has me saying a big nope, it was handled in a very realistic manner and it didn’t bother me too much (ie it had me squirming a little, but I made it through).  Though it probably did affect my connection to Sarah a wee bit….  It’s not that I didn’t feel for her, but I just ended up connecting with Justin’s character more.

In the end I just don’t think I was in the mood for such a devastating book, and so I just didn’t allow myself to go all in.  I felt like the middle part was really well done, but I wasn’t convinced with the resolution.  I feel so cynical, but I feel like Justin’s talk with Marcus was just too easy, and it all wrapped up faster than I was expecting.  Again, I don’t really know if this was mostly a personal (mood) thing, or if the book itself contributed, but in the end I just wasn’t satisfied.

So yeah.  I hate writing these reviews.  I hate being the odd one out.  I had really been looking forward to this book, but in the end it just wasn’t really for me.  😦