Book Review – Love Left Behind by S.H. Kolee

Love Left Behind
Fantastic! Just… WOW, in all of the good moments (*sigh*), and all (and I mean allllllll) of the bad moments. In the mood for angst? I got your angst, right here. I was mostly a mess reading this, and I loved almost every moment of it.

Lane sent me this recommendation and I say she was spot-on:

“You have given me so many wonderful recommendations that I just had to return the favor.  I just finished reading Love Left Behind by S.H. Kolee and it was GREAT.  I hope that you have time to read this one and pass it on to everyone else.  The mighty Storm meets Love Unscripted.  Really Good Read.”

Maryse: Thank you Lane!! I just downloaded it. It looks right up my alley and I could just *hug* you so much for sending that recommendation it my way.

AND YES IT WAS. Right up my alley. And I feel the need to add to her description of what it’s “like”. This was, hrmmm… I dunno. I’d say (to give you an idea) that this was on the level of The Opportunist/Love Unscripted/The Mighty Storm & sure, maybe even Avoiding Commitment, in regards to how successful it was in causing me frequent anxiety attacks. I’m even going to throw in How to Kill A Rock Star, when it came to some of the… thought processes.  I’m not saying the drama/storyline is the same, or repeating here, just that the level of angst is right on par with those, making it “unputtdownable” for me. It was sometimes over-the-top, but not to the point that I didn’t want to finish. I pretty much devoured it. I often had a physical reaction to what I was reading (and I know I’m very much into a book when I feel it).

In fact, every once in awhile my husband would mutter “Looks like your mad at your book again…” I’d look up to see him smirking at me, only to realize that my own face was grimacing. Hurting from clenching my jaw and frowning so hard. I hope my face doesn’t get stuck that way from reading too many of these… Or my exasperated huffing and puffing (or, okay. I’ll call them what they were…) my “anxiety attacks” were also an obvious sign.

And I sort of sent a crazy email to poor Lane (the one who recommended this). LOL! Sometimes I need to express my feelings. *sheepish shrug* I can’t help it!!

Maryse: OMG!! I am soooooooooo angry! Ughhhhhh! Ugggggghhhh! She freaked me out with all this *spoiler* you know? I was furious with *spoiler*, but… OMG the whole *spoiler* thing when she called to say… *spoiler* Well, that took the cake. Now I’m furious on a whole other level.

Ok by the way, I’m having wayyyy too much fun reading this. I love having these reactions. I’m all cold and trembly feeling and yet exhilarated in it. LOL ok sorry I blew up your email  Bye! Gotta get back to my book!

Lane: I am so glad you are loving it. It gets better and better. It was one of those books I couldn’t read fast enough but was sad when it was over.

Sure, sure… on occasion, I’d roll my eyes at the misunderstandings or the “solutions” some of the characters came up with to “solve” their problems. And I’ll concede that sometimes the misunderstandings seemed far-fetched and as an outsider looking in, things appeared obvious. And yet, to me, the writing and storyline flowed well enough, the characters and many of the situations they faced were believable enough to suck me in, and  I found myself absolutely losing it, with the heroine. I mean who knew what the truth really was right? I was only seeing life through the heroine’s eyes. After all, I’ve found myself surprised a few times, and while my mind was saying “Oh come onnnnnnn!!!”, another part of me was absolutely seething… thinking… NO. WAY!

So what’s it about? Twenty five year old Emma moves to NY to start her career and find herself after having dated the same sweet guy since she was 15. Leaving him a month before they were due to be married. Realizing she was heading down the path that was expected of her, but not living the life she actually wanted. Moving far enough away to start over felt like her only salvation from the monotonous life she was headed for.

“Can you believe you’re getting married in less than a month?”

My answer was no. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t spend my whole life being boring, predictable Emma Mills. It was selfish of me. It was horrible of me. But I knew I was saving Sean and myself from a mind-numbingly boring life together.

So I called it off.

And that’s where she meets her new friends. Her roommate Claire, and her roommate’s friends Nathan, Mia and Jackson. All gorgeous NY’ers, trying to become famous as actors/artists. And Jackson takes an immediate interest in her. They click. OH BOY DO THEY CLICK!!!!! What an indulgence the reader is afforded in this one. It’s wonderful. But you know… things. Forshadowey type “things” pop up every once in awhile.

“I meant it yesterday when I said Jackson was a great catch. Just… be careful. I love Jackson, but he can be a bit of a player. He doesn’t mean to be, but it’s hard when you have so many women chasing after you. Have fun, but don’t read too much into what he does. Woman have a tendency to be swept off their feet by him, but then end up disappointed when he doesn’t want anything more than a good time. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

And the roller coast really gets going when Jackson gets the opportunity of a lifetime as an actor, just as Emma’s “old life” comes back to haunt her. Hrmmm… brace yourself. It’s a longish, fairly crazy ride, and sometimes the smaller dips that you didn’t see coming make your stomach leap worse then the big ones that were so obvious. Some very *intense* scenes. Many of them, actually. They broke my heart over and over again.

That’s when I realized that Jackson would be my undoing.

And Jackson, wow, I REALLY hurt at times with that character. I wont say whether it was for him or because of him (or both ) just that I really connected to these two.

Mind you… they both can be beyond agitating. You’ll call them names at times, for sure, but I think you’ll like this one! Or love it.

4 stars to 4.5 stars (I literally just finished the book, and I usually like to “absorb” it before giving it an official rating) but I think… due to how I was feeling for the most part of my reading —> 4.5 stars.

A few times 4 stars or a little less when I was found myself exclaiming “Oh come on people!!!” I mean, it wasn’t my “perfect” read. You know… I didn’t cry my eyes out (although a few times I was close to shedding tears). And I don’t know that I’ll be dreaming of this book tonight, or anything. But there were plenty of OMG moments that made it a fun reading experience for me (as crazy as it made me). I liked the writing style, I liked the characters and I liked the rhythm of it, as a whole. I highly recommend it to any of us “in-your-face book-angst addicts”.

Tagged as: 4.5 stars, angst, contemporary romance, S.H. Kolee