Take Me

Thank you to the author Jen Trinh for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I plowed through this in a single evening, and I loved it.

You might guess from the title and the cover that TAKE ME is a love story. And it is. But what makes this book stand out is how love doesn't exist in a vacuum. It ebbs and flows, and many feelings can exist at once. The two main characters, Cassie and Tom, have to overcome work stress, living on different coasts, and perhaps the biggest unknown – Cassie's marriage, to another person.

What I love about Jen's characters (throughout all of her books) is that they're often going through personal growth in addition to their romantic journeys. They have emotional depth and range that make them, at times, infuriating, hilarious, willful, passive-aggressive, and obtuse. (In sum, human!) TAKE ME is more of a slow burn, but the steamy scenes are worth the wait

4.5 Stars ⭐️

I received an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It is my first time reading the work of this author and I actually enjoyed it.

Cassie and Tom have a great working relationship and there is an attraction they can never act on because Cassie is married to Michael.
This all changes however when Michael reconnects with his ex-girlfriend, Danielle, and admits to Cassie he would like to try a polyamorous relationship.

As someone who is polyamorous, I was very interested in seeing how this could possibly work as Cassie was obviously very resistant to this shift initially but eventually gave in in order to pursue her attraction to Tom.

I thought the author handled her thoughts and feelings and the navigation of this hierarchical polyamorous relationship honestly - complete with the awkward moments that can arise including when your partner comes home smelling like another.

All in all, the romance between Tom and Cassie and Cassie navigating her marriage with Michael was a fairly honest depiction. I did wish for a different polyamorous resolution in a sense but honestly, the characters were being their most authentic selves and I appreciated that.

The reason I didn't rate it a full 5 stars was because I felt the text was too bogged down with the technicalities of their jobs and outside characters and didn't dial in enough on Tom & Cassie's actual romance when it could have.