The Will

This is one of those books that everyone loved but me. I've had this on my TBR pile forever, and I finally decided to tackle it over the weekend. I was ready to quit at 45%. I slogged through, but man, it was difficult.

I really don't get the allure. TBF, I'm not a fan of extreme alpha-males, and that's how Jake came off to me, but my real problem was with Josie. Josie as a character was just unrealistic to the point it made the story unbelievable, something I want in my heroine if I'm not reading fantasy or something like that. Josie simply could not have been that wise and that naive. Some things I can forgive, but even her speech was in no way realistic, and unless I missed it, there's never really an explanation for why Josie speaks so formally. Her senior year at the girls' school? At the point I was ready to quit, it felt like Josie said “thus” in every sentence. I looked up how many there were in the book. It's a long book, but there's more than 100 uses of “thus.” I just....that's just not realistic? Palatable? I don't know. I found it extremely annoying, to the point I looked up how many there were in the book. And that's not counting the “alas”es or other formal styles of speech.

Then, the real kicker for me is Jake being crazy about Josie being absolutely honest with him at all times, then in the end being like, "I'm not gonna tell you this" and Josie, while angry initially, just gets over it because, you know, he's her man. WTF? Grrrr. No.

I truly loved Jake's kids and that's pretty much why I continued on–I wanted to know what happened with them. Sadly, I could have done without Jake and Josie as written, but to each his or her own. I just know this one is not one I'll pick up ever again or recommend. Two stars because I'm feeling generous.