Review: Tara Sivec's "The Story of Us."

Amazon.com:    http://amzn.to/2r5x0Mj

Amazon UK:     http://amzn.to/2rp8hUd

Synopsis:

From USA Today bestselling author Tara Sivec comes an emotional, breathtakingly romantic new book about the power of first love and the promise of second chances.

How much can a man take before he breaks?

1,843 days. That's how long I survived in that hellhole. They tried to break me, but I resisted. And I owe it all to the memory of warm summer nights, the scent of peaches, and the one woman who loved me more than I ever deserved to be loved. Now, I'll do anything to get back to her. 

Only Shelby Eubanks isn't the girl I left behind all those years ago. She's someone else, a stranger. My Shelby-my little green-eyed firecracker-would never give up her dreams, would never disappear into her mother's ambitions. But I won't give up on her. On us. I may be broken, and scarred, and not the man I used to be, but I will do whatever it takes to remind her of the story of us.

Review: Surj

After reading the synopsis for Tara Sivec's "The Story of Us," I was really looking forward to reading what looked to be a heart breaker of a read, the prologue and first couple of chapters only reinforcing my initial thoughts. Right from the get go, the angst levels were through the roof and I immediately felt a connection with the two main characters Shelby and Ely, their plight really striking a chord, bringing me close to tears. I mean who doesn't love characters that are broken and who are in desperate need of some tender loving care and a whole heap of glue to help put them back together, right? 

Set in the deep South, "The Story of Us" was about two people who made sacrifices in the name of love. It was about two people who bore the brunt of betrayal, double crossings, selfish wants, family loyalties and of course greed. The aftermath of which would change each of their lives forever, leaving them so scarred by everything they had gone through, that going back to how they used to be wasn't even a possibility. War changes you and Shelby and Ely had fought the ultimate war. 

Sounds great, right? So it could just be me but somewhere along the way, the story lost something  and my connection to the main characters was severed which absolutely gutted me. Every now and again something would happen that made me feel like I would get those initial feelings back but then I'd lose it again leaving me with that deflated feeling all over again.

There were a number of things that didn't work for me. The first was the letters. For me, they were revealed too late. I wish they had been woven throughout the whole story. Also, the letters didn't have that "letter" feel. The way they were written was way too detailed, far too much emotion written down and too much dialogue within them. They felt more like the writing in the main body of the book that heart felt letters (IMO). 

Secondly, towards the end of the story there were so many curve balls thrown in, my head was left spinning. The one involving Ely directly was  fab and I definitely didn't see it coming. The others were (unfortunately) kind of hit and miss. 

The walls have officially crumbled on this house of lies and I'm finished. 

This is probably a case of it being me and not everyone else but I really wanted to love this one and instead, just liked it. "The Story of Us" gets ❤️❤️❤️ from me.