Addison Albright just won an Honorable Mention in the 2017 Rainbow Awards for To Love and To Cherish, which reminded me that I’d been meaning to do a blog post on it myself. This book is light and fluffy and includes all the tropes. Amnesia! Arranged marriage! Hurt/comfort! (Also one of my least favorites – a car accident that advances the plot.)
But none of that is why I’m recommending it. What I so loved about this story was the respectful way the MCs treated not just each other but everyone around them, the way they communicated with, forgave, and tried to understand not just each other but everyone around them. And, most particularly, the way love grew out of respect.
So many stories feature characters who are rotten to everyone except each other – sometimes they’re even rotten to each other! Is that a reason to fall in love? Not in my book. Nash and Emmit fall in love because they see such worthiness in each other. They form a supportive, caring relationship right in front of our eyes – one we can believe will continue.
I often wonder at the end of a book how the two characters will manage to work out future issues when they haven’t worked out any of their issues in an adult way up to that point. Nash and Emmit are going to do OK together. I’ve got a lot of faith in the quality of their HEA, and that makes me happy.
Note: although this book is third in a series follows another that details Nash’s backstory, there’s no problem enjoying this book on its own. The other two books sound much angstier to me and, honestly, I haven’t tried them yet (though I probably should).