What do you think?
Rate this book
Tales of Dunham: LaMontagne #2
We Were Gods
After a 20-year marriage and five children, teenage sweethearts Étienne and Tess LaMontagne had burnt out. Tess, once a brilliant architect, was exhausted, drained of energy and vision, and no longer building with her engineer husband. Étienne was feeling trapped and frustrated by a life that had taken a direction he had not wanted and missing the vivacious, creative woman he had married.
Five years after their bitter divorce forced each to experience life on their own, Étienne is drawn home to rescue his oldest daughter. Tess, having brilliantly revived her career, is also dealing with a sick child. When her latest project and their children’s crises bring Étienne and Tess face to face, they must decide whether they want to reunite, and if so, how to overcome the issues they’d run from years before—
—because even separated by distance and time, they never stopped loving each other, never stopped wanting. It’s just that sometimes, love isn’t enough.
Until it is.
Five years after their bitter divorce forced each to experience life on their own, Étienne is drawn home to rescue his oldest daughter. Tess, having brilliantly revived her career, is also dealing with a sick child. When her latest project and their children’s crises bring Étienne and Tess face to face, they must decide whether they want to reunite, and if so, how to overcome the issues they’d run from years before—
—because even separated by distance and time, they never stopped loving each other, never stopped wanting. It’s just that sometimes, love isn’t enough.
Until it is.
- GenresRomance
360 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2014
17 people want to read
About the author
Moriah Jovan
18 books86 followersMORIAH JOVAN writes what her imaginary friends tell her to write. Thus far, they have shown up in the novels Dunham, The Proviso, Stay, Magdalene, Paso Doble, We Were Gods, Black Jack, Lion’s Share, 1520 Main, Twenty-dollar Rag, and Black as Knight, published by B10 Mediaworx. They will, most likely, continue to order her around until she hits on the right drug and dosage. Fortunately, her husband is very understanding of all the other people in her life.
Moriah has been doing this self-publishing thing since 2008 and has the war wounds to prove it. She’s a fair-weather Chiefs and Royals fan, half-assed planner, avid cross stitcher, dilettante crafter, and aspiring odalisque. She regularly thumbs her nose at her to-do list as if it has any authority over her at all. Her goal is to finish all the craft projects she has begun in her life.
All of them.
Moriah has been doing this self-publishing thing since 2008 and has the war wounds to prove it. She’s a fair-weather Chiefs and Royals fan, half-assed planner, avid cross stitcher, dilettante crafter, and aspiring odalisque. She regularly thumbs her nose at her to-do list as if it has any authority over her at all. Her goal is to finish all the craft projects she has begun in her life.
All of them.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 9, 2014
I just want to note for the sake of anyone reading my review that I consumed vast quantities of romance throughout the years. I loved it. I still sometimes (occasionally) do. However, I tired of the cookie-cutter formula writing that permeates popular romance.
Moriah Jovan does not write cookie-cutter formula romance. And I love her for it.
We Were Gods is a companion to the also newly released Paso Doble - which I will read and review next. Like all of Jovan's Dunham novels, it stands alone - but why wouldn't you want to read the others and get to know The Pack better?? :-)
Indeed, The Pack is back, although the focus here is on Étienne and Tess. He's French. She's Korean. They're both brilliant. LaMontagne2, working in tandem, designing and building.
Until they aren't.
And therein lies the crux of the story. What broke LaMontagne2? How and why did Tess become Molly Mormon, a woman Étienne would never have married? They are a delightful, quirky, dramatic, noisy, messy couple with delightful, quirky, dramatic, noisy children and life. They have matching tattoos. She wears a ring in her nose and crazy colored streaks in her hair. She jingles when she walks. He has long hair and braids and wears leathers. In the church I went to in Logan, Utah, if this family had walked into the chapel for a service, the old ladies would've gasped and moved their purses from the seat next to them, to be tightly clutched in their lap. Mothers would have grabbed their toddler's hands and pulled them far, far away. I would've loved every minute of it! And yet, here's Tess, wearing twin sets and not dying her hair and removing her nose ring and covering her tattoos and faithfully discharging her housewifely and churchly duties - and not creating anything. She's dying inside and in denial about it. And the LaMontagne marriage is crumbling, their family along with it.
There's a lot to love about a Moriah Jovan novel and for me, the first thing I love is the characters. They're real to her, and she makes them real to the reader. They aren't neat and tidy and normal. Jovan understands perfectly that normal is just a setting on the dryer and what she gives the reader is a look behind the facade most families put up so they look normal. What's revealed is the messiness, the personality quirks, and above all, the issues we all experience because we live with other imperfect humans (or, in many cases, humans we view as less perfect than ourselves). It's delightful, because of course I recognize at least one person from my own life in the Dunham pack. (Is she peeking behind MY curtain?)
My favorite in this story is Étienne , because "God loves him best." His self-absorbed personality would make him an unsympathetic character if Jovan didn't make it so funny. Aside from that, I found his faith deep and moving. I almost felt like going back to church! His faith and how he practices it made him a more believable character, in my opinion. The Pack is LDS (Mormon), but Jovan doesn't hit the readers over the head with it, or preach - it's their religious practice and belief in the same way characters in other books are Catholic or agnostic or... whatever. It is part of who and what they are and what has shaped them, and it's a part of Étienne's character, portrayed at a very emotional level. His interactions with The Pack are delightful, his love for his children moving, and how he deals with his grandchildren is hilarious, including his reluctance to be called "Grandpa."
This is a deep story of love that endures beyond the trials and tribulations and misunderstandings and just sheer messiness of life. I love that Jovan has written a story about mature love - Étienne and Tess have five children and three grandchildren. It's a story about life. It's a story about people. But most of all, it's a story about family and the importance of family. Jovan has delivered another not-your-usual-love-story that I couldn't put down.
Moriah Jovan does not write cookie-cutter formula romance. And I love her for it.
We Were Gods is a companion to the also newly released Paso Doble - which I will read and review next. Like all of Jovan's Dunham novels, it stands alone - but why wouldn't you want to read the others and get to know The Pack better?? :-)
Indeed, The Pack is back, although the focus here is on Étienne and Tess. He's French. She's Korean. They're both brilliant. LaMontagne2, working in tandem, designing and building.
Until they aren't.
And therein lies the crux of the story. What broke LaMontagne2? How and why did Tess become Molly Mormon, a woman Étienne would never have married? They are a delightful, quirky, dramatic, noisy, messy couple with delightful, quirky, dramatic, noisy children and life. They have matching tattoos. She wears a ring in her nose and crazy colored streaks in her hair. She jingles when she walks. He has long hair and braids and wears leathers. In the church I went to in Logan, Utah, if this family had walked into the chapel for a service, the old ladies would've gasped and moved their purses from the seat next to them, to be tightly clutched in their lap. Mothers would have grabbed their toddler's hands and pulled them far, far away. I would've loved every minute of it! And yet, here's Tess, wearing twin sets and not dying her hair and removing her nose ring and covering her tattoos and faithfully discharging her housewifely and churchly duties - and not creating anything. She's dying inside and in denial about it. And the LaMontagne marriage is crumbling, their family along with it.
There's a lot to love about a Moriah Jovan novel and for me, the first thing I love is the characters. They're real to her, and she makes them real to the reader. They aren't neat and tidy and normal. Jovan understands perfectly that normal is just a setting on the dryer and what she gives the reader is a look behind the facade most families put up so they look normal. What's revealed is the messiness, the personality quirks, and above all, the issues we all experience because we live with other imperfect humans (or, in many cases, humans we view as less perfect than ourselves). It's delightful, because of course I recognize at least one person from my own life in the Dunham pack. (Is she peeking behind MY curtain?)
My favorite in this story is Étienne , because "God loves him best." His self-absorbed personality would make him an unsympathetic character if Jovan didn't make it so funny. Aside from that, I found his faith deep and moving. I almost felt like going back to church! His faith and how he practices it made him a more believable character, in my opinion. The Pack is LDS (Mormon), but Jovan doesn't hit the readers over the head with it, or preach - it's their religious practice and belief in the same way characters in other books are Catholic or agnostic or... whatever. It is part of who and what they are and what has shaped them, and it's a part of Étienne's character, portrayed at a very emotional level. His interactions with The Pack are delightful, his love for his children moving, and how he deals with his grandchildren is hilarious, including his reluctance to be called "Grandpa."
This is a deep story of love that endures beyond the trials and tribulations and misunderstandings and just sheer messiness of life. I love that Jovan has written a story about mature love - Étienne and Tess have five children and three grandchildren. It's a story about life. It's a story about people. But most of all, it's a story about family and the importance of family. Jovan has delivered another not-your-usual-love-story that I couldn't put down.
May 5, 2014
This is a companion novel to Paso Doble, and at first I thought I liked PD better. But the more I read it, and got to know Étienne and Tess, their dysfunctional selves and family, the more I got to like them. The characterization is really amazing.
As usual, this is not the 'normal' LDS story, but by now, having read Moriah Jovan's other books, I'm familiar with the pack, and I've come to love this family. It was great to catch up with them.
As usual, this is not the 'normal' LDS story, but by now, having read Moriah Jovan's other books, I'm familiar with the pack, and I've come to love this family. It was great to catch up with them.
May 28, 2014
Etienne LaMontagne is a genius, but his wife Tess is even more brilliant. Between the two of them, they have created some of the most magnificent architectural accomplishments in human history, but their love is so fierce that it almost burns them up. This story is so passionate and emotionally developed that I expected the pages to melt as I was reading it. These two characters make you want to hug them and then smack them, but you can NOT forget them!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews