I'd like to say I can give a normal book review for this one, but I just can't. Here's what I can do: Describe exactly what happened while I read this book, starting with my terrible decision to open it while I was on my treadmill.
It's 6pm on a Wednesday and I have had one of those rough work days you bring home with you. I fully intended to use the treadmill to get out some frustrations so the SO and I could have a peaceful dinner and watch one of our shows. I had finished an ARC book earlier in the day, so didn't have anything new open and I wasn't feeling the other ARCs on my Kindle. I'm one of those mood readers and when my mood is sour I need something that makes me forget. K. Webster, as I recently found out, is one of those authors that writes books that make me forget. I typed her name into my tablet, found the set of 4 books that I have yet to read and just clicked one. I didn't double check the synopsis or reviews, just picked one. That book ended up being Give Me Yesterday, by K. Webster and Elle Christensen, which I would have known was an ugly cry kind of book had I just taken five extra minutes.
Here we are on the treadmill, we are reading about this high school aged couple who have a child, this is cute, it isn't what I expected, but it's cute. I'm at 3.5 MPH right now, just getting into my pace, when BAM, K. Webster and Elle Christensen rip the foundation out right from under you. I gasp mid step and have to pause my treadmill. To myself I think, "this is one of those books I am not going to make it through with out ugly crying, I should pick another book, this is not a good night to read this book." I happen to be one of those people who ignores my own common sense and advice.
It has now been two miles and just enough time to get me about 40% through, I am liking the characters and I like the general direction this is going. Ice Queens are my favorite type of heroines and hot men with sordid pasts always make my stomach get butterflies, so of course I am totally loving Tori and Chase. I have laughed several times, I've definitely figured out there's going to be ridiculously hot sex between these two, and I've forgotten that I am reading a Webster book. THIS IS A BIG MISTAKE.
Since I am now fully immersed in this book I have cancelled all plans of human interaction with my SO and he has resigned himself to the couch with a movie (and a beer) where I later join him with my tablet. I am literally ignoring everything, I even decline our dinner plan in exchange for soup and a sandwich, because this is easier and means I can read more. I am fully committed to this book, because I want to see Tori open up about grief and I want to see her do for Chase what he did for her. While I both feel for Tori and her grief, I think it's been too long for her and I am thrilled to see her living. I am also thinking Chase is awful deep inside and really starting to think he probably is an insane person and everything is going to be all twisted up. I am getting glee out of knowing something big is coming. I've now promised my SO I will take a shower and actually put the book down in exchange for watching Agent Carter, or he'll watch with out me, and this will start a fight. No book is worth a fight.
But then it is. As I am getting ready for my shower, nose deep into my tablet, I read a certain scene that leads up to a cemetery. I stop in my tracks, I turn my tablet off, and I ugly cry my way into the shower. I have said out loud, once in the living room, and now again in the bathroom, "I am not finishing this fucking book." Unfortunately, SO isn't done with his movie, and as I settle into the couch to wait for it to end he hands me my tablet and because I am such a glutton for punishment I open up to the page I stopped at. Not only that, I got back about 20 pages and re-read the scene again! I am bawling, I am hiccuping, and I am interrupting the movie to explain, in great detail, what's going on in this book.
Thank goodness K. Webster and Elle Christensen do this thing where they redeem themselves and give me an ending that makes things better. I mean not perfect, because obviously my hearts out on the floor in a million pieces and my face is bright red, but at least I know not all hope is lost. They also happen to write amazing epilogues that make me smile and calm down. Unfortunately, they also are gluttons for punishment and they add in this scene, right at the end of the book, that makes you look at all of this from the other side and guess what, you're crying. Again.
As you can tell from my rating, I loved Give Me Yesterday, it's emotional, it's heart-breaking, it's beautiful, and it's unique. I wasn't expecting anything while I read and when I got to the end, the part that broke my heart, I was truly surprised. Both authors write in such a way that you can't guess what's coming next and that is part of why I love them, and sort of hate them right now. The characters need one another in a way that makes you actually believe in them, you want to see them heal one another, and you want to see them grow into who they've kept themselves from being for so long. I was never bored, there are amazing secondary characters, and I, like always, liked the smut scenes. It's a captivating novel that does not disappoint and I recommend it to any of my fellow readers who like emotional books that suck you in.