Don't Let Go

by Sheryl Wright

Unemployed university professor Tyler Marsh is pounding the pavement looking for a job. Disillusioned with academia, she’s aiming for an analyst’s spot in the private sector but after a year of rejections based on her over-qualification, she’s dumbed down her resume in a desperate attempt to get her foot in the door somewhere—anywhere! When Buffalo’s leading marine engineering firm offers her a low-level placement as a personal assistant, she’s sure it can’t get any worse, until she meets the woman she will be working for. Chief Innovation Officer and wounded veteran Georgie DiNamico doesn't want an assistant or anyone else bothering her. She has her work, her dog, and her nightmares to keep her company. Heir-apparent to her family’s engineering firm, a head injury suffered in Afghanistan has left her feeling too broken for anything else. Georgie has no use for the helper that her family insists she hire. But when Tyler’s resume lands on her desk, along with a company background check listing the advanced degrees she omitted, Georgie sees an opportunity to add a researcher to her R&D team. Tyler quickly realizes Georgie is not the damaged goods everyone sees. Thoughtful, forthcoming, and generous is Tyler’s first impression of her would-be boss and it alleviates much of her trepidation. The outrageous salary and benefits help too, but working with the woman the family sees as shattered looks like the least of her challenges. She recognizes something special in Georgie DiNamico, garnering trust, loyalty, and something more…something Tyler hasn’t thought about for a very, very long time.

Genres: Romance, LGBT, Disability, Lesbian, Audiobook, Family, Lesbian Romance

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 30, 2016

About the author

Sheryl Wright is an aboriginal Faith Keeper in the Longhouse tradition, and author of several nonfiction books. A native of Toronto, she is a graduate of academies in Canada and the USA. Her flight experience includes Canadian Airlines, Bearskin Airlines, and Her Majesty’s Canadian Armed Forces, in which she served as both a member and an officer. Today she lives in Whitby, Ontario with her partner, their rescued Rottweiler, and a six-toed cat who dreams of space (and squirrels).

Reviews

[Lex Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book on my radar for a while. With the sequel Stay with Me, now out, I thought it was time to finally read this. I really enjoyed this and I had a big smile on my face most of the time while reading.

I enjoyed the romance between a professor, Tyler, and an army vet, Georgie, suffering from PTSD and a brain injury. Both character were very likeable, two strong women. The "I love yous" came a little quick for me, but it was better than insta love. Their relationship was just really sweet and a joy to read.

A few negatives, the book revolves around everyone working in a large company. Everyone is somehow related to everyone else (except Tyler). It was hard to keep all the names separated and to understand the family tree. Who owned what part of the company and how much, it was a lot going on. The other part, there was a few technical talks, that went over my head a bit. And a little bit of ethics. I didn't take ethics 101, so I did my best to understand. Besides those few issues, I liked the storyline and the little bit of corporate espionage. But what really made me enjoy this, and the heart of the story was the two great characters of Tyler and Georgie.

This is not a fluffy beachy read, but it is a really sweet romance. I'm looking forward to reading book 2. I want some more Tyler and Georgie.

[Laure · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished the book struggling to some extents to do so. I really wanted to love it but I barely appreciated it ...

My rating : 3 ⭐️

Why ??? => Because ... (not exhaustive list)

°° for starter both the book and the time frame are way too short to make anything plausible given the complexity of the DiNamico/Phipps clan &, so, the family dynamics and the intricate intrigue some people plotted to evict MC Georgie and her most loyal supports. An intrigue which was more than rushedly and miraculously resolved in just a couple of days at the end of the novel. Not very credible especially when not even the epilogue (which is here, that’s true but which is annoyingly about, well, nothing !!) gives us a follow up about what happened after the emergency board meeting, all this went totally off screen … It’s very disappointing & aggravating to have this story left … unfinished. I don’t get why the final confrontation at the end and the fallout were not explained since there was so much buildup about this board meeting, and this situation was thoroughly built for years by Lou so it was supposed to have potential repercutions running deep…

°° the romance (wich felt less interesting than the family drama) is more a "insta-love" situation than a slow-burn romance and I'm definitely not an "insta-love" fan. Frankly, I really wish there were more not (totally) work related interactions between Georgie (who was left with a permanent disability after a severe brain trauma when she was in the Army and serving in Afghanistan) and Tyler (Georgie's newly hired help / personal assistant), to make their bond more credible & make their "ONE " status more natural ‘cause, right now, like it had been said, the sudden jump from only work to full-on hot sex related relationship didn't seem logical. How could we feel their connexion if we can't witness their interactions? Oh, And, please, don't get me started with the pet name "Baby" for a grown-up woman who is even older than the one calling her "Baby" ... Duh !! I tend to agree with some things which have been said about the dialogues specifically during the intimate moments … they woud have needed to be worked more thoroughly because, yes, sadly, it really sounds like a bad 80s porn when they talked to each other.

It would have been more interesting to have a more developed part about the building relationship between Georgie & Tyler, to show how Georgie really struggled to communicate at first but how they found their way to express things more naturally, smoothly … Also, since they are both smart women, having a real investigation to figure out all the betrayals and complicated schemes would have added value to the story… This kind of challenging inquiry would have allowed Georgie and Tyler to bond in a very logical way (= make their brains work as one whereas in this version of the story they don’t seem used to their full potential) and it could also have given time to the other characters (the most powerful secondary ones especially) to gain some credibility because in the way they are described & things happening so fast that Lori and (even more) Marnie appear like real weathercocks where Tyler is concerned … I mean by that that, even if there is a small scene between Marnie and Lori, it’s not enough to establish their quick change of heart from "we have trouble and a huge one" to " she's indubitably the ONE for our Georgie " knowing that Lori has begun by being crude about what she’d do to Tyler if given a chance (and went in a fist fight with Georgie because of those words), then she tells Marnie that Tyler is, like Georgie’s ex, a gold digger, and then, in what seems just the next minute, they are both acting like they had planned to have Tyler get together with Georgie from the start … It doesn’t make any sense to me.


°° the weird, inconsistent (just for the sake of the plot ???) and definitely unfinished characterization of young Zoe Phipps who keeps changing throughout the short time frame of the story, starting out as friendly gal, soon showing her gross womanizer side and ending up, 4 tiny weeks later as a big villian. Seriously, that’s another thing which doesn’t make any sense to me ‘cause most of her actions are left unexplained (because totally unexplainable ??), even at the very end. And how on earth was she able to get away with so much crap ???

In addition of the main things which have bothered me … :
° there were way too many repetitions/redundancies about too many things ... & the number of family members who have successful thriving businesses was a little unbelievable from my POV.
° add to this some unwelcome typos and some mistakes (repeated several times) like an actual aunt becoming suddenly a "cousin" before turning back to her auntie status ... With such an important number of characters, a peculiar attention should be paid to those details to avoid confusions.


This could really have been awesome because there are great ideas … So, I really hope the author will consider reworking the book (a lot, without forgetting some editing) to make this full of potential story become the jewel it deserves to be. And when I’ll be given the opportunity, I’ll give Ms Wright’s work another try.

[Jude Silberfeld-Grimaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite her PhD, Tyler Marsh is struggling to find work. When she’s offered a job as a personal and executive assistant to Georgie DiNamico, a brilliant engineer and businesswoman with a head injury that makes verbal communication difficult, she soon finds out the real job description goes further than that of a glorified babysitter as she first thought.

I’ve read this book before, probably before I joined Goodreads as I have no record of it. I remembered a lot about it, which is pretty telling in my case, as all I tend to recall about books is the emotions (whether I liked it or not, if it made me uncomfortable etc.). Not long ago I read Cause and Affection by the same author and it didn’t work for me so well. This one on the other hand I really enjoyed. I loved the complex family dynamics, the loyalty of many family members towards Georgie, the way Tyler instantly « got » Georgie, how her mind works, the brilliance. There were a few characters I wish I could know more about, not because Sheryl Wright failed to flesh out secondary characters (she did not, quite a few of them feel very real and present), the opposite in away, she created so many interesting people, she would need a few sequels to do them all justice. I definitely need to get my hands on Stay with Me.

I’m happy I’d forgotten I’d read this and didn’t decide to stop when I realized I already knew what it was about. It was a good read and I enjoyed just as much (maybe more) the second time.

[Luce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 stars
I enjoyed the book mostly because it was interesting to see the dynamics between the two main characters- Tyler a PhD who accepts an Executive Assistant job for Georgie, an Air force pilot and brilliant engineer but returned from Afghanistan with PTSD and a head injury. The problem I had with this book is Georgie's confusing and very full family tree. There were a lot of characters introduced, all a cousin of some sort - added to the fact many of the family members share the same names. I didn't have the patience to remember who's parents are who's or who were siblings. Not to mention all the corporate jargon.
The epilogue was ok, but I wanted more info on the out come of the company and the family. But I see there is a sequel planned for next year - so hopefully I'll find out.

[Elske · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. I read it just after it was published and it is on my read again list. Just waiting for some time to do it.

[Kexx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the love story more than the family feuding, and the back story of the Army Vet was excellent. Very hyped by "free book readers" - always makes me suspicious! - but still highly recommended.

[Arn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Expected romance, got family drama with a rushed romance on top of it. There are several I can't say unique ideas but certainly less used ideas that kept my interest. Like one of the main leads having a severe brain trauma with a permanent disability. Georgie is a great character.

But then the book goes into these really long backstories about the family and its members who are long dead. So many names get dropped all the time that I could bearly keep track of what's going on. Characters kept getting excited about these stories I couldn't humanly follow so I didn't care about most of it.

And they're riddled with these obscured references. Like Mata Hari. Should I really know WTF a Mata Hari is? Yet it gets repeated quite often at a certain place in the book. I googled it of course "Mata Hari was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I and executed by firing squad in France." At no point, the book actually explains that. And there were numerous obscure references like that in the book that I didn't even bother to google.

It did keep me mildly entertained as I wanted to know how the drama will end. Unfortunately, it doesn't even conclude properly, just when it got really juicy, there's a time skip. The end, HEA. Maybe it's tackled in the sequel but I'm not sure I want to read it.

[Nolly Frances Sepulveda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lovely and sweet story. I loved Georgie's character of that of a strong sweet and intelligent woman even though she was perceived as broken and not all there. Tyler saw much in Georgie that she failed to see when introduced, but which now gave her a better insight into the caring and loving woman who would steal her heart. There was so many family dynamics going on that had me changing allegiances along the way. Really truly a great read.

[Simone11 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 - 4 ⭐️

[MaxDisaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 stars
Very well written, I liked Georgie as a character, she was nice, and I liked that it was clearly communicated, that she may have a bit of a handicap, but that she needs someone to pay attention, not to try and fix her.
I also think that Tyler complemented her really nicely and their romance was very sweet.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about Tyler and Georgie's story. I do enjoy when the characters aren't perfect and they have obstacles to overcome.

I did find Tyler to overreact a lot which was annoying at time. The epilogue was also pointless to me, with everything that happened I would have liked to know how things wrapped up.

All in all really enjoyed!

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a new spin. Georgie after suffering an injury in Afghanistan is now trying to regain her leadership roll in the family corporation. But she needs extra assistance and support so an assistant is hired. Lots of family involved in every aspect of Georgie's life. Will the assistant be able to help or be blocked but family interference? I liked the story and the book, but too many family members were given the same name as earlier generations and it made it confusing at time which generation/character was being talked about.

[Jennabeebs79 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t Let Go is a story about a multimillion dollar family business paired with a boatload of family drama and a touch of romance. There are a lot of side characters here and at times the amount of references were quite overwhelming but overall it’s a good story that I kept listening to because I really liked Tyler and Georgie and I wanted to see how they would finally get together. When they did, I was glad I held fast and didn’t give up on this book.
Audiobook note: Melissa Moran’s reading was engaging and while her character voices weren’t very different, it was usually pretty clear to understand who was talking.

[Lissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'ed at 49%

I find myself saying this a lot, but I really wanted to like this book. The summary sounded great - wounded veteran Georgia DiNamico, having suffered a traumatic head injury in Afghanistan, is still struggling to piece together her life. Enter Tyler Marsh, a PhD who can't find a job in the crappy economy. She applies for a job at Georgie's company, and sparks apparently fly.

Except I didn't really see the sparks flying. I know, I know, I didn't finish the book, so maybe they were flying in the last half of the book. I'll never know, because I just could not push myself to finish this book. My rule of thumb nowadays that a book has 50 pages or 25% to captivate me; if it doesn't, I pick up something else. But I went to 49% with this book, even though I never really felt anything for it or the characters, because I wanted so badly to enjoy this book.

First, let me talk about what I liked. I liked that Georgie was a unique character - having suffered a head injury, she had lingering effects like loss of impulse control and speech difficulties. I love reading books with characters who aren't run-of-the-mill, so I was thrilled to find a book with a character like Georgie. It should have made the book (and romance) more interesting.

But I just had a lot of problems with this book.

The first was the character of Tyler. It took me a LONG time to warm up to her at all, and I never got to the point where I liked her as a character. Although she's been unemployed for a year and she is theoretically desperate for a job, she feels like being a secretary or personal assistant (and having secretarial duties) is beneath her because she has a PhD. Look, I understand that she went to school for a long time to get that degree, but the economy sucks (and it still sucks), and you have to do what you have to do to survive sometimes. And I mean, the job she was offered was pretty good - she was offered $94,000 a year (what lol, I want to get a job at this company!) and she was given an opportunity to use her degree to an extent (she was given the title of "director of special projects" or something like that, and ethical research was involved), but she was hemming and hawing over accepting it because she'd have to do things like answer the phone and arrange meetings and stuff like that. She came across as snooty, and I just didn't like her. At my job, I am technically one thing, but I do other things that aren't necessarily part of my job description OR what I went to school for, but I am happy to do those things (which, yes, DOES include answering phones ;) ). I just don't understand people who get a complex about having a degree or title and that means that certain things are below them, especially when Tyler is supposedly hurting for money. Maybe it is because I was raised dirt poor and I know what it is like to be living on the razor edge? I don't know. But it made it impossible for me to like Tyler.

The pacing in the book was also off. The first half of the book had very little romance in it; there was more technical jargon about boats and engineering and etc than actual romance. And since this is classified as a romance, I was, well, expecting more of the latter and less of the former. Look, I love science (I am ambivalent about boats, however), but if I wanted to read about that, I would have picked up a science book. I wanted romance, damn it! ;) And I'm not seeing much of a connection in the first half of the book, so I am going to wager a guess that the romance would probably feel rushed in the last half of the book.

Heck, there's more sparks between Zoe (a personal assistant at the firm) and Tyler than there were between Georgie and Tyler in the first half of the book - so much so, that I literally stopped reading at one point and checked the Bella Books website to make sure that Georgie actually WAS Tyler's love interest and not Zoe.

And the conversations just felt off to me - there were big wall'o'texts for exposition, and a lot of stilted dialogue, and just...no, I'm done.

Sorry, I tried to like it! But this book just wasn't for me.

[Velvet Lounger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing is quiet so refreshing as a something completely different to the norm. "Don’t Let Go" is a traditional romance, set in the corporate world and with a twist of a corporate intrigue to add to the action. What makes it unusual is that the main character in both the romance and the corporation is a Vet who has suffered a traumatic brain injury and is suffering from a range of seemingly catastrophic after effects.

Georgie is still the dynamo inventor and project manager for the family’s engineering company, despite her injuries. But her social skills and interactions have been deeply impacted by the TBI. Her ‘handlers’ feel she needs a secretary /baby-sitter, she knows she needs somebody with a much wider remit.

Tyler is an unemployed professor who is reluctant to take on a job she initially perceives as beneath her, but once she gets over herself she realises that there is far more to Georgie than first appearances suggest.

Georgie is an amazing creation. Her wit and intelligence hidden behind her lack of comunication but demonstrated in her genius, her TBI restrictions extremely well portrayed, obvious but subtly drawn, and her internal battles and frustrations cleverly presented through her internal dialogue and actions. Tyler takes a little time to grow into a likeable character, her self-absorption at the start of the novel is not attractive, but as she comes to understand Georgie she grows in stature and becomes a more empathic character.

There is a huge family and extremely complex family dynamics. I am not sure even now that I am quite sure who is related to who and how, but while that might sound chaotic in some ways it doesn’t matter. What we do get is a very strongly drawn line in the sand of who is and who is not Georgie’s supporters and fans.

The romance was a little less interesting than the character development and the corporate shenanigans. There were a few strands which were left untied, (I wanted to know what happened within the company after the corporate intrigue plays out) and a few bumps I found a little untidy along the way. But overall I really enjoyed this - primarily because Georgie is such a refreshing and well-drawn main character. Her gentle emergence from the seeming isolation inside her head, combined with the slow reveal of how much support she actually has, made this something I couldn’t put down.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was alright. I did not think it was amazing, and it had some major flaws. I thought the ending seemed rushed a little. It seems like the plot towards the end of the book seemed a little rushed in my opinion. I did like the characters of Georgie and Tyler, and I thought their plot seemed to be spaced out correctly.

The other part of this book I had a problem with was there was way too many characters/family of Georgie's. I had a hard time in the beginning keeping them all straight and remembering how who was related to who. It made parts of the book a little harder to get through. There are other books I would probably recommend before this one.

[Margaret L. Hedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

I loved Don't Let Go. WOW! What a ride!. Absolutely a great read. To watch Georgie and Tyler come together as a team in every aspect of their life was wonderful. Beautifully written. This would make a great Audible book.

[Lady Olenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the author’s efforts in making a family business empire with plenty of characters cohesive with a disability and lesbian romance. There was so much information crammed in this story.

[Ayse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read and enjoyable book. I liked the dynamic of the leads, the embracing of a disability, and especially the family dynamics. the love story was nicely woven into a complicated family drama with both parts quite well done. it was a little hard to follow the characters at times since they were all part of a complicated family tree but it was interesting for the most part. Three things were annoying or confusing. First, the whiplash response of Lori to Tyler. First thing she tells Marnie that Tyler is a gold digger, then the next minute they are all acting like they planned to have Tyler get together with Georgie from the start. Though there is a small scene between Marnie and Lori, it is not enough to establish the quick change from "we have trouble" to " she's the one". Second, the weird unfinished characterization of Zoe. This character keeps changing throughout the story, starting out as friendly and ending up as a villian. Most of her actions are unexplained and unexplainable, even at the very end. Also inexplicable is how she gets away with so much, even with Tyler. Partly I guess it makes sense that she is a young family member so she can be excused, but being forward and flirty with Tyler after the bar event without being called out for being inappropriate seems out of character for Tyler. it was frustrating that she was so friendly with her until the end, especially when it was helpful for the plot that they be so. It seems like inconsistent character development for the sake of the plot. Finally, the fact that the final confrontation at the end and the fallout were not explained. There was so much buildup about the board meeting, and then it was over off screen. this would have been fine as a plot device if there was some follow up in the epilogue. instead the epilogue was super annoyingly about nothing since the relationship was solid at the end of the book. It would have been nice to at least mention what happened to Lou and Zoe in the end or some reasons for their behaviour. Since the interesting parts of this story were much more about the family than the romance, it was aggravating to have it left unfinished. All in all I enjoyed this book, even though the number of family members who have successful thriving businesses was a little unbelievable.

[Mirtha Siblesz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good story

The two main characters Tyler and Georgie were very endearing and full of chemistry towards each other. Georgie’s inability to communicate (due to an injury incurred while she was serving in Afghanistan), has caused friction at work where people view her thoughtlessly as being “crazy” whereas she was recuperating from TBI with her intelligence fine just her speech skills were damaged. Tyler was an unemployed college professor who was hired as Georgie’s assistant.

Interestingly, Tyler was able to communicate with Georgie effectively and really understood her without making Georgie feel as being less than. Georgie’s family were an interesting cast of characters that were either protective of Georgie or wanted her out of the company (like her uncle Lou). That got a little confusing at the end not knowing what happened with those people. To be continued!

[Loek Krancher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning story!

Georgie has rebuilt her life with the help of family and friends. Nevertheless, the outside world is a great challenge for her. In many things she has to take a step back but in her work she is a genius. Georgie needs an assistant but certainly not a babysitter. In the end, she gets more than expected. This is an amazing story. Easy to read and it has given me much pleasure. You get tension, it's a great romance and it has fantastic characters. I am very glad that there is a sequel and that it is already waiting for me. I highly recommend it to everyone.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the characters and was looking forward to seeing the relationship progress between Tyler and Georgie. Unfortunately the story was bogged down with extensive story telling and details about the business, other family members, family history, etc etc. Overall I really thought the writing style was good but I didn’t feel like I’d read a romance.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Story!

To be honest, when I first started reading this book it was kind of slow and I was seriously confused as to who is related to whom because there were so many people introduced. However as the story moved along the relationship between the main characters evolved nicely and it was just incredibly sweet how they interacted and understood each other. Honestly it was also nice to read a story where they didn't sleep together after an hour of meeting each other. So if you decide to read this book (which I'm very glad I did.) and find it a little slow, don't give up. The author is developing the story and getting you into the background and history of who these people are and you fall in love right along with them. I by no means am I an editor or writer , but the thing I would recommend if the author revises the story is to use less exclamation marks. There seemed to be a great number of them where it didn't fit the tone of the conversation and there were a lot of them.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good premise and story but...the cast of characters was too large for me to keep track of, the chemistry between the main characters was lacking and sometime after the halfway mark the writing got especially sloppy. I think with some editing this could be a good book.

[Angel]

I loved this!

This book touched me so deeply! I fell in love with Tyler and Georgie, Sheryl Wright's my new favorite author!

[Jo Ben-What · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy the two MC, really great characters.
But 95% of the book is family business drama and 5% romance so not much time for the mc to build something.

[Xiaoqing · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book full of family drama and a little bit romance, it is long but I don't feel bored reading it. I wish there is a family tree graph to help me sort of who relates to whom, there are so many cousins and one of the MC shares the same name with her auntie, I got confused a few times trying to figure out the relationship. The ending is too abrupt and unsatisfactory, the author needs to write a few more chapters to detail the ultimate victory and let us know the fates of the bad guys. The romance part is a little flat and needs more touch to be convincing that there is the true love and not just lust. Overall I quite enjoyed the story and I will keep reading the next one.

[Elia Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute and interesting story! I fell in love with Georgie and loved seeing her growth in the book. I do wish there was more romantic development. I found the whole family business dynamic intriguing. The nicknames bristled me a bit as well as the immediate pet naming, but overall this was a solid and enjoyable story.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooo… this story got me feeling

Ooo… this story got me feeling… all that comfy, warm, cuddly type of goodness you know. It's just sweet, tender, secure, inviting, glowing all over, peace & love feels that only comes from a genuine romance story —or hot chocolate with marshmallows on a cool night. It was just awesome!

[MiserableFlower · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to struggle with this one to some extents. The way that Georgie talked was a huge problem for me.... He major amount of emphasis on how it was child like bothered me.

I do wish there was more interactions between Georgie and Tyler that wasn't work related... The sudden jump from work to full on sex related relationship didn't seem logical to me.

Relationship wise when they did attempt to talk it just seemed weird that Tyler would jump to those conclusions....

If I could say something to the author directly I'd say that dialogue and specifically during your sex scenes needs a little work.... It sounds like a bad 80s porno with how they talked....