2 stars / 2nd read - 06/01/2024
I don’t hate the dead spouse trope, nor do I avoid it, but I definitely need it to be handled in a way where the hero or heroine (depending on the story), don’t feel like second best, or a second chance for one of the MCs to have a less miserable life after they lost the ”love of their life”.
This story did in no way convince that Dallas could ever actually love Willow the way he professed to love Lucy (his dead wife). Don’t get me wrong, they fell in love sure, but it was a nice, comfy love after loss kind of thing, not what I actually want and signed up to read about.
He kept describing how he loved Lucy more than air, more than anything and how indescribable his feelings for his late wife were. Lucy was turned into this person who is forever immortalised into some sort of sainthood after her death. And well, we never got anything close to that when it came to our heroine Willow. No big love declaration - a meagre ”I love you” - which wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have that freaking flowery poetry about the dead saint.
This book is a very good example of how NOT to write the dead spouse trope. At the end of the day, our heroine is the one living in the present, the one who we actually wanna read about getting her HEA, not the dead lady who we read about in every chapter.
Don’t get me wrong, in real life this is a complicated and more nuanced situation but in my romance books I want a hero who although respects and cherishes the memories and relationship he had with his late wife, makes it clear that the love of his life is actually the heroine and what he feels for her is stronger and bigger than anything he’s ever felt..
Also, I absolutely loath when the late wife still has a hold over every interaction the hero and heroine have. I swear I barely read half a page of them having a convo when the discussion or someone’s thoughts (mostly the hero) go back to the dead wife.
And also the wife’s sister handing the heroine a letter from the freaking grave (to clarify - Lucy, the late spouse wrote it before dying) explaining to her “how Dallas loves and thanking her for loving HER family” which included a daughter cause the hero is a single dad. And after that letter the heroine decides to give the hero and their relationship a try. Bitch please.
Look, dead woman or not, it’s pretty fucking enraging to receive such a message.
Again, real life it would be a different situation(maybe) - I don’t wanna sound like a heartless bitch, but like, if I fall in love with a guy I don’t want to get a letter from his ex explaining to me all the ways in which I don’t know my boyfriend and how she knows him best, and then thanking me for being a placeholder basically. Like it’s a freaking temp position until we get into the afterlife.
And I feel like people make excuses for this whole situation because the woman is dead, but like in a way that’s worse, cause you can’t ever be better, love better, get along better with someone than a memory can.
Also, I truly don’t like it when the late spouse has to ”give permission” to the hero or heroine - in this case both, in order for them to be together. I hate those scenes. I wouldn’t wanna read a letter from a person who passed, that I didn’t really know assuring me she’s okay with me being with her husband. Excuse me? Why even include that, cause we as the readers sure as hell don’t need that permission from a lady we don’t know and tbh don’t care to know about.
I genuinely, honestly, wholeheartedly wanted Willow to have a good co-parenting relationship with Dallas, cause was a stand up guy, but in no way did I want him to be her HEA. This is a romance book, I want her to get the greatest love, not some watered down version of what Lucy got.
This opinion was also reinforced by the fact that Willow mentioned more than once that she would rather take a “broken” man like Dallas who is capable of love than an immature fuckboy like her exes. I feel like she really closed herself off from the possibility that she didn’t have to chose just from those two options.
3 stars - 1st read January 2020
It was enjoyable, nothing too angsty nor dramatic also not cheesy. I tend to compliment books by enumerating annoying things that I didn’t find in them as you may have noticed.
All in all, it will not be memorable and I will probably forget all about it by next week but it was a good pass time.