Seize the Love

by Rae Matthews

Starting over isn’t something anyone wants to do in their forties, unfortunately, that is where I find myself. I wanted to believe that love lasts a lifetime, I wanted to believe that no matter how bad things got there was always love to hold us together. I was as it turns out, wrong. My marriage became a statistic, but at least I got the house. It is probably the only thing keeping me sane.

Heartbroken and alone with the help of my friends I hope to be able to find happiness again. The dating world is not what it used to be, would I find happiness, more sorrow or learn to live without love.

My biggest fear isn’t that I won’t find love again, it is that I will find love again; the kind of love that can last a lifetime. My fear is that I will be too afraid to follow my heart. For now, all I can do is keep trying and remind myself that when I find it I need to.

Seize the Love.

289 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Rae Matthews is a Minneapolis, Minnesota native who moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin in 2002 for a guy, of all things. There she started off as a bartender at a neighborhood bar, eventually moving into telecommunications. Years later she is now a wife and a 'wicked' stepmother. It's a good thing she is a good cook, or they may have tossed her out on her tushy years ago.
Rae is also known for being a bit of a goofball. She loves to see people smile and doesn't mind if they are smiling and even laughing at her, not with her. Her motto is, "Life is too short to not laugh as much as you can." Rae regaled her friends with her stories for years, and she loves to tell them, even if her friends didn't want to hear them. But now Rae is finally ready to share her stories with others.

As time goes by, Rae hopes to find more time to travel and take on new challenges while continuing her joy of telling stories, crafting, cooking and generally just having fun.

Reviews

[Anas Attic Book Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seize the Love: Carpe Caritate by Rae Matthews
Standalone Related to Another. Older Woman Contemporary Romance.
**Skip down to Likes & Dislikes & Down & Dirty if you don't want to know ANY plot, it's all spoiler free**
It’s been a long time since Rae Matthews released Carpe Diem, and though I loved it, I can’t remember a book I read yesterday let alone one I read two years ago. Seize the Love: Carpe Caritate was very much related to Carpe Diem, yet stood perfectly on its own, and I never felt like I needed to remember Carpe Diem.



I didn’t even read the blurb. Full disclosure, Rae is a friend, and I will read anything she writes. I will also review anything honestly or not review it at all. At first, I worried. It was a little depressing watching a marriage crumble and I thought it would be about a woman learning to find herself after divorce. And while it definitely was that, it was also a great romance and a little suspense!

I liked the way Abby was gung-ho ready to start again.

"Let today be a lesson to me that we only get one chance to get it right, once the moment passes it becomes part of our history and our history is what builds our future."

And I very much loved how she struggled to find her place. It was so relatable.

"I always thought I knew who I was, but who am I really? I used to be a wife, a friend, a hard worker and a goal setter."

Trying to deal with friends and family trying to set her up, trying to find a hobby and online dating, her paths keep crossing with the one man who is off-limits.

“Is there something on my face?” I ask, brushing my cheeks and lips.
“No.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
“You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?”
The shock of him blurting out a compliment like that nearly drops my jaw to the floor.
“Say what?”
“Abby, you are a very attractive woman.”
“Maybe for someone my age,” I laugh nervously.
“No not for someone your age, you could stand next to a hundred twenty-year-olds and I would still find you more attractive than all of them.”

While there were some great and mature moments about dating in your forties, I love how they were still very young and active, and I loved how he felt about age!

"Why would any man want an immature, drama-filled twenty-something girl? To me, woman are like this wine.” [He] picks up his glass and churns the glass between his fingers. They may start out as grapes, but with a little nurturing they mature. Age only makes them better.”
“Yeah, but there are some pretty bad wines out there.”
“Still, I think woman age like a fine wine. They only get better with time.”
I smile. “Yeah, well, I can tell you most of us still wish we were grapes.”

There was a lot of very real moments that were so relatable. Blending families, kids, meddling friends. But what she found with him was worth it all.



Just when I thought the book was ending, POW! The last 10% had me turning pages so fast! I actually loved this part, and wish it didn’t wrap up quite as quickly as it did because I wanted more!

"The decisions in life and the people we meet, along with our experiences, are what makes us who we are."

Likes:

•I loved Abby’s friendship with Piper and Flynn.
•I love how “young” she was. Rock climbing, ziplining…age wasn’t a problem.
•Her diary was a great way to tell us her inner thoughts without too much inner dialog.
•The happiness I felt when she got revenge on her ex.
•The action at the end (though I would have liked that expanded a bit).
•Rae’s realistic and relatable heroine.
•An awesome single dad.
•You don’t have to have read Carpe Diem at all, but if you did, it’s a nice visit back with that couple.

Dislikes:

•Started a little sad and I worried the whole book would be depressing (it wasn’t).
•While I felt the relationship grow, it was missing sexual tension. I didn’t realize that they hadn’t had sex yet until it was mentioned. It would have been a great opportunity to ramp up the sexual tension.


The Down & Dirty:

Rae Matthews has a talent for writing very realistic and relatable stories and characters with tons of self-growth and discovery, as well as great romance with some fun moments. It’s so rare to read about a woman in her forties starting over, but even more rare is one that never had kids. While this was definitely a romance novel, it was also a novel about a woman discovering who she is on her own, without a partner to define her, and I loved that. Rae had a great blend of that, romance, friendship, and even some suspense. Seize the Love was worth the wait! I hope she continues to write about older women. We need love too!

Rating: 4.25 Stars, 3 heat

Purchase Seize the Love: Carpe Caritate by Rae Matthews

They each totally stand alone

[Jennifer Pierson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abby is in her 40's when her douchbag husband asks for a divorce, so she finds herself starting over again, and let's face it, dating isn't easy at any age these days, but at that age? Yeah, pretty much a nightmare especially when trust issues are present from heartbreak. So when Blake comes along, he has his work cut out for him. And that's all I'm going to say about that, because Seize the Love is such a great second chance story, that I believe that everyone needs to go in blind, especially since there aren't a ton of books out there dealing with this age group to be honest, so it makes it even better in my opinion. Rae Matthews did an amazing job keeping me in me seat cover to cover with an emotional journey that I could relate to, as I cried with Abby, then cheered her on. Her friends were also great, as they played a great supporting cast role who added even more depth to the story. And Blake, he was yummy. So yeah, this was a great read, and I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO ALL!

[Brandy Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very conflicted on how I feel about Seize the love I really couldn't connect to the story and characters I really wanted to but couldn't . This was the first book that I've read by Rae Matthews but I'll be giving her stories looking into and will most likely give this a second chance .
copy provided for honest review 
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hero=6 heroine=6 secondary characters=6
Chemistry=6 steam=3 romance=6
humor=2 darkness level=2 action=2 mystery=2
enjoyment=5 angst=3 story line=6 Story ending=7
character development=5 pacing=5
cover=7 Blurb =8 Stars =3.5
Is this part of a series =
Can it be read as a standalone =
would I recommend this book=
would I re read this book=
would I read future books by this author=

[Wendy Livingstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new author to me, and goodness, I will certainly be looking for her work in the future. Abby is newly divorced, and starting her life over again in her 40’s. Will Blake be able to convince Abby to take a chance on falling in love and having a future together? No spoilers; this is a must read, you will not be disappointed. This is a well written story which had me intrigued and hooked throughout, and is a sweet, second chance romance story.

[Keriann Hoover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abby seems to have been dealt a crap hand when her dirt ball of a husband asks for a divorce, but Blake turns her bad fortune into a dream come true. Every chapter got better and better and enhanced a great story that kept me hooked until the last page.

[Keriann Hoover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seize the Love

Abby seems to have been dealt a crap hand when her dirt ball of a husband asks for a divorce, but Blake turns her bad fortune into a dream come true. Every chapter got better and better and enhanced a great story that kept me hooked until the last page.

[Spunky N Sassy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spunky N Sassy Rating: 4.0

~~~~~~~~~~Lindsey's ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review~~~~~~~~~~

Great Book

I never knew what was going to happen next in this book. That’s why it’s a great book. This is a great book for women to recommend to their girlfriends.

[Cassie Ashford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg!! I can not express enough how much I love this book! I feel like I can’t say anything without giving stuff away. So just let me say don’t miss out on this author or this freaking amazing book!