Plot spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.
I’m just going dive right on in because I have a lot of things I want say, and there are a lot of things I feel especially after that ending.
After all that build up between Billy and Bridget that had been building the entire book, and there was no proper love scene between them. Excuse me. Like no. That wasn’t right especially since there were multiple love scenes in the book with other people in great detail with other people, but not with other people. I didn’t need, nor did I liked seeing those detail love scenes especially multiple times and with multiple people on both sides. That’s not what I want in my romances. It was turn off even before I knew that Billy and Bridget got no love scene, but now I’m more turned off and really pissed because there wasn’t one with Billy and Bridget. What was the freaking point of that? I just made no sense to me of why the didin’t especially since it was building up that moment between the two of them. Then there’s nothing. NO. NO. NO. The other love scenes could have been sacrificed but not the one between Billy and Bridget because that was the most important and meaningful one that should have been shown out of all of them. I just feel very cheated right now and very unsatisfied with the fact that I didn’t get that pay off that I was looking for in the end. It’s almost made me feel what was the point of reading it when I didn’t get what I wanted nor what I was expecting. It just annoyed me on so many levels that I get that scene that I had been waiting for and anticipating for so long.
And on a related note to that, I didn’t care for how much focus was put on the other relationships in this story compared to Billy and Bridget’s. It didn’t overshadow their relationship, but I did think it took too much away from them as their relationship grew and developed over the course of time. I wanted more focus on them, and less on everything else. Granted I get that it was important because certain events lead to certain events that brought them together as well as kept them apart, and there needed to be that history there. I understand that, but again too much were focused not the other romantic relationship and not enough on the two of them. With the other relationships I didn’t need as much detail as I got because I didn’t care. They weren’t the main couple, and I wanted more on the main couple. Were their relationships part of their story? Yes, of course they were, but the main focus I wanted. I could have dealt with a lot more summary or just illusions when dealing with the other relationships. I didn’t need the nitty gritty. I especially didn’t those love scenes in there. I would have been more than satisfied with fade to black scene, instead of actually scenes between them, instead it was Billy and Bridget that got the fade to black, and as from the above paragraph you can tell that just really irked me. I didn’t care about the other relationships. I didn’t want to see them played out of the pages. I didn’t need to be shown details because I wanted to the romance to be between Billy and Bridget not everyone else. I’m so mad.
Another thing that I didn’t care for was the structure of the story. I wish it was done in a more chronically and linear fashion, instead of the present then flashback to the past for every other chapter. In the first chapter, it was revealed that Billy was in love with Bridget and had been for fourteen years so having that knowledge right away kind took away the journey to happen in an organically and natural way. I wanted to have that feeling, but because it switched time periods back and forth so readily it was almost like I knew too much and colored what I was experiencing while in the past chapters if that makes sense. It made it worse then when those other relationships were on page because I knew where his head was for the past fourteen years with his love for Bridget, yet he had these relationships throughout the years because he couldn’t be with her. Not that he shouldn’t, and he wasn’t cheating on Bridget, yet it felt kind of was. So, it tainted it for me in that regard. He was just using woman for his physical needs, but never opened up to them emotionally because he considered himself Bridget’s. Bridget did the same thing too, and she wasn’t wrong either. It just felt wrong to me. That was a big problem I had with the past and present alternating chapters, instead of following it organically along in the story. It might have come across the same way, but at least I would have felt it was more of journey. I don’t know how to exactly describe what I mean, but it just felt weird and tainted from how it was done.
Also I didn’t care for in the present, that there was that ticking time bomb kind of feeling that built up all that anticipation to when Billy and Bridget would finally have that conversation that they loved each other and wanted to be together, and then when it finally came it was disappointing because it didn’t deliver. Not because the confessions of love and wanting to be there weren’t there, but the fact that they never got that love scene that I had been waiting for and they had been working years for, and then get that fade to black scene, and that was it. I’m sure it was satisfying off page, but for me who had been waiting for it for all this time with all that anticipation it was just a let down. I’m going to be bitter about that for sometime.
There were a few issues that were not resolved or answered that I would have liked too seen answered in comparison to all the other stuff that was shown that I felt unnecessary. For one, since there was no full blown love scene between Billy and Bridget, then I didn’t see the reaction of Bridget to Billy’s tattoo that represented her. I think that would have been a sweet moment between them, and also make her realize how special she had been to him and that it had been quite a while. It would have made a great impact to the story I think. I wanted to see it especially when Billy commented that he hid these tattoos from her for years upon years not wanting her to realize how in love with her that he was for fearing of messing up their relationship. His tattoo for Katie was revealed to Bridget and she even made comment on it, but not the one of her. It seemed like it wasn’t there or she didn’t see it. i would like to think she didn’t see it and would have once they got to the bedroom to make love. I just wanted to see it since it was mentioned.
Another unresolved issue was with her father. It was touched on that her father was keeping tabs on Bridget and Katie over the years, but it never explained why, or why he was the way he was with Bridget. There was little explanation, and his actions were very contradictory. I thought after he died and there was a mention of will that a letter would have come into play for Bridget to read so there would have been more of an explanation of where his head was and why he did what he did, but there was just nothing. I could speculate that he was sorry for what he did and with giving her things after this death that was his way to apologize for what he did, but that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more. I was hoping for a letter or something where I could have gotten more in his head. I just had more questions than answers.
The third issue that wasn’t resolved or allude to was the fact that Katie learning that Phillip was her father. I would have like to have seen her reaction when she found out. I know she would always consider Billy her father and no other because he helped her raised her and they have a good relationship, but I would have like to have known how she found out and what she would have thought. I wouldn’t have cared so much if it wasn’t introduced in the story. When Phillip stated he wanted to know his daughter and wanted her to know that he was her father, then they had that little introduction, but then it dropped there and nothing else was said about it. I would have almost been okay if Katie knew by reading her mother’s diaries, or somehow she figured it out, but there was nothing. So, what was the point to even go there? Why have Phillip come back in the first place? That storyline just didn’t go anywhere so did it really needed to be included in there? Because I don’t think so.
Also the whole Bridget’s writing thing was dropped. She never showed Billy her stories, which I thought she would especially when declaring her love for him and showing how long she had feelings for him so he could understand that she was as tortured as he was for many, many years. That it was mentioned about Katie reading her mother’s story and wanting more and needed to know the ends even encouraging her mother to finish them, but that was dropped to. Nothing of consequence was done near the end. Nothing else was mentioned. There was almost no point to them. Okay, maybe him giving her the laptop, but even still I don’t think that was a big enough reason to warrant it being in there. There just needed to be more of reason why it was in the story in the first place either with Billy discovering how long she had feelings for him, or Katie discovering who her biological father was that would have had more impact to the story than what actually was in there containing the writing storyline.
It wasn’t all bad though. I did appreciate that this was a friends to lovers story that was 18 years in the making. There was a lot of good foundation for Billy and Bridget before they became a couple. I did like seeing that development over the years. I liked how they built that trust between them from the moment that they first met. I also liked seeing how their feelings grow and change for one another over their years of friendship especially on Billy’s part, who wasn’t attracted to her physically until she turned 21 years old then his feelings just grew from their once she became a “woman.”
I did appreciate that build between them, and how long it took them to get their HEA and created that great anticipation between them even though the pay of wasn’t satisfying to me in the end, but I still enjoyed it. Seeing how much the cared about each other and were really there for each other. For all intents and purposes they were a couple for years just not completely. It was very obvious that Billy, Bridget, and Katie were one big happily family for many years that was just adorable to see.
I adored Billy. The devotion that he showed toward Bridget then later on Katie was so stinking cute. He put his heart and soul into them from the moment he met Bridget. He was immediately attached and all in as he helped 16 year old pregnant Bridget when she came into his diner that night. He had a heart a freaking gold. Everything were just for these two ladies that he loved with all his heart. Whenever he would call them “my girls” just my heart would swoon and I would love him all over again. They way he treated them was just beyond anything. He liked taking care of them. He loved having them in his life. He didn’t want to be anywhere else because that was his family that he created over the years. The way he was with both of them. The bond he had with Katie was just beyond special that I couldn’t help but smile. He was truly her dad and no one else. He was just a great guy.
Overall I’m giving this a pretty generous three stars especially after that ending kind pissed me off. I did like the relationship/romance of Billy and Bridget, but I just wanted more of it than the extraneous stuff that was in it like other relationships they had with other people. I could have dealt with a lot less detail on that front especially on the love scene side of the story and especially when Billy and Bridget only got a fade black scene that really annoyed me. I just don’t like in romances when it shown the MC with other people, which takes away from the main romance. I just don’t care for it. I don’t like it, and this story was no exception. I get that this story took place over 18 years and life happened to them before they could get their HEA, but I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t see the point. I could have dealt with just summarizes like “He’s sleeping with this other person, but his heart with Bridget” or “She’s dating this other guy, but she wants Billy” something like that would have more than suffice for me. It just turned me off and tainted it for me. I didn’t like the structure with the back and forth in timelines, instead of going at it organically. If there would have been one two flashbacks, I would okay, or if they did it chronically it would have been better, but I didn’t like how it was done here. I appreciated getting the complete story over the 18 year span of their relationship. I enjoyed seeing them become a close nit family over the years with the love continuing to grow and strengthen over course of time. I liked it was friends to lovers. I liked all the build up and anticipation even though there wasn’t as satisfying enough pay off for me in the end. I liked Billy and how the was with his two girls. I liked the love and care between them. I loved seeing the interaction between the three of them. It was just all the extra stuff that I didn’t care for that wasn’t centered around the three of them. I just thought it was a waste and would have preferred more focus on them and less on everything else. There were also some unresolved issue that I thought should have been addressed, instead of all the other superfluous stuff. Somethings should have been more the focus than the other. I didn’t hate this story, but I didn’t love it either. It just wasn’t my favorite friends to lovers that I have read, and I was expecting a lot more than I got from this story.