Here I Go

Tennessee #2

by Jamie Bennett

Some people are happy right where they are, thank you very much!

Aria McCourt is, that’s for sure. While other people seem to need more than what they’ve got, Aria is fine with what she has: a family that loves her and a good life in Tennessee!
The only thing is, she wouldn’t mind adding a few people to that life. Like, a boyfriend would be fun! Maybe he might turn into a husband that would lead to a few kids, too. It’s just that no one has ever lived up to her requirements for that position…or maybe, she hasn’t lived up to what they want, either.
So yes, she’s looking, but when she finds Cain Miller, it’s immediately clear that they aren’t going to be a couple. Despite how gorgeous he is, despite how much she admires him for so many things, despite him giving her heart palpitations when he stands too close…no, there’s just no way. It doesn’t make any sense at all: he’s the town success story now but his past is full of darkness and problems that no one can overlook, and on top of that, he lives all the way across the country in California. It’s just not meant to be.
But suddenly, it’s happening! Life pushes Aria and Cain together in a way that they can’t be separated. Then the real question becomes, do they want to be? Are they better together or apart? Is it true love, or just circumstances forcing a relationship that never should have been in the first place? With her heart in the balance, Aria has to decide—how far will she go for love??

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Abuse, Contemporary

342 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 10, 2022

Reviews

[☆ susan ☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

what a letdown

i didn’t want to have to write this but i had to. i was so excited when i saw this book recommended on my kindle. for starters, i love jamie bennett’s writing. however this one just didn’t hit it with me.

let me just say that i loved aria. she was adorable—maybe a little naive and too gullible but she had a good heart. she may seemed immature at times but she was also only 20 years old so i thought it was realistic. the problem is that i couldn’t stop thinking about how much cain didn’t deserve her.

i honestly have no issues with books with zero male hero pov, in fact, i prefer it. but this one suffers without cain’s pov. he’s just… there. like cardboard cut out. oh sure we know a little bit about his childhood, his work, his friends but that’s about it.

— spoilers ahead —

it was revealed in the end that he roped her into marrying—that it was her plan all along. aria only thought he was forced into it after her parents caught them in bed. they had a quick wedding in which cain was emotionally absent throughout. but okay, he had good excuses. i ignored that.

however, when they got to san francisco from tennessee, he up and left her to her own devices. oh sure he claimed he was busy with work and all that but he basically left her ALL ALONE to fend for herself. again, aria was a 20 year old girl who was like a fish out of water—a country girl. she was so lost and lonely. i tried to be patient because i thought maybe he would make it up to her but he never did. he would apologize then make her feel bad for even being upset. he was awful.

and like, there was no reason for me to believe he fell in love with her in the end. they barely spent their time together! i was so disappointed. i don’t know, maybe their relationship would have been more believable had this book been much longer but it just wasn’t it.

also trigger warning for readers:

p*dophilia — aria was molested as a child by her uncle. there were no detailed descriptions but it was upsetting to read about regardless.

[KathyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

[Margo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 4-star heroine in a 2-star relationship. She's very sweet-natured and innocent and she automatically is madly in love with the H. On the other hand, his behavior is absolutely inexplicable at many points during the book. Actually, at most points during the book. Actually, at EVERY point during the book except for at the end when he suddenly kinda explains his indifferent treatment of her. I am pretty sure that now that he is straightened out a bit, he will cherish her the way she deserves to be. However, I anticipate that she'll have to teach him how to act like a human being on some occasions.

[CeCe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not think I would like to read Aria’s story, but I did. She deserves everything that is good and filled with love.

[Brooke Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

a sweet book

I’ve been a fan of Jamie Bennett’s for a while and inhaled all of her books. I just found that Here I Go felt a bit ‘more of the same’- a simple (simpleton) girl whose charms (of which she is blithely ignorant) encourage a man who is seemingly way out of her league to fall hopelessly in love with her. The repetitive use exclamation marks became tiresome too!
While this sounds negative, I’d encourage new readers to try her novels, but like a restaurant where lots of the meals have the same flavours, so too does this sweet novel.

[Kitcatscratch · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I love Jamie Bennett. She's right up there with Mariana Zapata whom I absolute LOVE love.

I enjoy Bennett's Woodsmen series. I am also really enjoying her Tennessee series except...for this one.

I gave it 3 stars because Bennett can write exceedingly well. It's the story itself that just makes me furious. So I deducted 2 stars because I'm not sure if Bennett meant it to be that way or if she didn't realize that it could be taken that way.

The reasons I got so mad:


Aria marries this guy in basically a shot gun marriage. The only thing missing was the shot gun.

1) He treats her abysmally during the marriage. He shows up. Late. Has no ring. Then leaves right after while she and her family continue on to a hasty reception.
2) Then he acts surprised by her stating that she’s packing to fly back to CA with him. She thinks maybe he meant to leave her behind? (I am going with a resounding YES on that one)
3) They show up at his home. Scratch that. His mansion. One that his previous live in girlfriend redecorated from top to bottom and filled with priceless art work. Now keep in mind that she did this on HIS dime.
4) They have a charity gala to go to. Her husband and his former live in girlfriend both work on the gala. Aria has to go dress shopping and also style her hair. TONS of money is spent (all which she paid for though he DID say she could use his card it was an afterthought and since he hasn’t exactly provided her with anything she’s taking care of it herself)
5) She gets her hair done, comes home to voices in the kitchen. He and his former live in girlfriend are eating dinner. He looks up and sees Aria and exclaims in a horrified manner “What on earth did you do to your hair?!” He totally humiliates her in front of this other woman whom Aria can see is laughing behind her hand. So Aria goes upstairs upset while he goes after her and they argue. Of course, former girlfriend can hear all this. The jackass then says he’s sorry and that there’s leftovers if she wants some. OH MY GOD. At this point I was raging. Aria thinks “I don’t want to eat her leftovers. It’s bad enough I married it.” Unfortunately she didn’t say this to his face. Instead, she takes the apology. Like, a BARELY THERE apology because ultimately he can’t see where any part of it puts him at fault.
6) She gets a job working at a coffee shop making minimum wage so that she can pay him back for the dress. In case we’ve forgotten: he has a mansion, he gave carte blanche to his former live in girlfriend to redecorate it with priceless artwork, he buys a plane so he can fly more conveniently than chartering one and he allows his wife to work a minimum wage job to pay him back for her dress. What’s more, he tells her at one point that he’s been taking her money and putting it in an account that he opened for her so that it can be like a retirement savings. In case you’re wondering, he wasn’t joking. He’s serous. DEAD SERIOUS. She thanks him and thinks it’s thoughtful of him. I actually had to stop to re-read in case there was hidden sarcasm there but no. She’s serious too.
7) She waits for him on gala opening night. He calls to say he’ll meet her there because he’s running late. She shows up and is not on the guest list. It’s raining and she’s stuck outside. She tries calling him but he doesn’t answer. She can see him and former live-in girlfriend together being photographed by reporters, etc looking all glam. She finally manages to get a cab and go home, dress ruined. He wakes her up at 3 am and asks where she was? Was she feeling sick and decided to stay home? She tells him she went but wasn’t on the guest list. That she tried calling and he never answered. He said 1) he doesn’t know what happened because he made sure she was on the guest list (and mentions her name…her MAIDEN name because he keeps forgetting they’re married and that she now has HIS last name). Then adds that he would find out what happened and who was responsible for the mix up. She says there’s no point. Why bother finding out what happened or who was responsible since it doesn’t change what happened? 2) he couldn’t find his phone so never got her message and wondered when midnight came where she was. She points out it took him until MIDNIGHT to wonder where she was but that he didn’t come home until 3 am.

He did and continued to do a lot of jackass things to her. Very hurtful things to her from start to finish. He rarely apologized and when he did it was in such a way that it was more like he HAD to apologize under duress because he just wanted her to shut up rather than he actually felt remorse. The worst was the gala (I think second worse was the humiliating hairstyle comment in front of his former girlfriend who decorated the house she now lives in). So for the gala, he says sorry (but it’s an irritated “I’m sorry” because he already told her he didn’t know why she wasn’t on the list and it’s over and done with and why is she carrying on and not dropping it tone of voice). And she accepts it and lets him lay down next to her and go to sleep.

He keeps this behavior up until the very end. THE VERY END. It seems at this point that she has decided to move back home to Tennessee and look for another job (because you know, he’s only a multi-millionaire and she has NOTHING). However, she doesn’t want to leave him. So she tells him that and he basically says that he’s glad because he loved her and has loved her from the beginning and agreed to the marriage so as to keep her with him.

Ms. Bennett. You’re a great writer so I’m not quite sure how we get this ending from all that came before. It’s almost a non sequitur at this point because you can’t come to that conclusion based on all that came before it. Almost 2 unrelated things.

BTW, she still doesn’t have a wedding ring from him up to this point in the story.

So yeah. I absolutely hated this guy. And I found I hated Aria too for being such an idiotic doormat. In the attempt to make her super sweet and forgiving they’ve removed the ability to respect her as well.



So 3 because it's well written. But if I was going by story alone I'd probably have DNF'd it out of rage.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
Once again, a compulsively readable story from this author. This one's FMC is Aria McCourt, the co-worker of Eimear's in The Smallest Moments. The MMC is Cain Miller, who was a troubled boy who was Aria's neighbor before her family moved away after the death of her father when she was five.
Aria has a large, squabbling family, and in her book we see that she is more than the seemingly naive, maybe dim-witted young girl she came across as in Eimear's book. She doesn't swear, her biggest dreams are being a wife and mother, and she comes across as kind of a prude. While I struggled to identify with any of that personally and sometimes was even irritated with her, as the story moved along I came to see how huge her heart was, and feel how keenly the damage her past experiences and treatment by her loved ones had impacted her self-esteem and created a deep desire to love and be loved.
For a long time Cain contributes to those issues, due to his own issues and their terrible communication, but as always, an HEA was in the offing, and goodness knows they deserved it.
As I mentioned, Aria had a large family, with sisters and female cousins, so I suspect we have some books centering on some of them coming down the line in my book-a-month reading list, and I'm here for it, since this author knows how to weave a tale.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book of Bennett's where the heroine comes across as naive to the point of idiocy. Perky, low-self-esteem Aria ends up in a marriage of convenience with local bad-boy-made-billionaire after her family thinks they were having sex (why?) who seems confused when she then makes plans to accompany him to his home in San Francisco. Everyone in San Francisco is mean and superficial and tries to get her husband to reject her, despite Aria's efforts to fit in by straightening her hair and acting boring. The happy ending is moving back to their claustrophobic small town in the south despite the massive amounts of family and general dysfunction displayed by everyone in it, which is supposed to be "funny" but is mostly ick.

[Emmie · Rating 5 out of 5]

lots of tears

I’ve read my fair share of Jamie Bennett books and knew to expect some sad plot lines and a slow relationship but Jamie really committed this time. I was crying like every chapter I still loved it and it made the ending sweeter but hopefully the next book will have more happy notes.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really like it. Cain (MMC) forced a marriage of convenience onto Aira (FMC) becos he didn’t want to be without her. We only know about his intention at 95% mark of the book.

I don’t like how naive Aria was. I didn’t like how everyone just talked down to her and she continued to smile and be ok. I did wanted her to fight abit more.

Overall… really great story! I will reread 😃

[Ruthie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Satisfying

Another wonderful story. I loved these characters and the setting of Chattanooga.


Spoilers!!!

This is one where I felt a little nervous about the marriage of convenience or shotgun wedding because I couldn’t figure out the motivation! It’s all resolved and the end.

[Eileen Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jaime Bennett and her winning formula!

Cain and Aria are quirky, special and destined to be together. They know they should be together but it takes a while. The lesson here is patience. Patience and kindness and being yourself!

[ShaunyGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how all of Jamie Bennett's heroines are all a little quirky and odd. They are all so loyal, you really root for them. They are beautiful but don't know it. And no mushy instalove. Totally my kind of books!

[Aurora · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be a 2.5 star but bonus for single POV.

I liked Aria’s bubbly personality and determination. I wasn’t buying the relationship resolution/explanations given near the end. I don’t think that Cain would have done some of the things he did if he secretly felt a different way.

[Nefise · Rating 3 out of 5]

l like this author. Maybe some of the plots are better than others but still l like her storytelling prowess consistently captures my attention, making each journey a truly engaging experience. Maybe rate is not high but still l liked reading it.

[Sam D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t bad the storyline was just a little muddled at times. It was hard to keep up and it wasn’t as realistic as another book of hers I’d read.

Aria is a very sweet girl with some self confidence issues. I feel like she learned how to be on her own.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sad to give this book a 2...probably more of a 2.5. I generally adore books by this author, but these characters felt really 2 dimensional & they didn't experience much growth or resolution by the end of the story.

[Ashli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read from one of my favorite go-to authors!

[Downward dog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this story!

[Margaret M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Great

The whole thing felt like it was written by a 10 year old. Very immature characterizations and plot line. Don’t bother.

[Laur Laur · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up cause Jamie Bennett. Second half was better.
Heroine was way too perfect, other than she cried *all* the time, which was just annoying. I like JB's flawed h's way more.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

PSA: Sorry there is no romance in this book.

[Kotori · Rating 4 out of 5]

appreciated it

it was great, but the main female lead is written as if she's slow. shes not, so why?
bc of this, it wasn't my favorite.
Also trigger warning about child abuse.

[Mrs. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing style 5/5
Story 4/5
Romance 3/5
Steam 1/5
Didn't like the hero, conflict was insufficient resolved

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how compassionate Aria was in Here I Go. I was amused at how Aria and Cain fell into a relationship. I liked how Cain appreciated Aria for who she was.

[MB (What she read) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed. Aria is a sweetheart.