FairyTale Lost
by LA Hendricks
Queen City #1
Publication Date: October 19, 2015
Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary, Romance
Buy (FREE for Kindle Unlimited Subscribers!): Amazon
Synopsis: Emmalyn Chase has a six month expiration date with men. She's out celebrating the loss of her latest boyfriend with her friends when she runs into Lukas Upton, the old flame that broke her heart into a million pieces. Her mind threatens to fall back into the dark place it created when he left.
Despite Em and Lukas' best intentions, fate has decided their fairytale isn't over. Unfortunately, life has a habit of getting in the way. While Em battles depression and her conflicting feelings for Lukas, Lukas struggles against his history of unreliability and indecision.
As Em and Lukas seek to redefine their romance, they find out how hard it can be to hold on to true love.
Review:
I picked this book up on a whim not really knowing what exactly to expect. This was my first book from this author and since September I told myself that I would read more New Adult and Adult romance since I'm a huge YA nut. I love romance especially romance featuring Black heroines. It's easy to put myself in the story and I'm a little ashamed to admit when a romance doesn't feature a WoC, I just quickly lose interest. It's not because I can't relate to a story not featuring one, it's just with so few shows and movies showing Black women in love and accurately portrayed as human beings who bleed and cry and are vulnerable that my number one choice when it comes to heroines is Black women. And that doesn't always mean African American women, because I'm not one who identifies as that myself(I identify as Afro-Latina) but I just love reading Black women as leads.
Fairytale Lost follows two protagonists, Emmalyn and Lukas, two people who'd been in love but lost their way and moved on. Things go south when they reunite after years apart from each other and they find themselves in a sticky situation that forces them to decide what's most important in their lives.
I wouldn't say this is a traditional romance. It almost kinda feels like women's fiction almost. The story isn't a typical boy meets girl story where they don't know each other, it centers on a couple who was madly in love at one point but decided to end things because they couldn't agree how to love each other. Emmy was a planner, someone who liked order and structure, whereas Lukas was the go with the flow type(much more like myself, I'm ashamed to admit), so I could see right off the bat why they didn't work out.
There were times were I was frustrated with the way Emmy's friends treated her. They came off as more toxic than helpful sometimes and it made Emmy come off as weak and dependent. They treated her like a child, finding any chance to tell her how naive she was. I couldn't imagine being a grown woman letting my friends coddle me that way. I got that they had it out for Lukas but because I'm more like him than I was Emmy, I couldn't understand why she couldn't accept the spontaneity she fell in love with. I mean yea there were times where he was just down right insensitive when it came to supporting her but I wanted her to be stronger and come to him early on about the things that bothered her instead of letting her get to her boiling point where she couldn't take it anymore.
There was a moment of cringe when Emmy slept with Lukas without a condom and an even stronger moment of cringe that Lukas allowed this to happen despite being engaged to someone else. I have absolutely no problem with the cheating(hell I've been down that road and I cannot judge another person)I just wanted him to be safe about it. What would have happened if he caught something and then gave it to his fiance? Those are the types of questions I ask myself as a single woman in a world of people who don't bother to get tested and go around spreading their illnesses onto others. I love me some sex in a book and to be honest the love scenes were my favorite parts but sometimes i have a hard time getting into it when characters aren't being safe. Especially the situation Lukas was in. Boy, you know better! Wrap it up before you cheat, compay.
The thing that really stood out to me about this story is that Lukas was a good man who really tried to do right by Emmy. Being the product of a single parent home and nearly every one of my friends who have children not having the father of their children around, it was nice to see Lukas owning up to the responsibility that it takes two to create a child. He wanted to be there, and maybe he could have tried harder but still he wanted to be there. He wanted that life with her. He wanted that fairytale and I wanted it for them.
Because this isn't a traditional romance the ending might unsettle you. I've been thinking about the ending all night but I think maybe it just hit me a certain way because I'm a twin and there's something sad that happens to her twins and it just had me in tears almost. If you're looking for a Happily Ever After ending you will most likely not find it here. But if you're looking for a story about two people coming together after a lot of heartache and pain and one good thing coming out of it, I recommend this book. I'd recommend it to Fans of Adrienne Thompson and Dorothy Koomson.
About Lori Hendricks
LA Hendricks is an IT project manager by day and science fiction/fantasy novelist by night. A longtime lover of words, she reads science fiction, fantasy and paranormal romance novels regularly (when there is time). When not reading, writing or working, LA can most often be found watching football or basketball with her adorable cat, Mona.
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