Title: 218 First Hugs
Author: E.L. Todd
Publisher/Year: CreateSpace Publishing 10/10/17
Length: 292 Pages
Series: First #3
Overview
He won’t let me date anyone because he’s the biggest cockblock in the world.
He still calls me his wife even though I don’t remember our wedding day.
He said he’ll never give up on me. Not now. Not ever.
Somehow, I forgave him for what he did in the past. But I’m not sure if I can do it again.
But he’s not giving me much choice.
My Thoughts
This summary makes you think that we’re still fairly focused on Bree and Cypress, but this time around we actually get to see a lot more about from Amelia/Ace and even Blade. Their stories really propel this third installment forward, giving us a glimpse into what’s going on in everyone else’s lives.
Bree and Cypress of course continue to be a focus, watching what happened at the end of the last book cause struggles in this book. I have to give Cypress a lot of credit for how much he still stays with Bree even with how she plays with his heart and emotions. Every time he starts to make progress she goes back into her head and messes with him some more. He makes progress, gets Bree into the sense of dating and being a married couple and all of a sudden, her insecurities come up when he sees Vanessa, the woman that Cypress cheated on her with all those years ago and that makes her run. Add to that she learns that Cypress kissed someone (or someone kissed him) after her accident and that causes her to run again, making it impossible for them to be together.
If that roller coaster wasn’t enough, we get to watch Amelia play games. (frankly i like her but not so much here). Evan, her ex-husband finds a way to eke back into her life and into her family, and in a moment of weakness when Amy feels bad for herself because Ace walked away from her, she sleeps with Evan and that muddies the water. Evan thinks that he’s going to have a chance to get back with Amelia, and she even believes that it could be possible. Ace being the amazing guy that he is, he walks away – he doesn’t want to get his heart broken and he doesn’t want to force a family to split so he’s miserable but he also knows that it could be worse.
What happens here is that Amelia is forced to make a decision that will leave someone destroyed, and they go bachelorette style where she has to date both Evan and Ace to help make her choice. I don’t care for this frankly – i think that she’s not being fair to either but who am i to say anything right?
Then there’s Blade. The guy that we don’t know much about since we don’t even really get to see too much of his personality in other books, but at least this is his chance. We finally watch him get smitten with someone, a girl name Celeste who owns a bakery in Carmel, who’s French, sexy, independent and yet only spends some of the year in the US because she’s got family friends and a business in Paris as well. Oh yea and a boyfriend. So you an imagine the mess that this creates when Blade falls for her, realizes that she’s likely going to go back to Paris and then learns that she’s with someone else. He walks away after putting an ultimatum out there and what results is a very sad. Blade.
Where we end this trilogy is a place where we have hope and want to have hope for these friend and we want to see love and romance win out. I don’t know if that’s possible but i think that we can all hope for the silver lining. It seems like it could happen until an accident happens AGAIN and causes another head injury and puts us potentially back to where we started.
You need to read this one to see where this roller coaster lets us off because it’s a wild ride and there isn’t a moment to breathe before another loop comes along. Enjoy!