Tell Me by Abigail Strom

Title: Tell Me
Author: Abigail Strom
Series: Love Me
Pages: 254
Genre(s): Contemporary
Hot Buttons: Death

Shy bookstore owner Jane Finch grew up hiding in the margins of her own life while her vibrant, adventure-loving sister, Samantha, dominated every plotline. She’s made peace with it, unlike Sam’s business partner, Caleb, who’s always nudging Jane to go after what she really wants. Why should she care what blunt, brash Caleb thinks? They’ve never had much in common, except for Sam.

After tragedy strikes, they don’t even have that.

Caleb can’t quite remember when Sam’s little sister stopped being like a surrogate sibling to him and became just…Jane. She’s the most intriguing woman he’s ever met, and so much sexier and stronger than she thinks. On the emotional journey to honor Sam’s memory, the spark they’ve tried to deny becomes an inferno. This journey was meant to be an ending, but will they discover an unexpected new beginning?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34441271-tell-me

I try to avoid stories - even romances - that contain tragedy of any sort. For me, reality should be reserved for real life, not for my books. So I feel like I took a little bit of a chance by choosing this book - but boy am I glad that I took that chance as I really loved this book.

Both Jane and Caleb caught my attention from their first interaction with each other. It was intriguing, sweet and Caleb was just annoying enough to Jane for me to start to root for them almost immediately. I loved how the pair bantered with each other and were almost falling in love with each other before either of them realised it.

Sam’s passing was almost like a shoe waiting to drop. We know from the blurb that it’s going to happen (and thank goodness for that) but it was just a case of when. In the end it was fairly low-key but it did make the book one of two halves. The first half was dominated by Jane and Caleb and focussing on their relationship and their personal hangups. The second half was more complex with more emotions and more difficult conversations and thoughts. Still none too heavy although I was a wee bit emotional when Jane and Caleb went up Owl Mountain. Who am I kidding? - I was bawling like a bloody baby!

I wondered how they would get to their happily ever after and they were made to work for it - but it was so satisfying in the end. As always, I prefer to have an epilogue but the lack of one doesn’t make this book any less enjoyable. There were laugh out loud moments (“I hope a kangaroo kicks you in the head.”), emotional bits, frustrating bits (normally with Caleb being a dumbass!) but they all came together to create a really enjoyable, well written romance with a lot of heart. I would highly recommend this one. 5 stars.

As an aside, I got my review rejected from Amazon for using the word 'dumbass'! *Giggles*