 
Keeping Her by Cora Carmack
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Have you been missing Garrick and Bliss? Were you worried that we wouldn’t find out anything about their future?
Well, you can stop all that now!
Keeping Her is a Garrick and Bliss novella. We meet up with them shortly after … Oh wait… have you read FAKING IT yet? NO? Well, don’t read this review then.
I’ll give you a moment to move on.
I’m not lying. Close this if you haven’t read Faking It.
okay… so we meet up with Garrick and Bliss shortly after their engagement. They are incredibly happy and excited and everything you should be when getting engaged and making plans for your future. Despite the fact that they rarely see each other, they are making everything work.
But Bliss finds herself stressed beyond belief because she and Garrick are off to London to meet his family. And everything she’s heard of Garrick’s mom, makes her think she’ll never measure up or be good enough.
The Novella is told in both Garrick and Bliss’s points of view so we can see just how solid their relationship is. But we also get to see the insecurities that they each have and the worries that they have to work through.
Of course everything isn’t smooth sailing in London – a tiny complication though only makes their relationship stronger.
I loved the glance into their lives and to see where they are headed. Does this add anything to the original storyline? Probably not. It’s just a cute, short little snip of what’s to come for the two characters that started the Losing It Series.
Definitely pick this up if you need some more Garrick in your life… (that means everyone should read this!)
Someone mentioned when I was starting this that they were afraid they were going to miss Garrick in this book. To be honest, I felt the same way, which is why I kept putting off picking this book up. I loved Garrick. (probably just as much as Bliss!) But I can safely say that I didn’t think of Garrick AT ALL while reading this story. Cade won me over and stole my heart!
Cade thought he was in love with Bliss… Now she’s got Garrick and they are moving on… without him. But Cade is back in school and determined to make it as an actor. A chance meeting between Cade & Max has him playing the role of a lifetime… that of Max’s respectable boyfriend.
Cade can’t seem to catch a break though, because the stunning and captivating Max already has a sort of boyfriend, and Max seems to avoid commitment like the plague.
Max hates pretending to be someone she isn’t in front of her parents, but she has to if she wants to continue to get support from them. It’s the only way she can continue to play her music and pursue her dream. Pretending that Cade is her boyfriend isn’t going to cause too much trouble is it?
Like I said, I really enjoyed this story, and Cade walked away with my heart after reading this. Max aptly labeled Cade ‘Golden Boy’ early on… simply because he strives to be the best and succeed and you might think that makes him straight-laced and boring. You would be wrong.
He slipped his hands underneath the frills of my skirt, gripped my thighs, and said, “Ride me.”
What was it about a nice boy saying naughty things that was so damn hot?”
We didn’t get to know all that much about him in Losing It, just the basics, but even in that story, I kind of loved him, so I knew I would be fighting a losing battle here. What I loved most though, is that these two seemingly opposite people had so much chemistry. They were drawn to each other and not just on a physical level which *fans self* but emotionally and mentally as well.
Pain changes us. Mine made me want to be perfect, so that no one would ever want to leave me again.”
What didn’t work for me… the sister-in-law. I didn’t understand her hatred of Max at all. It wasn’t explained very well and while it made me angry, I needed more. I think I just needed a bit more background on why she felt that way about Max. I just felt that part of the story was a bit underdeveloped.
I have to say that books like this are probably why I still give the NA genre a chance. This book handles real issues and still gives me a hot guy to lust after, a heroine I don’t end up hating, and a sweet romance to enjoy. This is definitely a wonderful follow up to Losing It and I’m incredibly excited to see what we get in Finding It.
Thank you to Edelweiss & HarperCollins for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Cora Carmack is planning to donate 20% of all her royalties from this book to the charity Planting Peace for the life of the book. You can find out more about Planting Peace by clicking the link. Planting Peace is a progressive nonprofit organization founded for the purpose of spreading peace in a hurting world. Although the organization operates on a global level, they emphasize the power of one; the ability that each person possesses to make a difference in the world.
Cora Carmack is a twenty-something writer who likes to write about twenty-something characters. She’s done a multitude of things in her life– boring jobs (like working retail), Fun jobs (like working in a theatre), stressful jobs (like teaching), and dream jobs (like writing). She enjoys placing her characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it. Awkward people need love, too. Her first book, LOSING IT, is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.
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