Only If You Let Me By: Monica Walters

This is one of those times I am actually proud to be a reader. This book is Romance at its best. Not the fairytale that is usually weaved in a good story. No, this story is full of the realness of everyday life and all that we lose, gain, renew and reaffirm all for the feeling of purity that can only be derived from love. The characters are well rounded and with flaws, which helps you to relate to their individual struggles. Most of all, these characters make you feel love and the sacrifice one makes to attain it.

Character Breakdown:

Ansley- This woman is made of great values and good focus. She is a mother and wife who finds her greatest achievement in life is the duty to the ones she loves. No sunshine lasts forever and when it rains it pours. Ansley will find herself at a crossroads that will either change her perspective or prelude to something greater. The only problem is does she trust herself enough to live with either truths.

Jayden- He is young but oh so successful. A young black man on the rise with his dreams and goals right on the horizon. Raised in a loving blended family he knows what he wants and is not afraid to go get it. That is until he meets his heartbeat and the sadness in her eyes and heart draws him in and he wants to save her. He knows that her love won't come easy but is prepared to fight for it until the end. Does he have enough gas? Or will he find that sometimes love has a way of breaking even the strong willed.

Story From My Perspective:

Literally as soon as you open the book we have action. You find a marriage in turmoil and its participants trying to find the way to salvage it. Sometimes infidelity is the hardest thing to overcome especially when you will have forever reminders. This is the mind frame in which we are introduced to Ansley. She is torn and broken. Trying to find her way through a situation that has literally robbed her of not only her breath but her time. She traverses the world lost and unsure and just like that the unexpected lands in her lap. In the form of a young, driven and focused King who has tunnel vision from the first eye contact.

Jayden has never been starstruck before until the day he lays eyes on Ansley. She struck a chord so deep within him he was certain she was his forever. He gives her friendship and confidence all things he sees that she is lacking. Patience comes wholesale when given betwixt this bond they are building. All he wants to do is repair what is broken and he will stop at nothing until she is repaired.

This couple took me on a plethora of emotions. I valued how the author dig deeper and gave us not just surface  This was the first time I ever read a book that I felt truly conveyed emotions but residual emotions as well. I don’t know if anyone of you have ever been through divorce but I have and I could identify with Ansley on such a deep level. The feeling of being worthless to someone you endeared your life too, wondering if you should stay just for your children’s peace of mind, feeling ugly and undeserving. This was the first time I read a book that truly conveyed the depth of the feelings and thoughts associated with such a tragic time.

What got me even more was the topic of stepparents. I feel like nobody ever gives the ones who love children by choice and not obligation enough credit. I loved to see how Jayden was a product of a tightly blended family that you could see the ease in which he took to Ansley’s children. It is a subject that happens more often then not in the black family and I felt like the author she’d some great light on the love of a Step-Parent and their positive effects on home and living. I promise I could go on and on about this book but then you wouldn’t read it so take the opportunity to read this deserving work by clicking the link below:

https://amzn.to/2NdaNVM

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