Let It Be Me by Toni Aleo

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"My reaction to him is baffling. I've never been this worked up." -Toni Aleo, Let It Be Me

WARNING: Contains material not suitable for younger audiences.

Violet is married, not happily by a long shot. Rob has her fearful to leave. But when Tucker takes over the clinic where she works will Violet be able to ask for help or will everything finally end? Find the official description on Goodreads.

Let It Be Me contains abuse. I'm going to say that up front so that if that's a trigger for you than you now know about it. It may deal with difficult issues, but Toni Aleo draws you in right away. It is very different from her Assassin's Series, Bellevue Bullies Series and The Whiskey Prince Series. But it still has that writing that is recognizable as Toni Aleo's style.

Let It Be Me gives readers a look into a relationship that many look upon only from the inside and feel scorn or annoyance with. I have never dealt with these issues but I believe that Toni Aleo portrays this realistically and respectfully at the same time. Not to mention that Toni Aleo is very descriptive and it is very well done.

Violet's voice and personality was marvelous. I really enjoyed her voice. Her personality really shone through although at times it was taken over by fear. Violet was my favorite character and I found myself cheering her on as I read through the book.

Let It Be Me was a great read, and one that deals admirably with such a difficult topic. I would willingly suggest this book to anyone and everyone.

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Getting By by Claudia Y. Burgoa

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"Before my eyes began the next big flood, I swept the memories under the imaginary rug of not now." -Claudia Y. Burgoa, Getting By

Emma arrives back in her hometown, already regretting her decision to be her friend's Maid of Honor. At first, only because she still feels guilt over the death of her parents. But than it quickly develops into seeing the man that she fell in love with and than left. Instead of the sleep with everyone he can week, Jake finds himself having to make decisions; decisions that could break or make Jake and Emma. Find the official description on Goodreads.

Okay, so just gonna say that yay for Claudia Y Burgoa mentioning the Avengers! I just felt like that needed to be mentioned or my review would be totally weird or something like that. But anyway, on to the actual review!

Getting By goes back and forth between Emma and Jake's perspectives. And it's obvious as well as mentioned in the chapter headings. This allows us to understand both of their perspectives(even though at times I felt like both were a little...crazy for some of their actions, even when we know their thoughts.). We are also given much of their shared history before getting into the main part of the book. This allows a deeper understanding of both characters, and their shared past, although we still don't know a whole lot about their separate pasts until later in the book.

I think that Getting By sticks really close to real life. In fact, Emma's a bit screwed up and while some of it is her cross to bear, it's also because of some of the issues that her parents helped to create. I'm not saying that everyone is going to be like Emma. But I do think that parents, while trying their best, can also create issues in their own children. And we see this in Getting By, Emma isn't an artist even though she really wanted to be when she was younger, because her father disapproved of it and after his death she was trying to make him proud.

It wasn't hard to read Getting By even with both characters having their moments of stupidity. It was fun to see the two battle their feelings for each other and the reader is entertained by their problems and how they work through things.

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